Photo courtesy of University Baptist Church, Houston, Texas
Upgrades are something every church tech would like to have going into the Easter season. Did you know that there’s an upgrade you can have in place before Easter that doesn’t cost any money and will help your worship services run smoother? What is this upgrade? Smooth transitions. If we’re not careful, we as church techs can limit our thinking that an upgrade is simply equipment-related; but an upgrade is a change that helps improve the process – and smooth transitions can do just that.
Well-executed transitions between worship service songs, spoken moments, videos, etc. can keep the attention of a congregation and set up the next element distraction-free.
Well-executed transitions between worship service songs, spoken moments, videos, etc. can keep the attention of a congregation and set up the next element distraction-free. On the other hand, poor transitions from a missed lighting cue, muted microphone, or a bad camera shot can cause people to take their hearts and minds off Christ and onto the technical mistake. If you’ve experienced the pain of poor transitions, don’t fret. You can fix this and even upgrade your transitions before Easter by following 3 easy steps.
#1 – Upgrade your Worship Service Order Document with Proper Technical Notes
Some church techs hand out a simple service order to their volunteer teams without any technical notes. The expectation is for the volunteers to add their own notes to the document as they read through it. Upgrade your worship service transitions by adding technical details with each order item. List things like which mic, which lighting fader or cue to use, the graphic to show, and what should be on your video switcher’s program bus. A final way you can upgrade your Cue or Run Sheet is to combine it with song lyrics to show things like when soloists sing and any lighting changes that happen during the song. Listing out these details helps set up your team for smoother transitions.
#2 – Do a Technical Rehearsal Before Services
Adding a technical rehearsal before a worship service to go through your Tech Cues Sheet is another great upgrade. You might have to get creative about when this rehearsal happens each week, but you can do it with or without the band, singers, and speakers present. Use this rehearsal to talk your technical team through the worship service order and run all the audio, video, graphic, and lighting cues. Don’t be afraid as the Tech Team Leader to step out and lead your engineers and operators for this time. Set up your tech team for smooth transitions by adding this important rehearsal.
#3 – Do Purposeful Volunteer Training
Take time outside of worship services and rehearsals to purposefully teach your volunteers to operate their equipment better while using the Cue Sheet. You might need to help your audio volunteer know how to use DCA’s for muting instead of muting individual channels. Train your lighting ops to operate your lighting faders in addition to running a programmed cue. Help your graphics team know how to figure out transition timing in songs for the best moment to advance slides. Finally, help your camera operators learn tips and tricks like how to grab focus fast or how to set up tension on tripods to help them pan and tilt smoothly.
Implementing smooth transitions into your worship services is a quick and cheap upgrade that can enhance your Easter services. Don’t be afraid to put in the extra time to not only set up your tech team for success but also to ensure that a technical mistake won’t distract the congregation from keeping their hearts and minds on the Lord.
