Well, miracles do happen! This week's Deacons' Meeting saw someone suggesting that the church bought its own laptop (maybe a data projector and some decent speakers will follow...). If what I know about computers would fit on the back of an envelope, well most of my deacs could fit their knowledge in the back of the stamp, and most of my congregation don't even own a computer. Bless 'em they said "you can get a laptop for about £300" but when I asked what software it included, and if it would meet our needs they looked blank. I know a lot of churches use 'open source' software which is broadly Microsoft compatible (most of my folk who do have computers have work provided laptops with Office, so we need Office or something that will work with files generated by it) but I am ignorant of this area. Also processor speed - one deacon said "you need a fast processor for DVDs" but they work fine on my cranky old steam-driven PC and the various laptops I've borrowed (none this year's model) - so any guidelines? Finally speakers - I just bought myself some shiny new speakers which at 16W rms with a little sub-woofer are a vast improvement on the 1W to 4W rms things that come as standard with desktop machines (apologies to non-physicists for whom this is a bit techy! And to the purists, for whom 'rms power' is not a real term, rms current/voltage, OK) which I will be using tomorrow - but has anyone any advice on speakers to use in a hall (plugging into the PA is not an option due to layouts).
Thanks, O Wise Ones
Comments
Laptops - the cheaper ones tend to come with Microsoft Works which has compatability problems, but ComputerActive says that Open Office, which is one of the most common open source programmes is compatible with Microsoft Office.
i'll have a look see if it has a powerpoint equivalent
i'd go for the £300 laptop. it's probably as useful as something that cost twice that 2 years ago
P
www.openoffice.org
the powerpoint compatible thingy is called "impress". if it does what it says on the tin, it might even be better that microsoft
i'm sure i've got a couple of big mission 707 speakers and an amp from the days when i was i hi fi purist and midi system was a rude word, if you're passing and they could be of use (and can figure out how to plug the amp into whatever you're using)
P
Hi
I know little about lap tops - but if you do get one then some good free song presentation software is called zionworks.
http://www.zionworx.org.uk/index.htm
Whilst it you have to type your songs on to it once on you can then easily pick the songs for a service or even change them mid service.
Good luck choosing the lap top.
Richard
-btw contact me if you do get zionworx
I suspect you could get well sorted for about £400-500. I'll mail you some suggestions.
I use OpenOffice.Org all the time for everything, apart from the powerpoint equivalent which as yet is not as goot as ppt, though it will be in the future.
now... wheres your e.mail address....
lost your e.mail address.... so I'll just clutter your comments...
go to ebuyer.co..uk
type: 126329 into the product finder...
This PC has: DVD drive (can write them too), Fast processor 2.2Ghz), Shed load of Ram 1GB, reasonable Hard drive 80Gb, Wireless built in, Windows Vista Premium as an Operating System.
Its £370 delivered and more powerful than all the computers I use for Multimedia
You will need some software my suggestions are:
Office Software.
OpenOffice (£80 just to have Powerpoint isn't worth it. If you don't get on with OO you can always upgrade. If I didn't have Powerpoint I certainly wouldn't buy it.)
Song Projection
Above suggestions looks good. We use Words of Worship which is about £100, but if we were setting up again we would probably go for Open Song.
Anti Virus
AVG (free, or very low cost)
E.mail and Web
Thunderbird and Firefox form Mozilla
On a whole other subject it is worth considering ditching Microsoft Windows all together and going for Ubuntu which is a linux version. It is excellent, and any software you need is readily available.
Just one question though.... Whats the point of the laptop without a projector?
Email address -you need a BUGB handbook (I'm not about to post it!)
Projector - I own one which church uses at the moment; they need to be reminded fairly regularly that it's 'Catriona's' not 'ours' but now that they see projecting as normal maybe we can push that along a bit...
Software/Hardware - thanks this is very helpful. Of course, not my decision in the final analysis, but I'll try to feed it in to the 'bee-ers that pow'
Oh yes... now why didn't I think of that, its not so noticeable now it's not in luminous orange!
Hope it all goes well with choosing. we all love a new toy. (I do anyway).
G