Before Playlister: The Old Ways of Presenting Curriculum
DVDs = time consuming work 👎
NewSpring originally relied on DVDs to present Kids Ministry curriculum. As time went on, DVDs became less sustainable since DVD players went the way of the dodo bird towards extinction. Not to mention there were staff members who dedicated massive amounts of clock time for just burning and distributing DVDs.
Chromebox = Pain for volunteers 😬
After shifting away from DVDs, Will and his team began chromecasting a Google slides curriculum presentation in the rooms.
This is where they began to encounter a learning curve for volunteers using the computer to present.
“We actually put Chromeboxes and wireless keyboards with touch pads in our nursery rooms. So now to change slides, we required someone in the room to know how to do that. So let’s say the volunteer wants to change what we're doing. We want to skip around to different slides. So in slides, you gotta mouse over to the bottom, find the right image, and then click to skip to it. This isn't easy for our volunteers.”
ProPresenter = volunteer stress and IT support ❌
The last thing before testing out Playlister, Will moved ProPresenter, the worship software, into his Kids Ministry spaces. This seemed like a good idea at first, but Will and his team soon discovered two big downsides.
Issue 1: ProPresenter was challenging for volunteers
“If you look at Renewed Vision's website all of their photos of the happy people using ProPresenter, where are they? They're in a pro video environment, right? They're in your AControl, they're in the Virtual Center. They're not in your kid's space. They're not in your classroom. They're not where your, not techie AV person is.”
ProPresenter works great for Worship in your auditorium. It was built for that, to be used by a highly tech-savvy person.
ProPresenter was not made to present Kids Ministry videos and be operated by people with no interest in AV Production.
Issue 2: Computers are expensive
“We also have some cost savings upfront. Yes, that [$1,600] Mac is more expensive than the base because who buys the 8gig model? Nobody. So you're almost 10x right there [compared to a $150 Apple TV] on day one, just for your hardware cost. I can put 10 of these [Apple TVs] out for one iMac.”
Playlister: NewSpring’s NewWay Forward
Aside from the cost savings, there were a few other big wins NewSpring saw as they partnered with Playlister.
“These two guys, one of them has a remote. So now they're both interacting in person, instead of having one person in the back clicking on the computer. They're both up there having fun, teaching kids about Jesus on their level. And they're controlling it as they go, they don't have to worry about someone in a booth going on.”
By equipping classroom leaders with a remote that is easier to use, any volunteer will be more comfortable presenting. As Will mentioned above, this also lets them focus more on teaching kids about Jesus on their level.
NewSpring was also able to utilize Playlister in more areas than just Kids Ministry Here is a look at how Playlister is used for volunteer training classes:
“Another great thing, it's not just for Kid Min. We push this to our membership experiences. So our membership hosts, or facilitators, they call them, we don't have to have another person to run the presentation, it's a playlist.
Here’s Jen back at our Clemson campus. You can barely see her but there's an Apple TV above her hand. And she's talking about how to be a member at our church. She's not worrying about someone keeping up with her in the back on an AV setup.”
Interested in learning more about using Apple TVs in your Kids Ministry? Check out our article that outlines all the benefits that Will mentions in his CITN breakout session above.
Defeat the Church Technology Monster at your Church
The DVDs, slides, and ProPresenter turned into the Church Technology Monster at NewSpring Church. Will and his Tech and Kid Min teams were able to finally defeat the Church Technology Monster by moving to Playlister. Below is Will's full slide presentation.
Ready to overcome the Church Technology Monster at your Church? You can try Playlister for free today- just click here to create your free account :-)
Want to see Playlister in action first? Click here and we’ll answer all your questions on a 15 minute Zoom call.