With over 100 new features, ProPresenter 4 represents a major leap forward for the best selling Worship Presentation Software for the Mac platform. If you’re new to ProPresenter just to cover the basics, it is a lyric and media presentation package geared toward the live worship service. ProPresenter’s intuitive, thumbnail-based approach to display, is very simple for beginners but allows a vast degree of customization that is sure to please the power users as well. The interface for version 4 has been tweaked just a bit to provide some more continuity while maintaining the clean look that ProPresenter’s users have been enjoying for years.

The heart of any display software is its display engine. In ProPresenter 4 the display engine has been completely redesigned to allow more capabilities than ever before. Multiple objects can now be placed on a single slide with precise control of spacing, alignment, and style. Adjustments for kerning, line color, and fill color as well as other parameters make it simple to create a custom look without sacrificing the overall ease of use of the software.

A new feature for ProPresenter 4 is Templates. Templates are a simple way to change the style of any presentation in the library quickly and easily. If you want to use a certain song as lower thirds to go over the top of a live video feed, just create a template with the text constrained to the lower part of the slide. Place a graphic behind the text and apply the template to your presentation. It’s that easy. Changed your mind and want that same song to full screen, just apply your normal full screen template and it’s done.

The Props Layer is another new addition to ProPresenter 4. Props are objects that can be placed on certain slides, multiple slides, or an entire presentation independent of the other layers that are being displayed. For example, does your church have a logo that you would like to place in the lower right hand corner like a screen bug. No problem, just create a prop and place the logo where you want it to sit on the slide. Props also maintain any transparency settings for graphic formats that support them.

PP4 even has a feature that enables very simple and affordable environmental projection (if you don’t know what that is, wait for our upcoming blog post about Environmental Projection to find out more).

These are just a few of the new features offered in ProPresenter 4. There are plenty of others to check out when you install the free 30 day trial that is available at http://www.renewedvision.com/pro_download.php.

Fowler Productions also offers a training class for ProPresenter 4 every other month for $99. The next class is September 14^th at 6pm CST, so be sure to register soon!

Last week I was on vacation with my family. We packed the family vehicle to within an inch of its life with groceries, clothes, gear, and kids (not necessarily in that order) and headed off for a week of wilderness fun! Upon arriving at the campgrounds it fell to me, of course, to set up our tents. Feeling quite the outdoorsman and ready to teach my children the joys of living in commune with nature, I encountered the only real setback of our otherwise idyllic trip. In all our frenetic packing, I had failed to bring a hammer, an essential in staking down the tents. Well, I was not about to be deterred by such a small detail, so after a little searching, I found a fairly hefty piece of wood that I thought would work out pretty well and commenced a-hammering. And in the end it all worked out, but not without several sore fingers, a cramp in my right forearm, and a caustic look from my wife about the “new words” that our 5 year old twins had learned. Just kidding!

It was during one of the more painful moments of this adventure that I began to think longingly of the hammer that I knew was in my tool chest back at the house, which is undoubtedly the right tool for hammering tent stakes into hard ground. As I see it, the right tool gives us three major advantages in any job;

1. It makes the job easier

2. It makes the job faster

3. It provides a better finished product

This brings me to the subject. Worship Presentation Software has become, if not a necessity, at least a trend in the church and worship world, and for good reason. Almost regardless of which product a church or ministry might choose, the advantages and benefits over a regular slide show creation program like PowerPoint™ are marked and numerous. Now this is not to knock PowerPoint™. It’s a great program and it does exactly what it was designed to do, it goes from slide to slide to slide with tremendous reliability. It’s just that most of our church services don’t go from slide to slide with anywhere near the same kind of reliability! There is a lot more spontaneity built into even the most programmed church service, than in any sales or corporate presentation (which is what PowerPoint™ is specifically designed to do).

Ideally, the church will look at the biggest Worship Presentation Software players in the market and decide which feature set is right for them THEN purchase a computer that runs that software well. This seemingly backwards approach is because, arguably, the top two competitors run on different platforms; Windows and Mac. As of right now, EasyWorship runs in Windows only and ProPresenter runs on Macs only. They both do a fantastic job of serving up song lyrics and Bible scriptures on demand but they each have some defining features. By choosing the features your church needs, then choosing the computer to run it on you will generally be better served in the long run.

EasyWorship includes a rich feature set, with motion backgrounds, built in scripture database, and support for running PowerPoint™ files directly from within the EasyWorship interface being some of the most popular. It is very easy to operate and volunteers can be quickly trained to operate it.

ProPresenter 4 has a beautifully designed, very graphical user interface, which provides an intuitive working environment for beginners while maintaining an outstanding set of advanced features for power users. If your church does a lot of live video production, ProPresenter has some features that help it to fit into that environment more seamlessly.

Fowler Productions provides monthly training classes for EasyWorship and ProPresenter to help anyone from the first time user to the old pro to better utilize either of these tremendous tools to the greatest advantage.

This dual-lamp DLP® projector gives you superior performance and reliability, with brightness, super resolution and continuous-use capability. If you’re looking for a reliable, quality solution for presenting in large, bright rooms or auditoriums, the XD8100U data projector is the answer.

The XGA Projector That Accommodates Your Needs
You can rely on your new XD8100U DLP projector to be just what you need, when you need it.

• Continuous non-stop 24/7 operability with dual lamp and lamp relay modes
• Automated and reusable self-cleaning filter for a lower total cost of ownership
• Ingenious heat pipe cooling technology that delivers projection cooling, energy savings and quietness as well
• Super Resolution technology that delivers ultra-sharp detail projection
• Built-in support for Crestron RoomView and AMX Device Discovery for remote management
• Edge blending for both side-by-side as well as top-bottom projection
• Supports geometric projection on curved surfaces as well as 360 degree projection
• Closed Caption support
• Estimated lamp life of up to 4000hrs (low mode)
• Consumes less than 1W of power consumption for increased energy savings (low mode)
• Natural Color Matrix support independent controlled color adjustments with effecting other colors
• Side-access lamp design for easy and convenient lamp access
• Delivers a bright 7000 lumens image
• Accepts 5 optional lenses, ranging from a 0.8 rear projection fixed short throw lens all the way up to our new 9.0 UZ lens

Highest Quality Images Even in Bright Halls or Auditoriums
Present with confidence even in the largest rooms with the XD8100U XGA projector. Images are reproduced in high contrast and superior brightness and with its dual lamp design it will allow for continuous projection for long periods of time. This DLP projector offers truer, more vibrant color with Texas Instruments BrilliantColor^TM technology.

Designed for Easy Usability and Maintenance
Depending on a particular presentation’s needs, you can change out the high-brightness color wheel on your data projector with an optional six-segment color wheel that emphasizes richness and depth of color. The filter is self-cleaning and reusable. Each of the dual lamps needs only one hour of shut-down every week, so you can meet even the most challenging projection needs, including continuous operation over long periods of time.

Automated and Reusable Self-Cleaning Filter
The XD8100U is equipped with an automated and reusable self-cleaning filter. This combination of a mesh filter and cleaning brush helps protect and prevent dust and dirt particles from entering and affecting the internal components of the projector. Additionally this automated self-cleaning filter design not only helps reduce maintenance efforts but its reusable design makes it very eco-friendly and lowers the overall total cost of ownership.

Image Correction Using Advanced Technologies
Mitsubishi Electric’s Super Resolution technology is an advanced algorithm that analyzes the signal of the original image, identifies and estimates areas of the high-resolution data not provided—and corrects the image quality. The result is a projected image that delivers ultra-sharp details and clarity. The XD8100U also includes built-in edge blending technology for multiple side-by-side, as well stacked projection, allowing multiple projectors to create a single, seamless image. Corrective distortion allows for projection to curved surfaces, and full 360 degree projection along its vertical axis enables extensive projection ranging from floor to ceiling.

Fowler went to Infocomm last week, and the show floor was pretty exciting this year. I saw quite a few very innovative products. Here’s a quick recap of what we did and saw, and a few of the more exciting new products:

After a few less than exciting stops, we made our way to the Volante booth. They feature the DiVAS Controller, which streams several channels of HD video through a gigabit network to any number of displays. They also have a DVR unit which allows you to time-shift your broadcast. Very cool stuff. Several booths later we found ourselves in the Elite Screens booth. They make a very wide variety of video screens. The one we found most interesting was the EZ Cinema, which is a “portable” manual ascender type screen. I say “portable” because they come in sizes up to 12’ wide.

At Panasonic’s dealer meeting room, we saw some really nice professional LCD displays, the new 20 series plasmas, and some great new projectors. After that, we somehow found an integration company that was dressed up like the Pirates of the Caribbean. Weird…

We wrapped up the day with Elmo, who introduced a new cool writing tablet with software, that will also control their document cameras.

We started our second day with an appointment with Mitsubishi. They are rolling out a brand new series of dual lamp DLP projectors. The WD8200U has 6500 lumens and the XD8100U has 7000 lumens, and they have a new extra long-throw lens as well. Their booth also featured a new 65” LCD (MDT651S) at a great price point. I am also very excited by a product from Magenta Research called the Voyager VG-RX. They are doing amazing things with signal extenders. The Voyager VG-RX is a high performance receiver for short or long haul transmission of uncompressed hi-definition video and audio signals. It also carries USB, IR and RS-232 control signals, and it does it all over fiber optic cabling. Additionally, they have found a way to capture and store HDCP protocol. This will make it possible to display sources that have HDCP imbedded without a limitation on the number of displays. (For more on HDCP, check out our podcast.)

At the Panasonic booth, I finally got to put my hands on the new AG-H100 and AW-H550 video mixers; both little brothers to the AV-HS450N. The AG-H100 is a fantastic small format HD video mixer with the highly sought-after multiview. It is housed in the same chassis as the old AG-MX70, which means that it carries and switches audio in addition to the video signals. This unit will be a perfect fit for the budget-conscious church that  wants to get into more advanced video mixing and IMAG. There was no way we could get out of the booth without seeing the new 152” plasma monitor (TH-152UX1). I’m already drawing up blueprints to remove a wall in my living room and replace it with this plasma.

There was quite a bit more live sound and stage equipment this year than in the past. Soundcraft had a truck there as well as Yamaha. Martin Lighting has a brand new truck featuring all of their new luminaires.

I stopped by Shure to check out their new SE-115M earbuds (yeah, I missed them last year), and the rep actually put them in my ears. Although the experience was a little creepy, the fantastic sound was worth the very uncomfortable 30 seconds of close proximity to a complete stranger. I checked out both the SE115M and the SE425, and both were superb.

In summary, this was the best Infocomm in 3 years. We saw a lot of things that made our trip worthwhile. Manufacturers in the industry continue to put out products that put the most advanced media ideas within reach of most churches. Make sure you ask your Fowler Church Consultant about how these products will help you accomplish your mission. And when we come to visit, we promise we won’t be in pirate costumes.

This was an email from Joshua Ledford from Faith Community Church of God. We would like for everyone to recognize their great work and if you have any comments, please share with us!!

To Jon, Todd, and everyone on the Install Crew of Fowler:

I just wanted to express great appreciation for a job well done on the sound system at church! It sounds amazing! Everyone was blown away of how clear everything sounded…even when we “aired it out” more than what we would ever do in a service…at loud volumes it was incredible! Thank you so much, everything not only sounds great, it looks great too. We are so blessed to have the opportunity to have you guys do this. As a fellow musician, I understand this is your passion and service to the Lord. It is no different from head pastor, worship leader, or sound engineer/installer, you are doing the Lord’s work through your service! May the Lord bless you and from all of us at Faith Community Church of God in Shawnee, OK a big…THANK YOU!!!

God Bless,

Rev. Joshua Ledford
Associate Worship Leader

Come check out our new application shots from Crosspoint Church. They can be found in the Contemporary Churchs in the gallery, or you can click here and it will send you on the path you need. If you would like to send us some pictures of your church so we can put it on our website then send them our way. You can email you representative or email areid@fowlerinc.com.

EasyWorship and ProPresenter training dates will be changing starting in January 2010. Instead of being on Tuesdays, they will be on Thursdays.

Dates currently listed for EasyWorship:
January 14th, March 11th, May 13th at 6:00-7:30 pm

Dates currently listed for ProPresenter:
December 8th, February 11th, April 15th at 6:00-7:30 pm

Fowler offers training on every product we sell. Just ask your sales representative to include it in your system recommendation. If you would like a more customized training program for your staff and volunteers, our trainers will also make house calls. If you need something more specialized, call us – we want to help your church do multimedia better.

EasyWorship Training Fowler offers LIVE online training for your EasyWorship presentation software. This class is FREE for 90 days with the purchase of a projection system, and is good for one session with two logins. Standard training starts at the low price of $99.00. Group discounts are available.

A new search feature has been added to the FowlerInc Store. Be sure to check it out!

FowlerInc Store: Click here

The Village Church at Shell Point has been added to the Large Church Gallery.

Feel free to check them out!

Royal Baptist images have been added to the Gallery.

Please feel free to check them out!