NewSpring Web Service 2.0

Posted by will | Filed under Behind The Scenes, Locations, Technology, Tips, Web Campus

Since I wrote this post we have been through some major transitions with the way we do NewSpring’s service’s online. We are still refining the way that we use the internet as a ministry tool. This has all the meat the previous post did, plus the changes that we have made.

This post is for you fellow geeks out there that regularly speak in acronyms like DSK & H.264. We still encode the 9:15 service, but instead of switching Nick in live on the fly, we now pre-produce his three pieces- ‘Before’, ‘Welcome’ and ‘End’.  Preproduction is possible due to the addition of a Sony DSR-DR1000A DDR and an iMac into the loop.  This DDR allows us to start capturing the service when it starts, but delay when we start playing it back.  We go with a standard 5 minute delay in order to allow us to trim down the Anderson auditorium welcome to whatever length Nick’s prerecorded welcome is.

If the concept of time-shifting is new, here is a break down of what we are doing:

  • • We start capturing to the DDR at 9:13AM, the actual service begins at 9:15AM
  • • At 9:20AM we switch over to the playback function of the DDR (while it continues to capture the service)
  • • We jump ahead to the very beginning of the service right as the counter winds out and stop the DDR
  • • We now begin the Flash Media Encoding
  • • I start playing the ‘Before’ clip of Nick from the iMac
  • • As the ‘Before’ clip ends I hit play on the DDR to start the service playing back from the beginning
  • • When it comes time for the Anderson auditorium welcome, I hit play on the ‘Welcome’ video from the iMac and switch to it
  • • During the prerecorded ‘Welcome’ video we jog forward on the DDR to the end of the Anderson auditorium welcome and cue it up
  • • When the ‘Welcome’ video is done, I hit play on the DDR and switch back to it
  • • At the end of the service I switch from the DDR to iMac and Play Nick’s ‘End’ piece

If you are still trying to grasp the whole time-shift concept- think of the DDR as a Gatorade water cooler, the IMAG feed from the auditorium as a garden hose.  You turn on the hose and water starts filling up the cooler. Once you have some water in the cooler, you can push the button on the spout and let out water, as long as you have enough water already in that you don’t drain it empty. If you fill up the cooler with 5 gallons of water, but want to fill 10 one gallon jugs you will run out. This is the same as trying to cut out 10 minutes of the service if you only delayed your playback by 5 minutes.

The following is a simplified version of how we make things happen. Download the wiring schematic here (PDF) for more details along with a complete gear list here (PDF).

We are taking an SDI program feed out of A-Control along with 2 analog audio lines that are split going to the MacPro for capture, the Sony DSR-DR1000A and one of the Marshall V-R72P-2SD monitors for an E-E reference. The other Marshall V-R72P-2SD is used as an output reference coming out of the Sony DSR-DR1000A.

I usually shoot Nick the week of, or sometimes the week before using a Panasonic HPX170 camera and Sennheiser ew100 wireless kit. I then edit the 3 videos in Final Cut and load them into ProPresenter on the iMac.  The iMac runs through a Matrox MXO to the Panasonic MX70 switcher, coming in SDI with embedded audio.

The MX70 switcher SDI & XLR outputs are then split in order to feed both PCs running Flash Media Encoder (FME). FME enocdes the video on the fly to an .flv, meaning as soon as the service is done we have the file to upload to Lightcast. See the screenshot here for the FME settings. We then cue up the video to playback at 11:15AM, 2:00PM and 6:00PM using Lightcast’s simulated live option.

In addition to the encode for the Web Campus, I also capture each service to a Mac Pro using Final Cut Pro.  The service is edited and transcoded on Monday using Episode Engine for our various outputs:

If you have questions hit me up on Twitter or shoot me an email will.rodes|-at-|newspring|dot|cc.

Read more | Comments | August 11th, 2009

Final Cut Tips 002- Batch Exporting

Posted by will | Filed under Final Cut Tips, Tips

When you have multiple timelines to export from Final Cut you can use the Batch Export command to cue up all of your sequences.

  1. In the Final Cut ‘Browser’ window for the project select all of the sequences that have the same output destination or encoding settings
  2. Right Click on the selected sequences and choose ‘Batch Export’
  3. A new ‘Export Queue’ will pop up with the sequences in the ‘Batch 1′ folder
  4. Click on the ‘Batch 1′ folder and then click ‘Settings’ at the bottom of the window
  5. Enter ‘Destination’, ‘Format’ and settings. Then click OK.
  6. If you have other sequences that require a different destination or encoding settings return to your ‘Browser’ window and select those sequences
  7. Right Click on the selected sequences and choose ‘Batch Export’
  8. Click on the ‘Batch 2′ folder and then click ‘Settings’ at the bottom of the window
  9. Repeat as necessary for all output destinations and encoding settings

Read more | Comments | April 2nd, 2009

Final Cut Tips 001- Leveraging Time Code

Posted by will | Filed under Final Cut Tips, Tips

This will be the first of a series of short posts on ways to leverage Final Cut Pro in order to increase your productivity. This tips will probably not be earth shattering for you experts, but may show you a new trick for your bag. If you have a tip that you would like for me to share send me an email will

One of the things I do every Monday morning is cut 5-7 short clips from Sunday’s sermon. Which clips I cut usually comes from Nick sitting in our 9:15 service and writing down the actual time that they occur in the service. He gives me a list of the clips with the topic for each and a general time range i.e.:
“1. Definition of fasting .. when you fast not if … 9:50-9:53″

If I was just doing one clip then I can take my captured clip, open it in my viewer window and set my in point at the beginning of the service which would correspond with 9:15AM and then scroll forward 35 minutes to find the approximate start of the clip.

When you are doing multiple clips having to mentally do the math over and over takes an additional few seconds for each one. Rather than have to break your focus and creativity and do basic arithmetic for each clip:

Open the captured clip in the viewer window

  1. Open the captured clip in the viewer window
  2. Set in point to beginning of service
  3. Create a new sequence
  4. Drop the clip onto the timeline
  5. Click on the timeline, Cmd+0
  6. Click the timeline options tab and set the starting timecode to 9:15:00;00 and hit OK
  7. Now your timecode matches your real life time- no more recalculating

Read more | Comments | March 27th, 2009

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