"Excuse me sir, what system do you use for your words on the screen?"

If I've heard that question once, I've heard it a hundred times. Acting as the Technical Director for Saddleback Church for over 10 years I knew that was the one question anyone of the technical staff would need to be ready to answer after any given service. Being a high profile church brings people from around the world to your doorstep each week. They are all looking for elements in our service that will help them present Christ more effectively in their services. Graphics is just one of those areas that seem to shine at Saddleback.

There are two reasons for this, one, we use an FX Deko character generator that is transmitted at component level to the video projectors. Secondly, we have very good graphic artists that know how to make the images look great from a design standpoint. The later is actually the more important reason that the graphics 'popped'.

Since there are many publications that will tell you what types of software are available I'm not going to go into detail about that here. Let's just say you can spend $45,000 for a high end system such as the FX Deko (Pinnacle). Or $10,000 for a nice mid priced system such as the Inscriber. Then there are many software products in the $400.00 range such as Prologue (Grassroots) and of course, PowerPoint is in the 'next to nothing' range. Check out the systems on the Internet and in back issues of Christian publications such as Worship or Church Production magazines.

1. Can you import outside images and incorporate them in your look?
   
2. Will it give you an alpha channel for keying text over live video? (This will be helpful if the have the proper switcher.)
   
3. Does the software have a 'search' built into it? (This will help you find songs 'on the fly'.)
   
4. Does the screen have a preview page so that you see the next slide that is coming?
   
5. See if there is any anti-aliasing for smoothing diagonal or curved text. (You won't have jagged edges.)
   

Once you select your software, keep your signal as high as possible to the projector. Don't use a scan converter to down-convert the output of your computer to the input of the projector or switcher. Transmit to the projector at the highest rate it will accept or at its 'native resolution'. Most projectors today will accept higher input resolutions than the video output of 640 X 480. If you have video from a VHS player, use a scaler to up-convert the signal to the higher resolution.

More importantly, use good design. Look at magazines, watch the news and television ads more closely. Watch for the colors they use and contrast between text and background colors. Look at the size of the text in comparison to page. (For a properly sized screen, the text should be about 32 pt.)

Here's the formula for a properly sized screen. Measure the distance from the screen location to the furthest view and divide that number by 8. That becomes the height of the screen. Most images are a 4 : 3 ratio. Example: A viewing distance of 72' from screen to viewer. 72 divided by 8 equals 9 feet. A 9 foot screen would be 12 feet wide.

If all this is Greek or 'geek' to you, find a local dealer to help you decide what you need. If you tell them what your goals are, any good dealer can steer you in the right direction. Or, find a church that is doing a good job of graphics and say, "Excuse me sir, what system do you use for your words on the screen?"