According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary a “Proverb” is an adage, a saying often in metaphorical form that typically embodies a common observation. In the Bible the English word Proverb has the meaning of an aphorism, a pithy observation that contains a general truth. As a college student I trained to be…

One of the difficult things we do is train someone to be a competent technician. Training someone to be a video director is really difficult. Training someone to be a competent tasteful video director via a blog post is near impossible!  But then, I love a challenge. Why is training…

If your church is like mine, you may still be running Standard Definition cameras, as well as projecting and streaming in SD. Mind you, I am not complaining. When the SD cameras were purchased many years ago the church bought very high quality cameras. We have CCUs, therefore ability to…

When I talk to tech-artist friends about 4K video for church productions I sometimes get one of the following responses: [Me] “So what do you think about 4K?”[Church Tech Friend #1] {No verbal response. Eyes roll upwards and backwards into the head} [Me] “Do you see yourself ever upgrading your…

Have you heard about the proliferation of contraband cellphones in prison?  One inmate mused the reason prisoners smuggle phones has more to do with penal institutions price gouging inmates and their families and limiting their time on the phone to short durations than it does prisoners running organized crime rackets…

Ever need to figure out how many gigabytes of storage your video recording will take at a certain resolution, frame rate or codec?  Ever need to compute how many hours of footage you can fit on a certain drive size? This week’s “Things I Like” is Aja’s DataCalc, an iOS…

A few years ago a TV show invited me to come by their set and take a look at their video projection system.  The producers complained that the projector looked dingy and they feared they would need to spend $10,000 to $100,000 to solve the problem, replacing the whole projector,…

Things I Like: Nearly every day I use pCAM, a iOS app developed by Hollywood 1st AC David Eubanks.  I started using pCAM way back in 1998 on the Palm Pilot platform.  Eventually I traded in my flip-phone for an Android but would carry around a iPod Touch around just so I could…

Or… “Things you need to know before buying your first camera.” I’ve heard it said that some churches purchase three PA systems before they get the right one for their needs and space. The way the story goes… the first PA system is purchased when a congregation builds a new…

Humheads (sound/audio engineers), Sparkies (electrics), Rug Tuggers (convention expo workers), Vidiots (video engineers), Nail Benders (carpenters), Laundry Lepers (wardrobe department), Squints (lighting) … One thing is for sure, people in the technical arts trade have always found endearing terms to describe their colleagues. The terms are meant to poke fun at our associates with, well, a wee…