"Enjoy" barely describes it! No matter what I do, surprises happen, resulting in visible glitches. A lot of this is out of my control, and some of it is hard to explain. There were several glitches this morning. My basic answer to it is to laugh, enjoy it, and move on. If I can learn from it and avoid it in the future, I do that too.
During one hymn, an extra lyric slide turned up that didn't belong. I don't know what happened. Maybe we didn't rehearse that hymn? I thought we ran through everything. I spotted it a fraction of a second after it displayed, verify that the words I was hearing were from the following slide, and advanced to that. The problem is, if I react too quickly without confirming carefully what I am seeing, I can end up floundering. I REALLY don't want that, so I take a little longer to confirm before correcting. The incorrect slide stays up slightly longer, but the distraction potential is much smaller.
As I mentioned, some things happen that I can learn from and prevent. When I arrive, I now scan the slide groups where videos are routinely inserted, with my nose to the screen to read the small fonts used for file names, after having been caught by surprise more than once when nobody told us (me and sound) that they were there. Video slides are not always obvious.
There were no videos today, but I was caught by a disabled blank slide that looked like a visible blank slide. Disabled slides normally are skipped automatically, while visible blanks normally are used for interludes and are not skipped (they're not really blank -- they inherit the background image from a previous slide). So when I advanced to this one, it skipped ahead to the next lyric slide and I had to back up. Ouch. Blanks and disabled blanks can be almost identical, showing nothing but the slide number. The difference? The number, in a small font, is dimmer if the blank is disabled. I probably saw this during run-through, but forgot about it by service time. There's a ton of details to remember. I'm going to start adding the word "DISABLED" to the content of disabled blanks.
When I watch livestreams or recordings with caption slides online I see every mistake imaginable -- if the operator is not well trained or had no opportunity to rehearse. (Likewise, attending some of my own church's events.) When I started I had some prior experience, received very good training, and was able to solo within a few weeks, but it took more like six months for it to really sink in. There is a LOT to learn. Being able to enjoy what I am doing, unavoidable glitches and all, has taken more like 14 months. It's been a valuable lesson.
Waking up this morning, I realized that I should just delete the silly disabled blanks. It's not like they are hard to put back if somebody needs them later! For more complex disabled sequences that are not blank -- usually whole verses -- the software (ProPresenter 7) has an "arrangements" feature that I can use to hide them without deleting. I know to check it to see if the arrangement I need is already there, but I haven't had enough practice with it to create a new version on the fly, so I'll need to make a copy of the library and bring it home to practice with. The learning goes on.
Sounds like you have a very active role in your services at your church and you are enjoying it! Good on you!
"Enjoy" barely describes it! No matter what I do, surprises happen, resulting in visible glitches. A lot of this is out of my control, and some of it is hard to explain. There were several glitches this morning. My basic answer to it is to laugh, enjoy it, and move on. If I can learn from it and avoid it in the future, I do that too.
During one hymn, an extra lyric slide turned up that didn't belong. I don't know what happened. Maybe we didn't rehearse that hymn? I thought we ran through everything. I spotted it a fraction of a second after it displayed, verify that the words I was hearing were from the following slide, and advanced to that. The problem is, if I react too quickly without confirming carefully what I am seeing, I can end up floundering. I REALLY don't want that, so I take a little longer to confirm before correcting. The incorrect slide stays up slightly longer, but the distraction potential is much smaller.
As I mentioned, some things happen that I can learn from and prevent. When I arrive, I now scan the slide groups where videos are routinely inserted, with my nose to the screen to read the small fonts used for file names, after having been caught by surprise more than once when nobody told us (me and sound) that they were there. Video slides are not always obvious.
There were no videos today, but I was caught by a disabled blank slide that looked like a visible blank slide. Disabled slides normally are skipped automatically, while visible blanks normally are used for interludes and are not skipped (they're not really blank -- they inherit the background image from a previous slide). So when I advanced to this one, it skipped ahead to the next lyric slide and I had to back up. Ouch. Blanks and disabled blanks can be almost identical, showing nothing but the slide number. The difference? The number, in a small font, is dimmer if the blank is disabled. I probably saw this during run-through, but forgot about it by service time. There's a ton of details to remember. I'm going to start adding the word "DISABLED" to the content of disabled blanks.
When I watch livestreams or recordings with caption slides online I see every mistake imaginable -- if the operator is not well trained or had no opportunity to rehearse. (Likewise, attending some of my own church's events.) When I started I had some prior experience, received very good training, and was able to solo within a few weeks, but it took more like six months for it to really sink in. There is a LOT to learn. Being able to enjoy what I am doing, unavoidable glitches and all, has taken more like 14 months. It's been a valuable lesson.
Waking up this morning, I realized that I should just delete the silly disabled blanks. It's not like they are hard to put back if somebody needs them later! For more complex disabled sequences that are not blank -- usually whole verses -- the software (ProPresenter 7) has an "arrangements" feature that I can use to hide them without deleting. I know to check it to see if the arrangement I need is already there, but I haven't had enough practice with it to create a new version on the fly, so I'll need to make a copy of the library and bring it home to practice with. The learning goes on.