by: Brad Herring

Have you heard of the semi-recent company known as 'Renewed Vision'? If you haven't, expect them to be on your radar screen soon. Born out of churches such as Northpoint in Atlanta, GA, these guys are looking for ways to use software to communicate God's love. Using the big church environment as their testing grounds, they come out with products that will help churches of all sizes.

Recently I had the chance to test drive one of their newest releases, the 'Pro Video Player'. A quick summation -- WOW!

Pro Video Player (PVP) allows churches the ability to control video backgrounds on the fly with as many spanning screens as you desire! This product is competing with the likes of Video Canvas, but with seemingly more features and less money.

PVP uses Apple technology as it's computing power. By doing this, they are bringing power projection to the church at unheard of prices. If you are controlling a single video feed (ie, maybe 2 projection screens, but both screens showing the same image) you can be in a PVP system for about $699 (standard def) plus the cost of an i-mac computer. So, for well under $3,000US, you can be creating amazing video that will enhance worship and give a huge visual punch to concerts.

Video is now becoming a creative art in our worship services that is akin to lighting. Much like lighting sets the tone and mood, now so does video. With the advent of tools such as PVP, you can now manipulate images and video to tell a story -- after all, it is true what they say, a picture is worth a 1000 words.

PVP is currently running version 1.1.4, released on April 18, 2006. The guys at Renewed Vision recommend it be used with a programmable video card (that they tell me is standard on all new Mac computers) that use CORE image (which requires Mac OSX 10.4 or higher). The company indicates that the new Mac Mini (799 versions) are ideal for this application.

One of the exciting features is the ease of adding content. With the system running in Network Control Mode (a standard feature in OSX) you can simply drag and drop media to all of the computer in your array. This process can literally take seconds to move content from one machine to another. Also, given the fact it’s based on a Mac computer, it can play any content that Quicktime can play. This adds a huge value right off the bat.

Playing an image on the screen is as simple as a single click on a preview icon. The software works a lot like iTunes and other similar software in that you have a primary library. From this library you create playlists. In these playlists you can modify the clip (color, speed, direction, etc) without affecting the original clip in the library! This is huge. Now you can tailor speeds and colors for consistency as many times as you wish, and with a simple click all of your work is on the screen! You can also adjust your playlists so that multiple screens can display multiple images at once (assuming you have a computer for each screen).

So far, Renewed Vision has tested this system with up to 20 computers, but state there should be no end to the number of computers you could use. Your expansion is limited only by creativity and budget.

PVP will tile or cascade the image, and automatically scale as well! With it’s ‘grid mapping’ mode you simply tell the computer which screen is controlled by which computer and where that screen is (very similar tot using multiple monitors on Mac OSX). The ‘grid mapping’ feature allows the image to stretch across all the screens in your array (otherwise known as ‘big picture’). Talk about a stunning effect! It’s also worthy to note that PVP will ‘squash’ the image to fit vertically. Obviously if you custom create footage to the aspect ratio you will present it at this is not a concern. And actually, with the rendering algorithms used by PVP I thought it did a very nice job of making standard video fit on the ‘big picture’ screen. The end result looked very good – even with content intended for a larger aspect ratio.

While I mentioned earlier that you could build playlists that allow you to pre-program effects, it’s important to note that you can also make these changes happen in real time. Simply click on the speed bar or grab the hue changer and whalla! The effects happen real time right before your eyes (assuming you are using a CORE image capable Mac).

Now, obviously this software package is Mac-only. Sorry, but there are no versions for it available to the PC world. An entry level Standard-Definition one-seat license starts at $699 at the time of this article. A High-Definition version is also available for $999. Each computer must have a valid license, and additional licenses are available for $499 each.

The current version does not support edge-blending from within the software, but it is a feature they are looking into for future releases. This version will also allow your video clip to be played forwards or backwards, or do a ‘ping-pong’ effect where it plays to the end, then plays in reverse back to the front, and repeats this pattern.

Transitions can be pre-programmed or ran manually on a virtual T-bar. This will allow you to transition to a certain point and stop, vary the speed, or simply time it in ‘real time’.

The software was very intuitive, but it does include a built in manual should you need help. With larger systems, Renewed Vision also offers install packages that can include training on the system. The most complicated thing about the software is the setup. Once you have the network setup and each computer running, the software is a snap to use. Volunteers could easily run it, but like all products in this category it is limited to the creativity of the user. This is not something you want to set your Electrical Engineer behind – if you want incredible results, tend to lean more towards a musician or artist as your primary operator.

If you are looking for a way to create a dynamic worship environment you will definitely want to look into the PVP software. It will add an entirely new dimension to worship, concerts, and productions. This is a great value for the money.

If you’d like more information on this product, visit: www.renewedvision.com