Spun up a trial, Currently got ProPres 6 but it has slow performance and routinely crashes across multiple high spec Mac and PC systems, it feels like their software is just getting worse, so now shopping for options.
Looks very good in principle but run into issues with
It has lots of tendrils to upsell you in the app with notifications, the groups/community thing, it feels like I can’t just buy presentation software from them without a mass of other things.
We’re based in the UK where GDPR reins supreme, no idea how much this app harvests/collects but given their Support could see into our PCO account, bit worrying.
Immediate email digest spam for any user
Importing PCO plans is fairly slow when compared to other tools.
No video edit capabilities when compared with ProPres 6, All I seem to be able to do is drop in a video and hit play.
Limited settings, can’t choose install location, can’t choose cache location, a lot seems to be missing.
If there are alternative ideas for Presentation software that would be appreciated as well, We’re doing 1080p content with backgrounds, song words and that’s it.
We have used EasyWorship from the earliest days and we have found it to meet our needs whilst remaining stable. Version 6 (we currently haven’t upgraded to version 7) allows us to do what we need and it works seamlessly with SongSelect to enable us to import lyrics of new songs into the library with all the copyright info already added.
We did look at ProPresenter and Proclaim but decided to stick with EW as it is stable, affordable and does what we need.
Yep, a couple churches I work with use Proclaim. It has killer features if your pastors are adept at Logos and use it consistently in sermon/teaching prep, it also integrates with the Faithlife apps on mobile devices if you have a lot of members using them, which can make for some neat interaction via polls, prompting users with links to the next verse, etc. Pastors also become more inclined to slap in media from their resource libraries (like photos or illustrations). Pastors can run it pretty easily from a podium with a handphone as well because they can readily see and jump to a slide if they want to. Otherwise the other main feature is that it’s a collaborative approach so people in charge hop in and add their own stuff (pastors add their own stuff, worship leader adds their own stuff, office staff add the announcements, etc.). I probably wouldn’t bother with it if your pastors aren’t currently or won’t in the near future become heavy Logos users.
People have mentioned Easy Worship, I personally don’t like it because for me it has over the years caused headaches at several points when Windows updates were incompatible with the software. I actually keep spare presentation computers which are on delays to get updates at sites that use Easy Worship just in case. In the past there were versions that were finicky about dependencies and you needed to hunt support forums to find out what you were missing to make everything work and it could feel a bit like the old RPM dependency dance in early versions of RedHat (albeit much tamer). I’d trial it though, along with Mediashout and whatnot, see what might work.
We use Proclaim, and as stated above, if you have pastoral staff or a church that uses Logos Bible Software, it can be really great. As far as compared with other software packages, I’ve found that everything is basic and easy, which is a plus for volunteers. There’s not a lot of training necessary.
I do agree that the upselling and notification in the app are obnoxious, but they in no way inhibit the software.
If you have staff dedicated to presentation or a/v, it might be better to go with something a little more robust. The biggest draw at the small church I support is volunteers can modify and create the slides from home whenever they want because Proclaim is cloud based. On the other hand, at the larger church I support, we use ProPresenter because it has way more features and there is dedicated on site staff who work on the presentations.
So an update on this. We had a large banner appear in the middle of the app during service, that was the straw which sent it to the bin. It was advertising “The best font for worship” which was some branded version of Open Sans.
Staying with ProPresenter, sadly can’t find anything else that matches it for video control, PCO sync and other items.
In terms of dependencies etc version 6 (and I presume v7 is the same) we have had no issues. We use to have them all the time with earlier versions and had to update codecs etc on a very regular basis. Currently on Win 7 Pro pc and so get nagged to update to Win 10 which we will very soon. It now runs seamlessly with no issues, runs video smoothly (even full-screen from YouTube) and the integration with SongSelect is a real bonus. Also, no adverts or upselling is a relief. I would definitely recommend downloading the trial and check out the tutorials.
Probably because of the older OS, my clients are running Windows 10 across the board and it was a dance of dependencies and patches to get it to run properly. I will say that while the staff tend to hate it, the volunteers seem to like it, but I’m not sure how much of that is just resistance to change.
It is tough to run it on Windows 10. May people are using Easy worship but I started unliking it because it is headache for me at several points when windows updates are imcompatible with it. Now, I have started using Mediashout and whatnot lets see what might works better for me.
It is tough to run Wasy Worship on windows 10. Even, after update it get worse. Now I started unliking it because it caused headache to me sometimes when Windows Updates were incompatible with the software. Now I started using Mediashout and Whatnot and Soundcloud Downloader Let’s see what works for me best.