Splinters from the Board

Last spring our congregation raised just over $5000 to purchase updated technology for our sanctuary. We've finished making our purchases, and this is what we've bought to update things:

• $27 wireless mouse for laptop
  
• $200 Shure SM 58 microphone, cable, and stand
• $300 Avantree 4 hearing assistance headphone sets
• $700 Vmix audio and video streaming software
  
• $900  2 video camera wall mounted
• $1400 86-inch flatscreen TV display screen and wall mounting unit
  
• $1540  ASUS TUF Dash F15 Gaming Laptop
  

All of this totals $5067. 

Jeff May has set up the laptop with the streaming software and has been using it since early in the fall.  The two video cameras are mounted on the walls of the sanctuary so you may have noticed that Jeff no longer sets up tripods in the sanctuary on Sundays.  We have been using the Shure SM 58, cable and stand both on Sunday mornings and at the coffeehouses since October. You may have noticed the new, very large screen is now up over the closet in the sanctuary.  We have had a little difficulty figuring out the best way to connect the listening assistance devices, but Jeff thinks he's finally figured it out, and they should be available soon.

Our next step in this update is to have an electrician run a wire to where the new TV screen is mounted, and then we will rotate the setup in the sanctuary so that the congregational seating faces the closet doors under the big screen. The pulpit and chalice will be placed there, facing the windows.  We will see how this works for the remainder of the year and evaluate in the spring at a congregational conversation and/or the annual meeting.

Thank you, once again, for your generosity to the Faithify campaign that enabled us to make these upgrades.