Nursery Call

Well, I've struggled for the past 2 and a half years with how we do nursery calls at FBC. I know what you're thinking..."it's just a nursery call, how hard could it be?" This one simple little thing can cause the biggest headaches for most Technical Directors. If you are broadcasting your nursery call on your screens, I know this is a headache! It seems so simple...just put a number on the screen...right??!! No...not that simple. Without going into too much techno-babble, in video-land there is something that we call keying. This is a process that allows you to superimpose text or whatever over video. Then past that there is downstream keying, which means you can key a source and switch inputs under that key. In order to run worship words we have to use a key. Since we only currently have one level of key, when we have the words up, that's it! No more keys. So we have to figure out a way to get multiple keys going while being able to switch inputs under both of them! Not to mention two different sets of keys; one for the music portion (moving backgrounds with key) and the message time (camera feed with key). Okay, I promised not to techno-babble, and I broke my promise. Anyway, I guess you can begin to sense my headache. Basically, when you add a key, you add stress to my life!
The solution::
Yesterday we implemented a new way to show nursery calls. We installed two 32" LCD screens (one on each wall to the left and right of the stage). These screens are dedicated to series logos and NURSERY CALLS! This completely takes the nursery call out of the technical video system! It also keeps the distraction down as after it gets your attention (the necessary evil for nursery calls...they have to get EVERYONE'S attention) you can then look away, back to the screens and continue worshipping. Nothing is going to be perfect, but the first run of the system seemed to go without a hitch.