AUMC AV Blog

Well, this morning we had our first service! Everything went great, I can't wait to praise God for many years in this new building.

But before I go into the report about today, I have to give a great big "THANKS!" to everyone that helped: James Nance for a great sound system and install, Carter for helping at any time of day when I call and for helping me to run the first service, Adam for hanging out with me and learning the system, Mike and David for your willingness to help at any time, and for your dedication for the past many years, and the rest of the volunteers that have been learning the new system. THANKS for all that you have done, the services couldn't happen without you!

So this morning I was the first person at the new building at 7:15 at which point I snapped the above photo (the new header photo). (For more photos of the first day of services, click here.) I then parked in the back and got in and turned everything on. Carter and James showed up soon, and we troubleshot the hearing impaired system, which wasn't getting a strong signal. (I think we finally decided that the problem is the board is sending the signal too soft, -2dB instead of +10dB. A fix to come shortly.)

Then, before you know it, the first service started, and we were off! The first service went almost perfect, behind a guest speaker breathing too hard into his lav mic. The middle service was awesome; it is now our "modern" service, and it was the largest service of the day! It was great to see 265 people worshiping God in our new sanctuary! After that came our third service (choir led). This service had a problem when one of the choir mics went spastic and started spewing static during the sermon, but we got it muted quick.

Overall, it went very well. Not 100%, but better than hoped. We learned a lot of things today, such as we need to have the band as a group on the audio board, and don't fade to a black screen with words on it during the sermon (it just looks empty).

I also learned something for us sound guys. Those of us that have worked in the old building are used to multi-tasking, we did EVERYTHING that is media based for the service. During the service, our main jobs were: audio, PPT (IE: lyrics on the screen), and once in a while pointing the camera in the right direction or playing a video.

The bad part of this is that we have all become accustomed to this multi-tasking, and I found myself multitasking in the new building. Carter was running audio and it was my job to run ProPresenter (the new program we are using to display the lyrics), the video camera, and the lighting board. But I found myself continually listening to make sure it sounded good, and I kept messing with things on the audio board. At the same time I was neglecting the lights on the stage and the camera (which would just sometimes point at nothing).

I learned today that we (or maybe just me?) are going to have to reprogram ourselves in what our jobs are. If I am running the video/lighting side of things, I need to ignore the audio unless something is glaringly wrong. If I am running the audio, it is not just my job to make it sound good in the sanctuary, it is also my job to make sure it sounds good on the computer, the camera, the CD recording, the hearing impaired system... It might take a few weeks before we get used to this new mindset, but eventually we will.

The other reason to get into this mindset (past it is more efficient) is that it puts respect on the people you are working with. If I am running video, I have to put trust in the audio guy, that he will do his job right, that when it is time for me to play a video he knows it and already has the line un-muted. I will make my point using a sports analogy. In the old building we were a bunch of guys that would do our jobs separately and without consequence to the other volunteers. We would work our one Sunday alone, and not work together as a team. We were like a baseball team, a bunch of guys working individually to achieve a common goal. (I have always said that baseball isn't a team sport, it is an individual sport where people rarely interact with others on their team.)

Contrast that with our new AV team. We have to rely on other people to get their jobs done so that ours works. If the audio guy doesn't un-mute the computer, then when I play the video it won't have any sound! I have to put my trust in others, not just myself. I liken this to football, where you have to have 11 people on your team running every play exactly as they are supposed to or the play won't work. It anyone on a football team does not make their required block, the play will go from a 10 yard gain to a 10 yard loss. Everyone on a football team has to trust that others are doing what is requited of them, and our AV team is going to have to learn the same kind of trust.

The problem is that we are a bunch of baseball players trying to learn football. We are used to standing out in left field waiting for a pop fly, and now we are being thrust into a teamwork situation. I don't consider this an insurmountable object, I think it is great that we are all learning new skills, not just in the booth, but also teamwork and trust. I look forward to seeing the "AV volunteers" transform into the "AV team".

Well I am done rambling for now. See you guys next week!

Matthew