Amazon Web Services: http://aws.amazon.com/free

The Reconnect Conference: http://thereconnect.ca

FREE tickets to Reconnect Conference: http://go2link.ca/5b

Here we go again! Back from the christmas break with a video walk-through of the hot topic How to setup Wowza on EC2 for church live streaming.

Yes the video is 50+ mins long, but I walk you through all the basic steps of getting up and running with Wowza on EC2 plus a basic stats module add-on.

Some additional Wowza resources.

Ian Beyer’s blog - http://blog.ianbeyer.com/

Wowza Support Center for EC2 - http://www.wowza.com/forums/content.php?203

Amazon EC2 Pricing - http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/

Setup Longtail JWplayer for use with Wowza on EC2 - http://www.longtailvideo.com/support/blog/17376/live-streaming-using-wowza-ec2

Setup EC2 KeyPair and EC2 Command line Tools - http://www.robertsosinski.com/2008/01/26/starting-amazon-ec2-with-mac-os-x/

Tell me your worst technical “woops” that happened in your church and you get a chance to win two free registration to the conference for you and one of your volunteers, and because you’re an early bird registration you also get a chance at winning the iPad too.

How does it work?
Use the comments section below to share your story and on February 12, 2012 I’ll pick the top story.
You’re allowed to change the names of those involved to not humiliate the guilty parties, but I do need your real contact information in order to contact you and submit your registration.
That’s all there is to it.
For more information on the conference go to TheReconnect.ca

Reconnect Streams

These buttons seem to often get bumped and the input changes, resulting in phone calls about blue screen and ultimately, me trying to navigate a user through the main menu over the phone.

To resolve this I decided it was time to disable these buttons.

Now when taking apart your remote remember that there are “no user serviceable parts inside” so they aren’t meant to come apart easily. Usually there is a screw or two holding it all together and some plastic edge clips that you need to “GENTEELLY” pry apart to get your remote disassembled.

The next step is to get some regular electrical tape and mask off the button pads that you want to disable. Be sure to make sure that you cut out holes if the tape is covering any holes through the circuit board as these are often alignment holes that plastic posts must pass through.

Once you have masked off the buttons you want disabled, reassemble the remote control and test the buttons you masked to make sure they no longer work and the buttons surrounding them to make sure they do still work.

That’s it that’s all. Hopefully this will reduce the number of after hours calls I receive.

It’s important to note that these options that I have disabled are still available in the main menu, I have simply disabled the “convenience” buttons that seem to mess people up.

Because of the chaos before Christmas I like to take the week after and do some hard core reading. But recently I read a blog post by Jonathan Malm about stop reading. He talks about how so often we get caught up in reading the latest trend books that eventually we are all just lemmings following the pack.

When approaching the topic of reading I like to think I don’t follow the pack; at least not when the topic is trending. I think back to when I first read Good to Great by Jim Collins. I was looking for a recipe book that was going to make my business great, and if all the other business leaders were reading it, then I had better read it too or there was no hope for my business. What I found was not a recipe book for success, but a way of looking at examples of what I want (success) and how to recognize characteristics, choices, and mistakes the example businesses had made. This was supposed to help me think about how I could make my business a success, I still had to come up with my own recipe.

So when approaching my holiday reading plan I have a variety of books picked out. Some were written to be a recipe for success, of which I will read critically and decide what I will apply and what i will through away. Everything is meant to be inspiration for how to use the gifts and talents I have to further my mission.

Now the only time I read looking for a recipe for success is when my wife lets me do some baking, but I don’t have a good track record of that so it doesn’t happen very often.

Christmas Reading List:

• Jolt! by Phil Cooke
• Outspoken by Tim Schraeder et. al.
• 30 days to a more organized life by C.G.P. Grey
• God and Gadgets by Brad J. Kallenberg
• 31 days to finding you blogging mojo by Brian Allain

The New GoPro Hero HD2 has a new premium accessory… Wifi & Remote Control

WOW! Live streaming from a GoPro…

WOW! Remote Control…

WOW! Smart Phone Apps and Web Apps…

I think I’m falling in love with my GoPro all over again!

This idea of having the right people may seem overly simple. Your right! It is simple, but so many times our ideas and plans are road blocked by not having the right people involved.

For the past three years I keeping coming home from the Gurus Of Tech conference and asking the same question. Why can’t we have something like that here for all these Canadian churches that are powered by volunteers. I know there are plenty of american churches that are in the same boat, but this is my home turf, I should be doing something about this. I work for a fairly large, progressive, technically well equipped church; there are churches that look up to us for inspiration and admittedly some gear envy.

I shared my vision with many of the people on my team. A Canadian tech conference built for the reality of the smaller Canadian churches. Many of my team were in agreement, this was something that I should do. But how? I have done enough strength finder tests to know this was not my area of expertise, I’m a support role type person. I make things happen for people.

And so the years would pass. I would go to the Gurus conference and again on the drive home I would ponder. How do I make this thing happen. Then one day three worship leaders came to me and said “We want to do a tech conference for our tech team. They need training we don’t know where to get it.” Wow! That almost sounds a little ego boosting, but look at it from my side. Three years of going to conferences, three years of wanting to do something for the local churches, three years of praying to God to give me the strength and wisdom to pull it off. And then these three church leaders show up on my proverbial door step and have the same desire and vision. This is how God works.

So we started with four people sitting around a table, then there were nine, now we have a team of 22 people from 18 churches putting their best skills forward to make this happen. Suddenly, now we have the right people. My dream was just to big for me alone, it is what some pastors call a God sized dream. And when you let God be in charge of the God sized dreams, God puts the right people on the bus.

What dream are you trying to make a reality that is too big for you alone? Are you ready to let God be in charge of that dream and let Him bring the right people on board?

When I found Piwik I was looking for the fine print that was going to make me click back on the browser and move on. I couldn’t find it.

Add too that the fact that it’s open source and I love supporting the open source community. I think some of the best code being produced right now is not coming out of the corporate megaplex but by truely passionate people working at home in the free time.

And I have to say it’s easy on the eyes. Actually it looks awesome! and I find all the information I want to know about my daily visitors is grouped and easy to find.

It does take a little knowledge of how to setup a web app on your server, but trust me it is well worth the time (15 mins) investment. And you can finally say good-bye to the google “Do you want to switch user accounts?” once and for all.

Links:

Piwik Web Analytics

Over the last 4 years I have had many conversations both online and offline about why church has become such a production. Last night during a new volunteer orientation I had an epiphany. Here is my explanation of why church is such a production.

Every Sunday morning our team of 15 people come together to put on church. We’re vigilant about things like sound, lighting, camera shot composition, even things like where people enter and leave stage. All with the purpose of creating an “experience” for those that come to church each sunday.

But so often I see and participate in conversations about why church needs to be a production. Why can’t we just let the Holy Spirit move through the room and orchestrate things? Why does it need to be so planned and processed?

As a member of our tech team it is our job (our calling) to create an environment for the teaching and worship team to lead people in an experience with God. If you have ever been to a movie theatre when someone’s cell phone goes off in the middle of the movie you will understand what I mean when I say there are things that can “break the moment”. We recognize that when people gather to worship and grow closer to God, the evil one will take every opportunity to destroy that moment. Just like that cell phone going off at the climax of the movie. We are the first line of defence when it comes to defending the experience the Pastor and worship team are trying to create. This is our calling.

This is such an intensive calling that often when we leave church at the end of the day, we need to look at the sign to even remember what the Pastor was talking about today. This is the sacrifice we make to create this experience for all those that come to church that day.

So why do we make Sunday morning such a production? Because it deserves that level of respect and discipline to make sure that those that come to church can fully engage and experience the awesome power of God. To do any less would be to think that Jesus wasn’t serious about the great commission.

What are your thoughts? Is church becoming too much of a production and less of a church?