FPC Media Team Blog

New Streaming Computer

As most of you know, the computer used to compress and stream the live broadcast suffered a fatal crash. A new, much faster machine has been installed and tested this morning. This new computer can not only run Wirecast with ease, it can also be used to monitor the chat and the streaming server statistics at the same time. No more need to set up my laptop.

The video converter was also replaced. The old Belkin unit has been retired as inoperative and a new Plextor unit has taken its place. The result is a bit smoother graphics and more pleasing image contrast.
Author:David P.

New Video Broadcast System & Schedule

Dear Team, As you probably already know we will be testing a new broadcasting system on Sunday, Feb 17th. The new system will use our own server (located at a data center in Parsippany) to stream the broadcast instead of the StreamGuys.com that we have been using for a few years. In addition, the format of the stream will be QuickTime instead of RealPlayer. So, users will have to have QuickTime installed on their machines to receive the broadcast. Most computers already have this and if not it is free from apple.com. Our website has a nice, new page for watching the broadcast or optionally launching it in a separate window that can be resized by the user. If this works out, we will no longer need to pay the StreamGuys $60/mo for up to 15 connections. Instead we can probably support 50 or more connections at no cost. And we can crank up the video quality as well. The software to compress and transmit the signal will cost us $450, but that is a one time charge. The computer in the sanctuary has been loaded with a trial version of this new software which is called WireCast from Varasoft.com. The interface is a bit different and I'll show you all how to start and stop the broadcast and the digital recordings. This Sunday we will also break in the new MediaShout software for projecting images on the screen. Nothing like massive changes all on one day. We are good!! Finally, I have extended our schedule and populated the next month or so with names. Please look it over and make changes as necessary. Thanks for being God's media team.
Author:David P

New Schedule for One Worship

Team, We had our first "One Worship" experience this morning. And we need to make some adjustments to our coverage schedule. One idea would be to have two teams each Sunday. On team could serve from 8:30 a.m. to about 10 a.m. And a second team starting at 10 and serving until the end which may be around noon. A second idea would be to work a marathon shift, 8:30 to noon. But only serve every other or every third Sunday. I would like your input on this. Please just hit the "comment: button below to blog your thoughts on these two options or propose other ideas. Thanks, djp
Author:David P

New Server Installed

Author:David P.

New Server

Author:David P

New Media Team Schedule

Team, as you can see we have a new schedule per the discussion at the meeting. I hope I have most of the bugs worked out, so give it a try. Please leave your comments and suggestions for improvement here on the blog. Thanks.
Author:David P.

New Media Equipment

Team, Today we ordered two new media equipment items, a direct to CD recorder and a DVD/CD duplicator. The recorder will be installed in the sanctuary in place of the old and well worn cassette recorder. We will record audio directly to CD. The new duplicator will be in Diane�s office and can duplicate up to 7 CD�s or DVD�s at a time (56 DVD�s/hour or 106 CD�s/hour. Anticipated uses: - Sermon recordings for shut-ins replacing cassettes - Worship team practice recording tracks - Drama team practice recording tracks - Video ministry DVD duplication - Making DVD�s immediately available after special events � baptisms, special music performances - Duplicate event video recordings: weddings, etc. We could even see if there is any demand for CD�s and DVD�s for sale after the services. And, I�m sure there are more ideas. Have a Blessed Day, David P.
Author:David P

Internet Media Streaming Training

Team, I came across this video searies which explains exactly how do our video streaming and live broadcasting. Its a great way to gain a bit of technical understanding of how things work under the hood.
Streaming Basics
Author:David P

New Embedded Viewer

Hey, check out the new embedded video viewer for "recent recordings" on the recent recordings page. Let me know how it looks, works, etc.
Author:David P

Church Infrastructure Changes

Last night I moved the FireBox and the DSL modem from the boiler room to the storage closet. This was done to keep these electronic boxes a bit cooler during the Summer months. After relocation, the network came up and seemed to be running normally. Just wanted ya'll to know about the changes.
Author:David P.

Far Flung "Internet Members" Help With Van Project

Joe Lacopo reports that an "Internet Member" in Florida has sent in a contribution to help with the Katrina Van project! Awesome!
Author:David P.

4th Camera Installed

Yesterday, Brent and I (mostly Brent) properly installed the 4th camera in the sanctuary. This new camera is in the right hand corner of the balcony, as you look toward the chancel, and is wired in as camera B. The old camera B is now camera D and is wired to the secondary video mixer to be used for the hearing imparied during the 9:30 service. At the other services, you can use this camera D for enhanced video mixing options. Great Fun.
Author:David P.

Big Snow Day & Downloads

Since Sunday morning, 12 Feb., when we had 55 computers receive the live broadcast, the video has been streamed 17 times, the audio was downloaded 9 times and the video file was downloaded 9 times as well. In addition, traffic on our website has been running double the average since Sunday ! God is up to something !
Author:D. Pontzer

Blogging Help

In response to quite a few questions about blogs; What they are?, How to use them?, etc. etc. I have added a blog help page. Hope this helps.
Author:David P.

Embedded Streaming Works With FireFox

Thanks to our FireFox browser users and their feedback as to bugs in my html code. The issues with playback of embedded media using FireFox have been fixed. This problems came to light after I posted the side by side comparison of video quality earlier this week. The embedded media would not play on FireFox browsers. This is now fixed. We have one or two other places on our website where videos are embedded in the page. One that I know of is on the home page of www.asoulcafe.org. I'll fix this one when I get a chance. In the mean time, use IE to browse it. For the geeks out there. . . It turns out that FireFox will not display RealPlayer media files unless they are streamed in the rtsp protocol, not the http protocol. This is not in the literature anywhere that I could find, but I tried it (after trying a buch of stuff that didn't work) and it works. djp
Author:David P.

Improved Video Broadcast Quality

One of the �regular customers� of our live webcast has asked about the possibility of improving the image quality. He has offered to pay the additional cost of the increased bandwidth that this will require ($30/mo.). So, this Sunday we will broadcast our live stream at 128 kbs instead of 56kbs as a test. Our broadband connected customers will see a significant improvement in video quality. This same improvement in quality will also translate to the recordings that are posted on our website each Sunday afternoon.
Author:David P.

Good Feedback From the Field

I received this note on Friday, 1/6/05:
Hi David, Just a quick message to let you know how much I am enjoying the Podcasts.
My 82 year old Mother gave me an IPOD NANO for Christmas....how she ever thought of giving an IPOD vs the usual shirt, sweater and pants, I'm convinced is a miracle in its self. However its a wonderful gift that I use daily in my early morning walks. My walks are a time that I spend in prayer and presence. Since Christmas I listen as I walk each day to a different podcast sermon. I found that like watching a movie for a second time, there is always something notable that I missed the first time around.
In addition to increasing the distance I walk in the morning to strengthen my body, each day I am increasing the distance I travel in my journey towards the loving arms of Lord Jesus.
I pray for God's continued blessing upon the media team and all you do to advance the Kingdom.
Author:David P.

Downloading Media Files

Evidently a number of our members have received iPOD's and/or other mp3 players for Christmas. This has generated a few "help calls" with respect to getting our recordings from the website onto these protable players. If you run into questions regarding this, please direct them to the "help with podcasting" page which will answer most of their questions.
Author:David P.

Some ideas sent to our hearing impaired signing team

Dear �signing team�, �media team�, and anyone else who is interested, Happy New Year!

We have taken delivery on the 4th camera and the new �black box� necessary to add the signer, �picture in picture�, 100% of the time, to our broadcast and our video recordings. The volunteer army (media team) hopes to have this installed by late Jan.

So, now for some other new ideas on which I would welcome anyone�s comments:

� On the website we have a drop-down menu titled �Teams and Tools�. Would you guys like a link there to a page for your ministry?

� We also have a number of blogs where teams can discuss issues on-line. Take a look at the one on the �media team� page for an example (click on the link to �Media Team BLOG�) Would you guys like a blog of your own? They are easy to set up.

� You will also notice on the media team page that we have our schedule. Here the team can make swaps or changes and save them to the schedule for all to see. This frees up the leader (me) from having to broker every change to the coverage schedule. Do any other teams want one of these?

� How about an �Audio Prayer Vine� for the sight impaired. This could be a place on the web where folks who are �sight impaired� could �listen� to prayer and praise requests. I�m going to investigate the technology necessary to automatically convert our text prayer vine to streaming audio via the web,

� Should we have an �audio� or a �signed video� version of the bulletin? � Would there be any interest in CD�s or DVD�s of our recordings? Or is the website broadcast , streaming & download capability meeting the need?

� Here is a real crazy idea, you guys could read out loud and sign new prayer or praise vine posting and record these video snippets using a computer with microphone and quick cam. We could post these short videos on the prayer vine as a link where either hearing or sight impaired folks could click to stream the vid. One way to make this less work would be to summarize the prayer vine in a short signed video, say once or twice a week. We could do the same thing with the bulletin and other news items.

� Should we have an email group set up for our hearing and/or sight impaired customers so that we can send them information and or notifications of new content, etc.?

� How can we �get the word out� concerning our growing capability to serve in this area? Just sitting around thinking too much.

Let me know your thoughts. The FPC WebServant and Media Team.
Author:David P.

Ipod-Video

Dave: I thought I would try downloading the Ipod-Video for the Christmas service to see how it would run on my PC. I new it would be big, but had no way too tell HOW BIG. Well, I'm at 40MB and counting! Even at 25KB/Sec it's taking a long time. Can you indicate file size in the file information before download? It would help to estimate file transfer time and decide whether to proceed. Brent
Author:Brent

2005 Website Statistics

The graph below shows the number of visitors to www.fpcsparta.org per month for the year 2005. The upswing beginning in August was probably due to our introduction of the audio podcasting and RSS feed which we began early in that month. The second upswing, at the beginning of November coinsides with our introduction of a second RSS feed and the video podcasts for the new Ipod-Video introduced by Apple in October. One theory as to the spike in visitors is that these .m4v files designed for the iPod-Video can be downloaded and played on any computer using Quicktime or similar playback software. This is the first time we have offered downloadable video files, prior to November, they were only available for streaming playback. Well, whatever the reason, our activity is on the rise and hit a record of nearly 7000 visitors in December. We are just getting started! DJP
Author:David P.

A Letter & Donation from an On-Line "Member"

This letter was received just before Christmas '05: Dear Rev. Dr. Tom Litteer and David Pontzer (media team), Please accept this donation of $ ____ (confidential) toward your On-Line Outreach Ministry in honor of the late Norman Lindsey. My husband, Maurice, and I were both very impressed with how you used your website's live broadcasting capabilities to allow Norman to view and be a part of his son Tim's wedding to my niece, Kristin Poots. It was one of the best uses of the internet that I have witnessed. . . . We have also been enjoying your service every Sunday via the internet. We especially like the way you make use of technology to enhance your sermon through graphic aids. It is wonderful to know that God is on the Web, so that every eye can see and every ear can hear. may god continue to bless you and your ministry. Have a blessed Christmas season. Susanne and Maurice Battista
Author:David P.

SundayPlus Support Subscription

Team, Grass Roots software offered a great deal on renewing our software license including delux support and free upgrades. This "deal" was $99 which is about half price, as long as the order is placed before the end of the year. So, today, 12/31, I placed the order. They claim to be close to releasing a bunch of new capability including individual slide control of imported PowerPoint files which is something we could really use. So, I expect the $99 will be a good deal for us. djp
Author:David P.

New Media Team Blog

Greetings Media Team and Happy New Year. I have added a "BLOG" to our team webpage so that we can have on-line discussions, training, brainstorming etc. etc. Use the link above to "add a blog", or the link below to comment on an existing posting. Each time you post or comment we will all get an email alerting us to the new enty. This will be a great way to conduct discussion, get out the info, etc etc. Let me know what you think, suggestions, etc. I have not put any passwords on the blog, so anyone could post here, but its a bit difficult to find on the website as the link is under our "team" area, and I don't think we will experience any issues. If we start to get spam or inappropriate postings, I'll add a password. Happy New Year.
Author:David P.