Worshipology

Synchronizing the firing of multiple media cues across several different machines with different operators is difficult and takes a lot of finesse and team chemistry to perfect. But these transitions can make or a break a moment. And as I always say; transitions are the glue of a presentation. A poorly timed or executed transition can really ruin a moment and add unwanted distraction.

We switched to ProPresenter 4 by RenewedVision.com back in December. What I love about the company is that they are always growing and expanding the capabilities of their products. One of the recent additions was adding DMX support to their ProVideoPlayer software.

We have been using this solution to synchronize our lighting changes (and color schemes) with our worship backgrounds. So when the lighting operator advances the cue, the background changes with it. We also use it to synchronize a lighting show precisely timed with a video.

So how'd we do it? Check it out:

Software/hardware used;

• iMac with Propresenter 4 (PP4) ($700 for site license) www.renewedvision.com
• Advanced module for PP4 ($400 per machine)
• Triplehead to Go (3HTG) ($400)
• MacBook with ProvideoPlayer (PVP) (demo)
• Enttec USB pro ($150) www.enttec.com
• Lighting console - JANDS Vista 2 software (technically free, but you pay for functional channels of DMX) http://www.jandsvista.com/

Step one-

The advance module for PP4 can turn PP4 into a network node for ProvideoPlayer. So it will accept commands that fire off the backgrounds independent of the lyrics. Make sure PP4 will accept network commands in the preferences panel.

Step two-

ProvideoPlayer is available as a demo. It is fully functional other than it puts a watermark on the output screen. But we aren't using the output of ProvideoPlayer- only it's networkability and as an intermediary between the lighting console and ProPresenter. The advanced module in pp4 is fully registered and has no watermark.

Configure provideoplayer to be the master and pp4 to be the slave node. It will now fire off video files in the corresponding video/image bin. This part is the easy part.

Step 3-

Plug the enttec usb pro into the macbook (PVP is mac only at this point) And install the right drivers and whatnot. You will need to install the configuration utility to make sure it is actually connecting with the MacBook. Make sure PVP is not running while you do this.

Step 4-pvp has the ability to receive DMX commands from the console or software (it only supports the enttec USB pro). Run a dmx cable from your console and into the enttec usb pro and then take the output of the enttec and plug your lights into that. (it will work even if your computer is off).

Step 5-

Configure PVP to accept dmx commands and specify the receiving dmx channel value. You can configure it to control only basic functions or advanced functions (hue, saturation etc). I have found that the hue control is kind of glitchy. There is no reason for us to real time control hue, so I just go with the basic configuration of clip firing and transition time controls.

Step 6-

Configure your console or lighting software to output the correct "fixture" profile for PVP. The channel assignments are specified on this WHITE PAPER from Renewedvision.com

Test to see if your lighting console is triggering PVP. test to make sure PVP is firing off the PP4.

END RESULTS

If A=B and B=C, then A=C

If A) your lighting console is triggering your PVP machine and

B) your PVP is triggering your pro presenter videos then your lighting console will trigger your videos.

Troubleshooting:

This honestly took some tinkering to get it working. The biggest problems I had was in getting the fixture file to fire the DMX commands correctly. If you have a way of monitoring your numberical DMX output, then that is helpful. The second problem was in getting PVP to accept DMX commands. The problem was that I was running the configuration utility at the same time as PVP- and the computer could only route that DMX info into one program at a time.

Check in after the break for video footage of how we used this for our recent Mother's Day service.