Use of video might be one thing people have been reluctant to try using online tools for church services. In a ‘normal’ church services where we meet physically, playing video is such a great headache. Getting something played on the computer is already a tough thing to achieve, then getting it projected on the screen, that is a completely different thing only a professional or the very experienced ones know what to do.
For those we have tried, getting video to play using online tools might be far easier than you think. This centres around a method probably called “shared screen” or “shared applications”. Exact ways of working differ on different tools.
- The easiest illustration is say you want to use a video on a web site.
- You go to the web page, you play the video.
- Once it starts playing, you pause it.
- Then you switch back to your online tool, click share screen or whichever is its equivalent.
- That should bring up an option screen for you to choose which “window” you want to use that you want to share with those in the session.
- You select that screen and choose ok.
- You click play / continue on the web page with the video, and there you go.
- What you play on your computer is then shared with others in the same session.
If this is new to you, it’s worth a try.
There is another question. What about videos you have on your computer? It should work in the same way. You start up that video (the usual way you play it). Pause it, go back to the online application, go to share screen, choose this video screen to share, click ok, the others in the session will see that video application. You then click play / continue.
Some of you might then notice that playing a video that is already online to others from your computer is not a very wise move. For a start, they are already on the internet, why not get them to play the video themselves? This is a difficult question. Indeed, this can prevent network delays, compared to if they play the video back themselves on their computers or devices. There is no easy solution to this unless where you also have your own copy of the video. For example a video that you already have which you uploaded to places like Youtube or Vimeo. Then sharing the video file from your computer is a better option.
