This wknd Christ Fellowship did something different. In lieu of live teaching, all five campuses experienced a pre-recorded video message by Dave Ramsey (@daveramseylive) where he shared some biblical insights on the topic of debt management. Phenomenal teaching. Loved it. Challenged me, and Amy and I will be making some changes in our personal budget in response to his teachings.
Video teaching isn't new. Our multisite campuses get video teaching roughly one week out of three. What was a kicker here was Christ Fellowship Palmetto Bay, the original campus, was getting video teaching for the first time.
All installs were completed a couple weeks ago. DVD player wired into switcher. Upgraded software on imag computer. Audio lines rerun to sound desk. Rewired audio delay box so the video signal would be crisper. We did a complete spring cleaning of the control room in June. Gear is tested and retested. Slight problem getting the final source file, but at the end of the day we're good to go.
Friggin' Toshiba DVD Player.
Here's the deal. As God is my witness we played the source DVD file four times all the way through on this DVD player without the hint of a problem THE DAY OF THE SERVICE. However, in the service the blessed DVD player decides to get stage fright and STOP playing the DVD six minutes into the message.
Just stop. No longer playing. Six minutes in. For no reason whatsoever. In front of 700 people.
Proud of our volunteers. We had a backup in place (digital file that ironically was "less stable") that was playing with a 10 second delay to the primary DVD and the CFPB media volunteers switched to the backup smoothly. No content was missed from the message.
I was told by multiple people there was an audible gasp when the DVD stopped playing. Senior Pastor Rick Blackwood started to walk towards the stage to preach (not realizing we had a backup).
I was told b/c when the DVD stopped playing I was in the ProTools studio (in another building) making sure they were good to go. All I saw was the DVD stop and Toshiba "blue splash screen" of death pop up, and I took of running like a fullback plowing through the line on a 22 lead. Several reported they have never seen me move that fast. One said they had a moment of terror b/c if I was running, something bad must be happening (not sure what to think of that one).
But we had a backup plan in place, and the volunteers executed it w/o my involvement. I love it when a plan comes together. But I hate it when we have to use it.
End of the day, we watched same DVD on multiple DVD players 10 times Saturday w/o failure, except for the time that it mattered. Stupid Toshiba. #FAIL.
Brought a Sony DVD player from my house. Ran smooth for three services on Sunday. No probs. Yeah Sony!
Thank you, Sony, for being an asset of God instead of a tool of Satan. I'll never buy Toshiba again!
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