Yep, everybody and my mom (love you Mom) showed up to the party and we’re a little hesitant to swap the sangria for fruit punch and tone down the jams.  But hey, we made Twitter sound like the answer to global loneliness and social disease and told everyone to get an account.  There goes the Twitterhood.

Wait.  It gets better.  Or worse.  Some employers care deeply about your tweets and watch carefully.  People have been fired (rightly so) for tweets that shed a negative light on the company.  And make no mistake, if you are in ministry (volunteer or staff at a church or religious organization) your pastors and ministry leaders care too.  If your tweets are not protected in your privacy settings then what you say is public.

By the way, posts on Twitter are written material owned and published by you and are subject to law.  You may be sued for slander or libel if you cross those lines.

Friends of Bill W (Google it if you don’t know who they are) talk a lot about “living life on life’s terms.”  Well tweeps, life came to Twitter and brought its terms with it.  Another thing they say a lot is “I can only speak for myself” so along those lines…

I’ve thought about this a lot lately and as a result my tweets have been sparse.  I am in anguish 17 times a day because I can’t in good conscience blurt/tweet what I’m thinking.  I am all kinds of funny in here but that’s not always funny out there.  I can’t tell you how I want to retweet everything @sh*tmydadsays (whom I cherish) posts but I have followers I know would feel uncomfortable or straight up offended.  I also can’t tell you how much this bugs me because people who are easily offended annoy me all to [Hades].

My pastor follows me and I know he’s not easily offended.  Heck, he has a hard enough time keeping his internal monologue internal on Sunday morning.  Most of the pastors I know are damn cool when you get them alone.  When they polish up for teaching the congregation are they being unauthentic?  Not in the slightest.  They are being loving.  If I tweet or retweet something off-color (no matter how funny) do I think he’d be concerned?  Considering my level of involvement and a quick peek at my followers list, I’d be concerned if he wasn’t.

Watching what I say on Twitter has been good for my Spiritual growth.  It’s easy to forget that what I post enters the eyes of people I am to love – and Christ taught us not to be picky and choosy about whom we love. Those close to me know that in my comfortable, natural state my language is fairly colorful.  (As passionately as I feel about this topic, this is probably the most I’ve had to edit a blog post.)  I don’t talk that way around my mother, in restaurants, and within earshot of small children.  Nope, I want to be remembered as encouraging, positive and maybe even inspiring at my memorial service.  You don’t get that by spewing verbal diarrhea everywhere.  (Nice visual huh?)

Here’s my advice fellow fringe tweeps.  Decide what you use Twitter for.  If you just want to joke around with a few friends then use those privacy settings and protect your account.  No harm, no foul.  Then, like a vertibrate, be exclusive with your social circle.  A good friend of mine said “there are some Christian bros you can punch in the p*nis… and others you can’t.”   Pick the ones you can.  (Sorry ladies, boy talk.)

Me?  I’m staying on the radar and learning to be clever.  I need a personality I can wear in public.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

So on with thoughts and confessions from an ex church production staffer.

Today I am a church attendee (member) and volunteer. I’ve been my style of deeply committed to my church for 18 years. I say “my style” because, to be transparent, I’ve never felt entirely at home in mainstream Christian culture – or anywhere really. I’m not alone in that. As cool as Cornerstone is, it’s as mainstream as any suburban American mega-church and I’m ok with that. It’s been my family for nearly two decades.

One of the greatest awakenings I’ve had as a civilian after 7 years of church staff experience is this: I know why I go to church now. I don’t think a guy with my personality and drive could have understood it this well any other way.

I go to church on the weekend because that hour and a half is different than the rest of my week. I go because it is a sacred time; separate from everything else I’m doing, have done, and am going to do. I go because it’s part of what defines me as a Believer in my culture. I “go to church.” That, friends, is no shallow state of being.

I look around the congregation and I see it in their faces too. Sit in the middle of the auditorium on Sunday and you’ll feel the vibe. When the pastor cracks a joke at our silly human nature you see husbands and wives connect eyes, hands, smirks and grins. When the pastor addresses deep hurt or struggle with sin you see hands on others’ shoulders and we all share the weight of the human condition for a moment and a prayer. The sound is awesome (I’ll brag), the stage looks great, and the lights feel just right, but it’s all just a wrapper for the greater element: the difference of the moment.

The curious yet-to-believe folks come in to check out church and if they’ve braved parking lots, crowds, and an entirely foreign experience then they’re there on purpose precisely because they wanted to “go to church” too. The worship time has just enough of a “performance” element that the new person doesn’t feel like a complete outsider when they don’t raise their hands, and the applause they give (as much as it bothers worship leaders) feels familiar. It’s not a concert to anyone clearly enough. Those of us with eyes to see don’t view worship as a performance anyway so what do we care how others see it? Our gracious Father wins people over in time and we’re glad they’re with us. The new person is there because it’s different… different than a concert, a comedy act, or public speech.

When planning services and production it’s easy to major on the minors because they feel major and we can control them. We would do well to weigh every decision against this one question: how does it make our time meaningful and set apart? (But please, please, please NOT “churchy.”) That’s why people come in the first place. Our idea of Perfect can be as much of an opponent to that goal as Sloppy. At the end of a service maybe forget asking “was it great?” but rather ask “was it whole?”

The older I get the more I believe the Christian walk is more about the art of living and less about the boundaries of perceived universal rules. Service planning is the same kind of art and just as hard.

Many of these thoughts came to light while listening to the wisdom of Imogen Heap’s “First Train Home” lyrics:

What matters you, doesn’t matter, matter to me.
What matters to me, doesn’t matter, matter to you.
What matters to you, doesn’t matter, matter to them.

What mattered most to me didn’t matter to most of the people I served. What mattered to them would have mattered more to me had I been in their shoes more.

And, now I am. Loving every minute of it.

My church gig is taking on a different nature.  I’ll be going from full time lead audio guy at Cornerstone to joining the ranks of our awesome audio volunteer crew. We have some great guys here.  Turns out that my side programming gig has been God’s leading in a new direction.  I won’t bore you with the deets but I’d like to be a little see-through for a breath or two about the process.  Maybe you’ll find some encouragement in my recent experience.

I’m moving from my church gig into freelance development, primarily with Adobe Flex and AIR.  That’s a pretty sharp left turn from church tech stuff.  I’m discovering all over again that God has plans for us and his plans include not-so-trivial things like pruning for growth.  Good growth rarely happens without a little snip-snip now and then, right?  There’s a saying that God loves you just like you are and he loves you too much to leave you that way.  Realists (or pessimists) like me get to learn that’s not just about the bad stuff.  It’s a little more optimistic sometimes.  He’s got to get rid of some good stuff too once in a while.  You just have to trust that the new growth is worth it.  I don’t doubt it is worth it because that’s been my experience this many years.  I don’t see little nugget of truth changing much.

I’ve lived my whole life just doing the next thing in front of me.  I recommend it as a lifestyle because my journey has been a great ride.  It might not be a cool ride for two though.  It might just keep you single.  Okay, it probably will keep you single.  :)  I’ve been reinvented many times and in many places into things like a machine shop foreman, a fiberglass mold builder, a missionary, a live-in caregiver, a rock star (ok, would you believe a bass player in a touring band with radio play?), a touring FOH and monitor engineer, a computer repair guy, a web developer, and full-time church audio guy… there’s more.

Well, I sat in one of our church services with my sister a few months back when she was visiting.  I hadn’t been to church in a long time – I mean really been to church.  It was enlightening.  It wasn’t until I started to make a real transition (cleaning my cube, tell everyone I’m outtie, buying health insurance…) that I realized I might not have been all that much of a Christian either because I worked as one.  (Yes, that’s an overstatement, but still.)  Now, that’s not true for everyone who works at a church.  I work with some genuine people who don’t lose touch.  I’m different.  I lose touch.  Recently I’ve been able to discern God’s leading, have been given Godly advice, have seen “coincidences” happen for me, have prayed, have been in the Word… all more than I have in maybe the last 15 years. I need this.

By the way, another of my “laws of the universe” (things I’ve learned to be generally true for people) is that when it comes to your spiritual health it’s ok to be selfish.  You have to be.  If you don’t do what’s right for yourself and stay healthy you’ll be of no good use to anyone.  Keep in mind, though, that doing what’s right for yourself involves plenty of selflessness in helping others.  Don’t owe anyone anything but brotherly love.  Take care of yourself and give.

Well that’s about it with the philosophical stuff.  I’m really digging this new direction.  Adobe AIR and Flex development is as fun as it is frustrating.  I’ll hope to get back into some familiar PHP/Javascript/DOM/CSS stuff too at some point.

I owe a lot to the www.planningcenteronline.com team.  I’m working with Jeff Berg to develop an AIR app that’s going to rock.  That dude is seriously a rock star.  (Not saying that because he might read this – it’s just the truth.)  He’s got a great eye for UI and intuitive user experience.  I’m learning a lot from the guy.

I’d also like to put in a shameless plug for Planning Center.  We use them at Cornerstone to manage all of our worship teams and schedules.  They saved our sanity by streamlining scheduling, communication, service order, rehearsal resources… the whole bit.  If you haven’t checked them out then do yourself a favor.

In working with them I can tell you this:  they are really good at what they do, they are kind, integrous, inclusive, generous, and really patient with bad golf partners.  :)  I sit in a work chat room with their whole crew during the day and they are some cool people.

I’ll keep this blog here and keep posting occasionally.  I still have plenty of thoughts about church tech and audio and I’m not going anywhere.  I’m still serving at the church I love.

Oh, yeah, and great because Pedro is mixing this weekend. :)

The three main church tech guys I follow in blogs and on Twitter all talk about taking on side contract work specing systems or training.  (Check out Tim, Mike, and Dave.)  I don’t know many graphic artists, web designers/programmers, video editors/directors, who don’t do side work.  All the good ones do and I’ve done a lot of wondering why lately.  Is it that we’re broke?  Most of us aren’t.  Is it that we’re high profile and easy to find?  Maybe, but we actually try to hide from the general public.  The person who exclaims, “Hey! I’ll just ask that video guy at church if he can make a video for my kid’s birthday party!” or “I need a website for my business and I bet that church webmaster could use a little cash,” have no idea how much work goes into it and what the real market value is.  They are enemies, not friends.  Thankfully, people don’t ask me to DJ weddings any more.  Finally.  By the way, any decent audio engineer would rather peel off his or her fingernails than DJ anything.  Don’t ask us.  Get a DJ.

Here’s why I think good church-working artists take on side work.

Our type of work has Freelance in its DNA. A lot of great programmers, graphic artists, FOH engineers, and video directors primarily do freelance work.  We do one-off shows, single tours, web projects, or media projects that start and end.  Starting new things is like breathing clean autumn air.

The best artists I know thrive on learning as a lifestyle and die without it. Once we get into a groove the comfort wears through to boredom and burnout.

Our work at a church is often limited by boundaries we dislike, and that’s fine.  That’s standard production.  A good side job or personal project allows you to push yourself to do something great as you define it.  I’d rather mix a concert than a church service any day.  That doesn’t mean I dislike church services.  That means I find more opportunity to do great work mixing a concert than mixing for a 1500-person group sing.

Sometimes the side gig is different than our day job.  Cross-train the brain.  That’s what I say.  Some church gig folks take on other interests, or offer training in their field.  Teaching is different than doing and becoming a good teacher is a challenge.  We thrive on growing in new areas.

What gets you out of bed in the morning? Here’s where the pastoral staff and the art/tech staff part ways.  Sure, we want people to come to Christ too but let’s be honest.  You pastor people are out there with people (that’s your thing) while we dream up creative ways to reach and communicate. Most of us hate getting up early for anything except the idea that we’re going to create something great today.  My coffee pot will fire up early any morning for that.

If you take the side gig away from the church arts employee, you risk burning them out.  You might even want to give them some extra space.  I’ve seen positions in our field reveal themselves to be simple stepping stones more often than satisfying roles and that’s kind of a shame.

Ironically, my side gig has become programming, not audio, and I’ve found that I love it as much if not more than the other.  I’m excited about my current project and if you are a church musician you might be too when it’s released.  For now, mums the word.  The coffee pot is going off early tomorrow.

Now, I’m not against microphones inside guitars but honestly, things are a little out of control. Ever since it turned into a mainstream trend, the sound of an over-blended internal mic has become the Lawry’s Seasoned Salt of the guitar world. All food at my grandparents’ house tasted the same thanks to that stuff. Every time I hear the inside of an acoustic guitar I try to get away with just a little sprinkle on top of the mix because it makes me throw up in my mouth a little. I fear this unnatural sound has become so common that the general public accepts it as a great guitar sound. Please friends, I beg of you… choose the red pill.

Well, I hope you’ll forgive the hyperbolous intro but I do want to make this a memorable post about acoustic guitar tones. I think it’s important.

After the jump: the best tones I’ve gotten to mix and why I think they’re good.

In my limited experience, the best live acoustic guitar tones I’ve ever gotten to mix are from Bebo Norman (back in ‘00 and ‘01 for Ten Thousand Days and Big Blue Sky) and Scott Haus, our worship pastor at Cornerstone. These guys share impeccable playing style, sense of time, and an objective ear for tone.

Firstly, tone is in the finger not the instrument or the gear. Two people can pick up the same guitar and sound completely different. Give me great playing style on any old guitar and I promise you I can make you sound good in the house.

I don’t remember what Bebo had for preamps. I just remember that he had tiny gooseneck mics in his Collings and Larrivée poised an inch or less behind the strings to catch the sound of his fingernail picking. Blended ever so slightly with the piezo pickup this combo created the perfect tone for his expressive finger picking style. Every single note the guy plays chimes in a space all of its own.

Scott has a couple guitars with a blend of mics and transducers – a Louden and (I think) a Larivée. (I had all his info in a text message I deleted. Ugh, my life.) One of the magical elements in his setup is a pair of Raven Labs PMBII preamps. I have fond memories of the day they showed up on his pedal board. I recommend them for any acoustic instrument you need to blend a piezo and a mic with. They sound absolutely brilliant. Scott blends just enough mic in, which is probably much less than you’d expect.

Here’s the deal. An acoustic guitar sounds like it sounds when you’re standing in front of it, not as if you’ve stuck your head inside it. In a live situation with a full band it’s practically impossible to get a great tone with a mic in front of the guitar. So, agree with me or not, the goal is to recreate the sound of an acoustic guitar, not capture the actual sound. I say it a lot: What we do involves smoke and mirrors. A great mix includes an element of illusion to achieve a larger-than-life sound.

The secret to the illusion of Bebo’s tone was that you could hear the dynamic human element of his fingernails on the strings but the direct signal from the piezo pickup made the sound system sing. It sounded like a real guitar, not the inside of a guitar. Again, there is a difference.

Same thing with Scott’s tones. There’s just enough mic involved to make it sound believable. He arrived at his blend because he has refined critical listening skills and an objective perspective – not a generally accepted idea that the more wood you hear the better.

So, my advice to acoustic guitar players: Swing the pendulum back toward simplicity. Giving us more direct signal lets us put you right where we want to in the mix and when those 8 bars of the second verse carried by your strumming alone come along, we can make the system sing with your strumming. Also, remember that you’re playing a percussive instrument. Lock in with the drums! A little bass player’s tip for that is to listen to the drummer’s right hand; the hat and the ride. If you want to know where someone is going with their right foot, listen to their right hand.

Oh, and go light on the Lawry’s too. Too much of a good strong thing spoils it.

I used to hate seeing mic cables wrapped with the ends plugged into each other.  The loops looked unnecessarily large and sloppy.  The loop was never as circular as with not plugging the ends into each other.  Well, this summer I reached the end of sanity untangling perfectly wrapped cables.

Watch this video.  If you already know how to wrap over-under then just watch the first 20 seconds to see the magic.

Over / Under Cable Wrap Technique from Michael Yeung on Vimeo.

He says, “You’ll notice as I uncoil this that the cable is connected on the outside of all the loops therefore the entire thing comes loose when I undo it.”

Knots happen when when a loose end finds its way through some spaghetti.  The odds of that NOT happening with loose ends are slim when you have many hands handling cables.  (On my other planet Cornerstone I’m the only one who touches cables at all but they said I have to live here for now.)  If the ends are together, creating an infinite loop, the cable has little choice but to come apart neatly.

Committing to a style of wrapping isn’t a solution unless you commit to the complimentary style of unwrapping.  The way to unwrap this one is to grab the ends like a handle and toss out the whole cable.  I can toss out a cable, run it, and dress it (even with a nice excess wrap) in under 30 seconds.  God knows I’ve spent up to 2 minutes per cable some days and that eats up a lot of time.  And the cost is more than time.  It’s easy to underestimate the effects of personal frustration on your ability to concentrate, subconscious personal interaction, and the vibe you spread when the band arrives.  (Don’t mix angry; people get hurt.)  The best thing you can do for your band is to be ready and sitting around when they arrive so you can help out without them feeling like they’re interrupting you.

Cable wrapping techniques sound like nit-picking to anyone on the outside but, believe you me, a $10 cable can bring down a $200k sound system.  An old, abused cable will have you chasing your tail trying to solve audio bugs even to the point of replacing perfectly fine gear.  You can judge the quality of an engineer from the way they care for  cables.

OK, off to re-wrap a few cables!

This one is for geeks like me.  Yesterday I modded a new Furman PS-8R II sequential switcher so it would play nice with our old Atlas sequential switcher. For years our techs have had to turn on FOH then run back stage to turn on the amp rack which, ironically, has a sequential switcher.

Our Event Center has been the punk-rock club room of the building (and looks nearly as neglected) since we built and moved in.  The amp rack uses a big rack with an Atlas sequential switcher that we inherited from the building when in was a sports center.  (Our building is a giant remodel.)  I’m finally getting around to installing what I call the “One Switch to Rule Them All.”  Thing is, I bought a relatively inexpensive Furman for the FOH booth figuring that, since it has a momentary switch on the front panel, that it would have poles on the back tied to that switch for remote purposes.  I’m getting used to being wrong.  So, for a punk rock room here’s my punk rock solution.

After the jump: pictures and stuff.

For remote operation the Atlas switcher at the amp rack needs a momentary switch attached to it.  This Furman (above) on the other hand, needs a latch type switch for remote operation.  Instead of devising some custom external circuitry with relays, capacitors, and magic dust I tore into the the Furman to see what could be done.

After CAREFUL inspection (it’s a 120V power distributor for crying out loud)  I found that the internal momentary switch poles always have 12 volts running across them.  It triggers the internal sequence by temporarily shorting that circuit.  You can’t really tie to those poles for external control.  Who knows what the Atlas would do if it saw 12 volts across it’s external switch connectors?  The nice thing Furman did was put in a double pole switch.  The other side of the switch isn’t used for anything.  Golden!

I took a couple of wires and soldered them to the poles underneath the circuit board and attached a mini 1/8″ panel mount jack to the other ends.  Now we have a completely independent switch output.

With a drill and lots of caution I put that mini jack next to the control block.  I took a little artistic license with the scratches – uhm, I mean drill slip.  :)  Now, it would have been easier to just re-purpose a couple of the pins on the block but that would make a very frustrating day for someone down the road who wants to use it with the Furman products it was intended to interface with.   That someone could be me.  I always say, “be kind to your future self; they need all the help they can get.”

We’ll wire this mini jack to an XLR end, run it down an unused snake channel, and terminate it at the amp-side switcher.  The flaw in this system is that it’s possible for the amp rack and FOH to end up in different states when someone messes with it.  The amps will be turning on when FOH is turning off and the other way around.  Another law of the universe is that you can’t stop people from tinkering with stuff with signs and exclamation marks.  You have to accept that it will happen.  That’s why my phone number is on the console.  When we do the remodel next year this will be solved with parts that match.  For now, punk rock is fine with me.

As a disclaimer, I don’t recommend that you do this, it’s not safe if you don’t know what you’re doing, and you can hurt or kill yourself.  Always get the right gear!  But if you’re like me you love to solve puzzles especially when it involves a soldering iron and power tools.

There are a few types of people we meet by the sound booth.

One type is the clueless, socially oblivious carbon unit.  I really believe this person feels like they’re watching a life-long TV show; taking it all in and providing a running commentary.  You hear them walk into the auditorium talking out loud and loudly twenty minutes into a sermon.  I half expect to see them to pull out a Brawndo (it’s got electrolytes!) and a bag of chips after grabbing a comfortable seat.  Beyond training your ushers to shush people there’s not much you can do about that.  These are the guys who will come up behind you during a service and ask questions about the console.  It happens rarely but one time is one too many.

Another type is just as dangerous.  This is the person who waves cars through intersections out of turn because they’re so polite and nice.  By the way, people get hurt, cars get broken, and it takes a lot of folks to help you be that nice so please, don’t.  Ironically, this person has something critical to say like “there’s no sound in the parents’ room” but they don’t want to interrupt you.  They’ll stand behind you, make you wonder who and why, and wait till a transition to speak up.  I’ve missed announcement mic cues over these folks – my back to the stage, the announcement lady yelling so the room can hear her…

After the jump – a few tips on how to talk to your sound engineer when they’re working.
I can only speak for myself but I think most sound engineers agree with me.

When’s a good time?

There’s not, so just do it.  If you know something we need to know then you’re temporarily on the production team.  Say it, and quick.

We’re the bus driver.

It’s a hands-on job; not a set-it-and-forget-it project.  At Cornerstone, think of us like a driver of a 1500 passenger bus.  We drive the worship experience for lots of people and our purpose is to stay invisible by not making mistakes.  When you have something to say to the guy driving the bus you don’t sit behind him and wait for him to notice you.  You don’t tap him on the shoulder or wiggle his chair so he has to turn completely around to talk to you.  You don’t say, “hey, I know you’re rolling on a straight road right now, I’ll wait till you get to an intersection and start into a left turn.”

If you’re going to affect the bus driver, and the safety of all the passengers, you should (1) have something pertinent to say, (2) walk up right beside them, and (3) say “I have something important for you” then let him or her decide when to respond.

Same for us.  Please enter the sound booth, stand beside us like a co-worker and say, “got a sec?”  If it’s not important enough to actually enter the sound booth then email it later.

Be clear.

If you could hear the chatter on the production team’s headsets you’d think we were rude. Nice is the enemy of clear.  In work mode we keep things short and clear.  The best way to talk to us is short and clear.  Extra words like, “and you’re doing an awesome job!” or “oh, and I’ll talk to you about next Wednesday’s meeting soon” rob mental energy and focus.  Save the Scooby Snacks for later.  We do like them.

That’s pretty much it but, before I go, here are a few extra nuggets for the trail.

Sound engineers, it’s up to us to teach people how to talk to us.  If you’re worried about hurting feelings or having someone think you’re mean then maybe you’re not fit for the role.  There’s little room for sensitive egos in this biz.  You kind of have to get over yourself.

Ministry leaders, please don’t discuss your mid-week AVL needs with me on Saturday or Sunday.  Every time I hear, “I’ll talk to you about it this weekend,” I cringe.  I’m completely focused on the weekend and I have a tiny span of attention.  Email or call me during the week when I am focused on desk work and your stuff.

During sound check, carrying on conversations around the sound booth is more than distracting.  In order to hear yourself you have to talk over the band volume and we hear you as much as them.  It’s sort of like shining spotlights on the stage when the lighting op is creating lighting scenes.

Friends, please do stop by and say high after the service if you’re walking by and we’re done pushing faders.  Weekend service is the only time I get to see many of you and a warm hello is always welcome.

Curious peeps, please do stop by and ask questions about the console, system, and production team after Saturday or Sunday 11am services.  We love to geek out about production and gear.

AIR offers common folk like you and me the ability to create desktop applications that run on Mac, PC, and Linux.  If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “All I need is a simple app that will just do [something only you would need]” and you can wrap your head around Actionscript (which is somewhat like Javascript) and a little MXML then you can create your own solutions.

After the jump: how we solved our switcher limitations and alphanumeric pager problem including pics and a download.

The Parent Pager Problem

We signed on with Fellowship One a few years ago.  It handles many things churches need handling for and one of those is children’s check-in.  It issues a 3-character code for each child with both numbers and letters.  At the time we just used our presentation software to throw up the number over the side screens.  The problem came when we started capturing video Saturday nights for our Brentwood campus Sunday morning.  Our switcher isn’t fancy enough to key the parent pager code without it going to “tape” so Livermore’s Saturday night parents were being paged again a whole town, sunset and sunrise away.

We had to get the parent pager off of the screens until we could budget in a better switcher but the only alphanumeric paging systems we could find were those lame LED scrolling marquees.  I read a reply in a blog post that one church posts the child’s F1 code and the parents’ last name and lets it scroll till the child was attended to.  I can’t think of anything more tacky.  Wait, let me think…  Nope.  There is none more tacky.

A Temporary Solution

My first AIR app was a simple parent paging app. See the bottom of this post for a download.  I installed it on a retired computer (any old computer will do), bought a couple monitors (I think they’re 22″ but they might be 24″), hung them with my buddy Laurence (who did all the work), bought VGA cable and a VGA splitter from Cable Wholesale a nearby supply house (100′ of SVGA with ends for 40 bucks), and wired it up.

The app runs in dual monitor mode.  The computer lives in the video booth and someone from Children’s Ministry comes up to enter the codes in a list.  The app displays them on the secondary monitor (split to each side of the stage) one at a time until the list expires.  We set the display time to 25 seconds.  You can enter any length of text and it will scale to fit the screen.

Here are some pics with just the work lights on.  They are clearly visible from the very back of the room; about 100 feet away.  The picture below was taken at 60 feet.  During service they attract just enough attention but not too much.

This is a temporary solution because the parent pager is now only visible in the auditorium. We plan to run lines to other rooms but really, an upgraded switcher would be better than tunneling a bunch of cable throughout the building and splintering a bunch of VGA sends off one computer for a system that we’ll not use once a new switcher is in place.  If a new switcher doesn’t make it through the budget hoop this year then we’ll be running cable.

Download

Here’s the download: ParentPager.air.zip

Added 3/3/2010: Here are the Flex project files for the next version I was working on.  Lots of buttons that don’t work but the project is super simple enough and the main hurdles (like detecting and pushing to a secondary display) have been cleared already.  ParentPager.src.zip

It’s not pretty but it works.  Use it.  De-compile it and use the code if you want to. It’s free.  It’s yours.  You assume all risks – don’t come after me if you think it breaks your computer.  :)   It works fine for us.

One warning: it’s got a random bug and it does crash once every couple months.  I just haven’t had time to work on it and it’s not that high on my list.  Just force-quit the app and restart it.  If there’s any interest in this I might start working on a new version.

You’ll need to install AIR before you install this.  Visit www.adobe.com and click on the Get Adobe AIR button.  You’ll also need dual monitors on your computer to see it work.

And by the way, I’ve discovered that Flex programmers are somewhat in demand.  It’s not a bad way to supplement the church gig income.