Decisions, decisions: Projection software

I had the privilege of attending the National Worship Leader Conference in Kansas City last month, and it was a great time. One of the things I enjoyed was chatting with other worship leaders and media people and learning how they do things, especially since I wear both the worship leader and media guy hats at my church. I also enjoyed talking to the company representatives for MediaShout and EasyWorship. MediaShout has rolled out version 4, and EasyWorship is about to roll out their 2009 version, so it was cool to see where these products are going, and especially EasyWorship, because that's what we currently use in our church.

As I think I've mentioned before, I'm really not a huge fan of EasyWorship--it's the application I inherited when I assumed leadership in media at my church, and frankly, EasyWorship's licensing is a better deal than any of the other projection applications I've seen so far. As it turns out, MediaShout, a major sponsor of the conference, was used in the main worship sessions at the conference facility, so I got a good look at how MediaShout works throughout the week of the conference--in fact, I sat behind the MediaShout operator during many of the main sessions, so I got to look over the shoulder of the operators during the worship sessions.

Both MediaShout and EasyWorship provide downloadable demos, so you can try before you buy, which is cool. There are differences in the licensing and costs--when you buy EasyWorship (list price, $399), you get a site license, which means you can install it on as many machines as you like, and use it simultaneously on all of them. I had a hard time finding licensing information for MediaShout on their Web site, but it appears that you can buy a single license for $429, and add additional licenses for more money.

Frankly, we ended up with EasyWorship not because it is necessarily a superior product, but because the licensing is more flexible, and thus it made for a cheaper overall solution.

But I'm a Mac guy, and although it will be a while before our church can afford shiny new Mac hardware for the sanctuary, I'm interested in finding a good Mac solution, for several reasons:

1. I'm more comfortable with the MacOS than with Windows
2. In my experience, the MacOS is a more stable platform than Windows
3. My Windows machines are constantly having issues with viruses and other types of spyware and malware
4. I believe that it's easier to train people on the MacOS

(Another issue I deal with is that I produce video content with my Mac, and EasyWorship requires an additional codec to play it. A native MacOS projection app would presumably have no trouble playing QuickTime movies. And I'm not likely to switch to the Windows platform for my video production needs.)

I'm not trying to get into a Mac vs. Windows religious debate--these are just my opinions. Anyway, in my conversations with another worship leader at the conference, I learned a little bit about ProPresenter for the Mac, and when I got home, I downloaded the free demo version, and I'm pretty impressed with it--except for the licensing. ProPresenter costs $399 for a single license--you can install it on as many machines as you like, but you can only use it on one machine at a time. This is handy--I can have a copy on my laptop, for creating worship materials, and a copy on the sanctuary Mac (or I could, if I had a Mac for the sanctuary). But at our church, there are three different venues where projection software is used simultaneously, so I'd have to buy the site license ($799)--not to mention at least three more Macs.

Financial realities being what they are, this probably isn't going to happen any time soon, and I'm not sure it is wise to require my volunteer projection operators to learn two different systems, so this is all really just speculation at this point. But it's stuff I have to think about, because I want to keep moving forward with our media projection stuff.

I really like ProPresenter so far, but to be fair, I need to point out that both MediaShout and EasyWorship are planning MacOS releases--MediaShout's Mac version is coming fairly soon, I am told, and EasyWorship's Mac version is slated for a 2010 release. I have to admit that if EasyWorship's Mac version is released with the same licensing as their Windows version, it will be difficult not to at least consider moving in that direction. There would presumably be enough similarities between the Windows and Mac versions that I wouldn't have the same training challenges I might otherwise have. But do I want to wait another year before making the switch?

Ah, decisions, decisions... If you have any advice for me, I'd love to hear it.