Where do you serve?
What is your position there?
I’m the Service Programming and Logistics Manager. I’ve been on staff for Connexus for 5 years.
How did you get involved in church media?
Interesting story here, I started as a volunteer as the lead audio engineer at our production site (we have two campuses, a production campus and a satellite campus). Eventually, when the position became open the leadership tapped me on the shoulder and I applied. At the time (and arguably to this day) I was grossly under qualified for the position. I taught myself the video, lighting, media/design and production side of the role. Over the last couple years, we’ve built a great team to help execute all of those things with excellence.
How big is your media team?
We have a volunteer media production team (who work at varying schedules mid week to produce the various types of content of our church) of seven. Our production campus has a production team of twelve, and our satellite campus has a production team of six.
What does your setup look like?
Our video system is currently built around a BMD ATEM 2ME switcher. We run two Sony EX3 cameras, and one keyed ProPresenter feed into the switcher. The program feed from this system goes to a single projector, which projects above the stage, as well as a confidence monitor. We also have a second computer running ProPresenter which powers an on-stage display for our teaching slides during teaching and motion backgrounds during worship. All signal is HD-SDI.
We are a multi-site church that meets in movie theaters in two cities – so all of our gear is portable. We do IMAG at the production site, which allows us to capture and export service elements to our satellite location. Typically, the only “video” element used regularly at our satellite location is the message, which we export on a 1 week delay from the production site.
What is something new your team has implemented that has helped your production?
Utilizing the on stage teaching screen is something that is new for us. We’ve found it to tremendously improve the audience experience and improve the delivery of the message vs on-screen lower thirds. It has certainly an added layer of complexity setup wise in a portable environment, but the pay off has been more than worth while. Additionally, during worship/singing, the screen is large enough to to make motion backgrounds behind the worship leader look amazing on IMAG, adding a lot of visual “pop” to the IMAG feed during that segment of the service. Ironically, this was an afterthought simply because there is no back stage backstage to roll the TV into during non-message service elements.
What is one piece of advice you would like to share with the CMG community?
Prepare, prepare, prepare. Help your lead pastor see the value in getting ahead on message (slide) preparation, series development and programming. Being ahead really does impact the guest experience for the better in nearly every way. Last minute Sunday adds are simply not an option for us, and usually every slide/service element for a service is 100% nailed down by the Tuesday prior to a Sunday. Having this margin allows you to better think through service elements, be intentional with all of your visuals and lighting, and better set up your volunteer teams to win on Sundays.
How has the CMG Monthly Pack impacted your ministry?
Man, it’s hard to argue with new, high quality, low cost, visually excellent and cohesive screen visuals in your inbox each month. Let alone the time saved from producing them, we don’t even need to spend time looking for visuals any more. Every month, we cycle with CMG’s pack, making sure we always have a fresh consistent look between our two campuses – all for an affordable price. One of the best investments we’ve made as a department.
How can people find you online?
I’m on Instagram @JustinPiercy and Twitter @JustinPiercy.
