Setup

• Rolling table carrying 2 laptops, sound board and all the rest of the cables, earphone, etc.
• Tripod and video camera

Connections

• Connect power strip.
• Connect power transformer to camera.
• Connect sound system: long cord from sound system channel 1 to upper left of sound board. (see the diagram of the sound board below)
• Connect sound board to MSI laptop: square USB outlet on top of sound board, to USB port on laptop.
• Connect headphones to sound board: 'Phones' outlet is in upper right of sound board. (see the diagram of the sound board)
• The two square black buttons on the lower right should both be in their 'up' position. Volume from the board is controlled by the knob at the bottom, under the connection from the sound system.
• Connect camera to laptop: HDMI port to USB of laptop. Camera 'on' is slider button on top edge of camera. Camera needs no memory card.

The wiring looks like this:

MSI Laptop Setup

• Power on. Its best to have sound and camera on first.
• Login (to account twincities@ucg.org) with [actual login in paper form]
• Open the Audacity sound capture application.
    It's sound source needs to be the USB port.
     Next to the lower mic. icon; select the source: 2-USB Audio CoDEC.
     And its slider button should be slid toward the right.
  Open 3 Audacity windows: 1 for hymns and announcements, 1 for recording the sermonette, and 1 for recording the sermon.
  
• Open the OBS video application.
     Move the slider by the mic. icon up toward the top. The graph should move with sound input from the sound system.
    The sound source should be 2-USB Audio CoDEC.
      If it is not: click on Mic/Aux -> (3 dots) -> Properties -> Device -> Microphone (2-USB Audio CoDEC).
  OBS should be showing the picture from the camera.
    The video source should be ATA U-TAP Video
      If it is not: click on Video Capture Device -> (3 dots) -> Properties -> Device -> ATA U-TAP Video.
  Check the Videos/ folder for disk space (for the OBS recording)

The sound board

The sound mixer

The above numbers are variable, depending on the sound system.

Gigabyte Laptop Setup

• Login with [ show actual in paper form ]
• Start the X-Air application. This is a wireless control of the sound system.
  The sliders here can control the volume from the lecturn as well as the ensemble, and general audience. Use the sliders as needed. See the diagram of the sound mixer (above) for the usual settings.
  But do NOT use the mute buttons.
• In the Main LR select Web

Operation During the Service

• Before service:
  Turn on the OBS webcast well before services if possible, and pan the room. The folks at home enjoy seeing who is there!

  Do a sound check well before the service begins to ensure that both Audacity and OBS have sound. Both will have wave forms that should be moving, And volume bars moving in the green range.

  Special music today? Check whether it is in the public domain!

• Hymns and prayers:
  You can, if you wish, adjust the sound for the hymns. Turn the lecturn mic down and the audience mic. up. It may not be necessary, but viewers should hear the congregation and not a solo by the song leader. (see the sound board and sound mixer diagrams above)
  You will have to reverse this and turn up the lecturn mic. for announcements and messages.

• Sermonette: Start the Audacity recording. Start the OBS recording. (better to be early than late - excess can be edited off later)
  Monitor sound volume of the OBS webcast with the OBS bar graph. The Audacity bar graph of sound level should bounce between -24 and -18 during normal speaking.
  Do not trust the headphones alone as they are on a separate volume control. They are for monitoring sound quality, not volume.
  It is a worthwhile precaution to open a browser window, and log into the webcast. Pause it until later. The sound should be muted so that it does not disturb the service. The headphones can be plugged into the laptop to listen to the webcast from the browser.
  The headphones cord has a big end and a small end, and the headphones have a socket for either end. So they can be connected to either the sound board or the laptop.
  Stop the Audacity recordings at the end of the sermonette.

• Announcements and special music:
  You can let the OBS video recording continue to run during the whole service. That recording can be broken into separate videos during post-production.
  Do no audio recording of announcements and special music. If there is special music don't forget to turn the camera toward the performer(s). You might have to mute special music if it is not in the public domain.
  You can monitor Audacity sound volume with the extra (third) Audacity window.
  Announcement time is a good time to pan the congregation to show everyone at home who is in the room. This adds some interest for the viewers.

• Sermon: Start the Audacity recording. The OBS recording is still on.
  Well into the sermon go back to the browser window and check the webcast for the number of viewers. That number will be needed by the attendance taker.
  Stop both recordings at the end of the sermon. Stopping the OBS recording will finish a dated .mkv file in Videos/.

After services:

• Let the webcast continue. Just zoom out so the folks at home can see more of the congregation and members can come up close and wave hello. Rotate the camera's view window forward so people can see that they are on camera. Turn up the volume of the multidirectional mic. (See the diagram of the sound board.)
• The attendance taker will probably ask for the viewer count.
• Be careful not to exit Audacity until the recordings have been saved.
  With each of the 2 Audacity message windows, save the recording to a file (with the file->save menu):
     for example, 2023-04-22-sermonette-joe-doe or 2023-04-22-sermon-joe-doe.
  Then export (with the file->export menu) each Audacity file to mp3 form. (the export will write the mp3 to the Google drive)
  Now all the Audacity windows can be closed.
• OBS will have created a dated file under Videos/.
  Copy this to Tony's hard drive, or to your own thumb drive if you are going to take that video file home to do post-production on it.
  (find Videos/ and the F: drive or external disk using the MyComputer icon on the desktop. Drag and drop.)
  Before unplugging the external drive 'eject' it:
    at bottom right of desktop 'V' icon -> boxlike icon -> eject
• Shut down, pack up (disconnecting as little as possible) and put it all away.