Signal and Noise

Seth Godin nails my issue with Twitter today.  It's all about the signal to noise ratio.  Does a tweet contribute to the "signal" of your blog... or is it just noise!

Here's a hint.  If the only thing that has hit your blog in the past week is your tweet-roll... it's probably all about NOISE.

I read a blog because the content contributes to my thought process.  That may be because of who you are, but unless you are my kid, it's probably not the only reason.  Your considered thoughts and content are a lot of what I care about.  Maybe you can get that done in 160 characters. But I doubt that you can do it consistently.

In short, Twitter is a tool... but I don't think it's a BLOGGING tool.

Monday Resource: You Version Mobile

Yeah, I know. It's Wednesday.

But this one is good. Trust me.

YouVersion.com just came out with a mobile version. 14 versions of the bible online, easily accessed on a connected mobile device. It's fast and easy to navigate. Very well done. Congrats to Terry and the team at LifeChurch.tv.

A Maintenance Fiesta!

Things are a bit hectic in our media suite for the next day or two.  It's our semi-annual maintenance fiesta.  At least that's what I've decided to call it today.

Twice each year, Dan and Jess Stark, of Stark Raving Solutions, our video and engineering integrator, come in for two days.  It's always a lot of work, but a good time too.  Over the course of a year, I accumulate a list of fixes, tweaks and just general "stuff" that I want a qualified engineer to take a look at.

This time around, we're addressing a router issue that has been freaking me out, taking a look at a nagging automation/remote control issue, and getting both of our worship graphics computers up on the router.  In the past we had to choose between the two.  Now with the installation of a new scan converter, we'll be able to use both machines simultaneously during production.  We'll also take care of a problem with a character generator, and deal with a nagging little issue with fader bars on our switcher.

A couple of things that pop out at me whenever we do maintenance.

First, having a GREAT design engineer is just critical when doing any kind of video project.  Dan is GREAT.  Our system is easy to work on.  The router was sized so that we could grow.  Adding another cross point is no problem, because he made sure we made a good decision at the front end.

Second, having a GREAT install team pays dividends for a long time. Dan did a great job on the installation as well.  Our racks are neat.  Everything is labeled.  EVERYTHING. Both ends of every single cable. It makes trouble shooting a problem so much easier.

And finally, some folks might swallow hard about the financial implications of having our engineer come in and shake things down a couple of times a year.  You're absolutely right. It's expensive.

But compared to the cost of being down for a week or so, it's almost nothing. Moving into video, and adding technology has a capital cost, and an operating cost attached.  Churches need to make sure they're committed to the operating costs, as well as the capital costs before they begin a project!

Twittered Out

I've pretty much had it with Twitter.  Micro-blogging sucks.  More to the point, micro-blogging to your regular blog, sucks.  I've canceled my RSS subs to four blogs now, because what used to be valuable to me, now sucks.  Sorry, I don't care that you just went to the gym, and are now headed to Starbucks.  I follow your blog for content, not play-by-play on how you spend your day!

The only exception I can see is using Twitter at a live event, to micro-blog a speaker, or something along those lines.  I've been sorry to see four blogs degenerate from good, quality, well considered content, to irrelevant nonsense, simply because the blogger pointed the twitter feed to their blog page. Put it in the sidebar, or feed it to you FaceBook page, for crying out loud.

Lift Up Jesus

"Here's the big myth.  What people copied in the 80's and 90's were the wrong things. What really grows a church is not drama, it's not music, it's not the preaching, it's not the structure, it's not razzle dazzle, it's not a rock band.  What draws people on a consistent basis is changed lives. Often, churches that are growing don't even know why they're growing. and they attribute it to the wrong thing...  They're coming because there are changed lives in that church. And where people's lives are changed, people want to go, they want to show up."

                                       Rick Warren on Church Growth

HT to Todd Rhodes at MMI

We Totally Have A New Jingle!

or maybe not.

Wow!?!  HT to Kenny the Rat.

NAB Download

Just returned from Las Vegas where my team and I (Patrick, Jeremy and son Andrew) attended the National Association of Broadcasters Convention. It's a grueling four day event... and I'm still pretty tired. We were able to spend some time with Dan and Jess Stark, of Stark Raving Solutions, which is always a great time. Met a bunch of great folks. Saw a lot of cool product. Here are a few of my highlights.

Countryman is now offering an ear-clip for the E6. It is actually rather ingenious and clips into the mic itself, which makes for great stability. This is in response to DPA, obviously, and has been needed.

Got to take an extended look at Sony's new entry into solid state tapeless, and in this case, diskless recording. The EX series includes two new cameras. The PMW-EX1 is the entry level in the series, but looks fantastic. A bit clunky to use, which I'm sure is why they've also brought out the PMW-EX3. Improved ergonomic, interchangeable lenses, and a few other features make it a slick addition to the lineup.

We also got to play with the HD versions of the XDCam PDW series of cameras. The 335 and 435 both look beautiful, but we were a bit concerned that their low light capabilities don't seem as good as the 510 and 530. Still... looking at the 435 and the 510 next to each other, I'm not concerned about matching up the video. The 510/530's look spectacular and at SD in the end, there won't be any problem matching a 435 to our existing rig.

More later!

My Son is Strange

Me:  Race Car is a palindrome.  Did you know that?

Andrew:  Yeah.  So is "Go hang a salami. I'm a lasagna hog."

The kid is kind of strange.  Don't know where he would get it.  We're hanging for the week in Vegas at NAB.  Should be fun.

Tech Director Lunch at NAB

Digital Resources has arranged a nice event for church tech directors who will be at NAB.  They're buying lunch on Tuesday at 11:30am at the Hilton (within walking distance of the convention center) at the buffet.  Afterwards, we'll go back to the center to the Broadcast Pix booth (sponsor of the lunch!) for a demo of their new switcher.   This should be a lot of fun.

If you are interested in attending, please drop Kip Kendrick a line at Kkendrick@digitalresources.com to help him with a head count.  See you there!

NAB Crazy in Vegas

I am heading for Vegas on Friday for the opening of the National Association of Broadcasters convention.  My team is joining me on Sunday, including my oldest son, Andrew.  We're roomies!  Should be a great time of learning and just good times together.

If you're in town for the show, there are several "church tech" get togethers.  Drop me a line and I'll clue you in to where and when!

A Different Breed of Cats

Hung out most of last week with Church IT guys at the first ever MinistryTech.  It is always refreshing to hang with this particular crowd.  I've never been part of a group that was so welcoming and collegial as they are.  There's just no competitive spirit.  It's all about the Kingdom, and the geeky toys for these guys.  Thanks to Jason, and Tony for bringing the Church IT Roundtable together.  Thanks to Jeff and the great staff and Henderson Hills for hosting MinistryTech.  Thanks to Terrell and his staff at Main Street for having the vision to put it all together!  It was a good week.

We Are Just Different!

Larry Hubatka, Creative Pastor at Elevation Church has some tremendous insights on working with creatives today. Some of it is common sense (give clear deadlines), and some is so true it's funny!

"If you walk by and see your designer (or web developer or motion graphics designer or video editor) surfing the web looking at YouTube videos, making weird sounds to themselves, playing air guitar or air drums, eating unhealthy amounts of any kind of candy or laying on the ground staring at the ceiling…let them do it. Sometimes that’s what it takes to get to where you want them to go."

The keeper was this: "Most of the time you’ll get out of a project what you put into it." Ain't that almost always true!

UPDATE: Seems that the Elevation Church website was hijacked by a domain pirate! I'll see if I can find the post on the new site, but in the meantime, you might like to read Geoff Surratt's take on manging creatives!

The Danger of Knowing

"Some people will never learn anything because they understand everything too soon."

                                                   Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

HT to Tim Stephens

Rawson on Amazon!

Check this out.   Pretty cool.

 

From my perspective, the important thing to note is that Ken's new book is already the #1,242,340th most popular title on Amazon.com.  That's a jump of like 2 million places in two weeks!

 

Seriously, though, congratulations Ken and Jen on the publication of this series of great curriculum for middle school kids.  I'm so excited that Adam is about to hit middle school with you guys there!

Branding and Working to Your Strengths

Tony Morgan pointed out a huge trap today.

"In Church world, though, we've fallen into the trap of letting every ministry compete against each other for attention. That's why we feel like we need to create a logo and a name for every ministry that exists in our churches."

I also read this today.  I don't recall where, but just know it's not an original thought.

"I'd rather see ministry leaders spend their time leading their ministry, instead of promoting their ministry."

Yep. You have to provide me with the information, and I know that takes a significant amount of time.  But let us do the nuts and bolts. It's simply not good stewardship of your time and leadership to work on making a flyer, or poster, or whatever.  We can do it for you faster, better, and cheaper when you look at the big picture.