Trials of alternative display formats for the Sunday Livestream Services.
We will over the coming couple of months be running a number of trials with the Livestream Services, which will impact on the livestream video (and later playback of the livestream) as follows:-
- During the singing of hymns, we may use a “SuperSource” image, which will show (against a static background) two image rectangles – a bit like some News Channels on your TV, one showing the hymn words, and the other showing an internal view of the Church, often the Choir or Praise Band (when present). We believe that this will help viewer engagement with both the hymn singing and the conduct of the service.
Previously, we have only shown the hymn words, which we feel hinders viewer engagement with the actual service.
The impact of this change however is that the words will be smaller on the screen, and for those viewing on a small screen may become illegible. For those, however, viewing on a 42” plus sized screen the loss of legibility should be minimal.
NOTE: the Congregation in the Sanctuary will continue to see full size text. - At certain points within the service, we will be adding “captions” to video images; for example, we will add the name of the Bible Reader to the video of the reader undertaking the reading. This will be shown on both the livestream output and the Sanctuary output. The caption text will be in white against whatever the video image background is – and may therefore not be very legible particularly for viewers with sight impairment. However, the added information will not detract from the underlying video image.
- We will be experimenting with a different colour scheme for hymn words. This has been a scheme of black text on a yellow background, and provides good contrast for those viewers with some eyesight degeneration – not unusual in older age. However, some other colour schemes – in particular, white text on a blue background – also provide good contrast and legibility for those with some visual impairment, but also provide opportunities to make use of the new video mixing features available to us to do text overlays onto live video (as opposed to static) background images. Again, the screens within the Sanctuary will show only the hymn text when this is being done.
We believe that use of these changes will enhance the experience for those watching the livestream services, making the overall presentation of our livestreams more professional & modern – while having minimal impact on the attending Congregation.
We welcome your feedback!
We will not make any permanent changes until we have evaluated your feedback. Please do come back to us with your comments after each service – email Ian.Earnshaw@BishoptonKirk.org.uk or Text to Ian on 07785 907501. Obviously, we welcome all comments, either positive or negative. We can see how many “views” each service gets so will use that as a baseline.
Ian M Earnshaw
Property Convenor / AV Team Leader
