Photo courtesy of Cottonwood Creek Church, Allen, TX
Tools that support creativity in worship services have been expanding in recent years. On the lighting front, moving light fixtures of every type have emerged at all price points, making this tool available to churches of any size and budget. Computers are being used more and more with live music. Whether it’s a MIDI controller connected to a laptop triggering piano and synth sounds or a software DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) playing a click track and additional instruments or voices (stems), computers are here to stay as an essential tool for the live musician. On the video front, projectors aren’t the only tool anymore to display song lyrics, sermon points, and scenery/environmental projection. LED walls are increasingly used to do all these roles with brightness and clarity that impress people of all ages. For the ministry that is using all or some of these innovations, the creativity that it has inspired has been a welcome sight. At some point, though, these same ministries will struggle when tight precision is needed between all three AVL phases so that these tools don’t become a distraction. That’s where my church found itself for our Christmas concert a few months ago and why we decided to use “autopilot” or timecode.
To see the music, lights, and video wall operate as one synchronized creative palette in perfect timing was amazing.
SMPTE timecode is a standard developed by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers to synchronize video and audio using the format of Hours:Minutes:Seconds:Frames. Timecode is a metadata that provides a time reference for editing. You see timecode when you edit a video in your editing software. You also see it when you mix and lay down audio tracks in your DAW. Finally, you see it increasingly in lighting consoles and control software where scenes can be run automatically according to timecode. The inclusion of timecode in all three AVL phases has given technical artists the ability to edit and create with precision like never before.
Timecode can also be used to get audio, video, and lighting equipment working together on autopilot. This autopilot technique solved my church's problem during last year’s Christmas concert planning. We needed a way to ensure we could execute complicated lighting and video changes without causing a distraction by cues being late or too early. We were amazed by what we learned and experienced using timecode. This got us thinking… what about using timecode for certain songs and videos in a regular weekend worship service? We laid out the pros and cons.
Just because the ability to sync everything to run on “autopilot” sounds incredible and innovative, it doesn’t mean it’s right for your ministry.
Using timecode as a tool in worship allows for the precise execution of videos and lights with the music director’s DAW, which runs the click track and audio stems. Our team set up the DAW to output timecode via a Dante channel, which the video wall graphics processing computer and our lighting console could read. When our lighting designer started designing a song’s lights and graphics, he would remotely control the DAW and program lighting changes on the console according to the timecode received from the DAW as a song played. The graphics processing computer for the video wall was programmed the same way. To see the music, lights, and video wall operate as one synchronized creative palette in perfect timing was amazing. This tight and perfect execution allowed the song's message to be seen and heard in a way we had never experienced before in our worship center.
Another "pro" of using timecode in worship services is that programming can be saved between audio, video, and lighting and recalled later. Here’s what I mean. We all know how our worship teams save the songs they use in their DAW to be used again in a future worship service. Lighting and video content can be saved the same way and recalled later to run the same programming according to the timecode being output by the audio software. This time-saving feature is an excellent help for a technical ministry that is overworked with maintenance tasks and supporting ministries other than worship services.
Timecode can also be used to get audio, video, and lighting equipment working together on autopilot.
The positive aspects of using timecode in worship services are very intriguing, but the cons must also be considered. First, programming video and lighting to automatically run based on timecode output from a DAW is complicated. Prep work is needed to ensure the Dante or whatever network you use to transmit the timecode is rock solid with no faulty software, connectors, cables, switches, or routers. An unstable network will cause great difficulty for a programmer and contribute to unreliable equipment. Secondly, you must have technical artists who know all the details about this type of programming and sync between different consoles and software. This technician needs to be an expert at their craft.
The second con is that the tech team and the worship leader must come to an understanding regarding the limitations of using timecode. This understanding is an agreement that a song arrangement cannot be changed at the last second. Why? When a song’s order is changed in a DAW, the lights and the video wall content are no longer in sync with the music.
Pastors and worship leaders might not like this philosophical or, in some cases, theological change because of their belief and practice of needing flexibility just before and during a worship service. Worship leaders enjoy the flexibility of changing arrangements during Sunday morning rehearsal or adding an extra chorus “in the moment” during a service. If a worship leader does this, there must be time allowed for the lighting and video equipment to be reprogrammed. If there’s not enough time, lights and video won’t execute cues correctly, which will cause distractions. The only way to get around not having the time to reprogram is to quickly switch from being on “autopilot” with timecode to going “manual.”
Using timecode as a tool in worship allows for the precise execution of videos and lights with the music director’s DAW, which runs the click track and audio stems.
This switch is the last major con of using timecode for worship: it is not volunteer-friendly. Volunteer lighting and video content operators must have more than a simple operational knowledge of their equipment. They must know how to go flawlessly and immediately change to manual mode at any time during a service. Here’s why.
Occasionally, a singer or the entire band will make a mistake and come in early or late on a verse or chorus. When this happens, the music director stops the audio tracks and restarts them at the appropriate time or does not even use them for the rest of the song. This means that timecode is not sent to all lighting and video content while the DAW is stopped. Programming holds on to its last executed cue as the singers and band play. When there’s no DAW, there’s no timecode. Without timecode, there are no light cues and no video synchronization. When this inevitably happens, a volunteer operator must know how to jump in and run things manually without being a distraction in worship. Most volunteer lighting and video graphics operators aren’t equipped to handle these types of override situations. This is why using timecode synchronization can set up a volunteer for failure.
Using timecode in a worship service to unify audio, video, and lighting should be carefully evaluated, discussed, practiced, and rehearsed before use. It should not be implemented flippantly or without prayer and consideration. Just because the ability to sync everything to run on “autopilot” sounds incredible and innovative, it doesn’t mean it’s right for your ministry. If you need to consider possibly using timecode in worship, make it a matter of prayer. Communicate your thoughts and solutions to your worship leader and work together to devise the right solution for whatever the Lord is leading your ministry and church to do. Working together in this way is honoring the Lord. Trust that whatever the Lord is calling you to do, He’ll equip you to do it, whether using timecode or not.
