[CS-FSLUG] Church Software Project

[Clinton Evans]

I did look at Asaph and lyricue for another application. My colleague who runs 
the sound system and projection is frustrated with Powerpoint for projecting 
lyrics, readings, etc. The major problem is the projected video and his local 
display always show the same thing. It means he can't easily plan what he 
displays in advance. He has decided to write his own code, too. I may have 
started a bad trend.

The program, lyricue, gave me a slightly whimsical idea for Church projection 
on the cheap. In one of its modes, lyricue splits control and projection 
between two computers. Now, with Microsoft's new X-Box coming out, I expect 
there will be lots of old X-Boxes selling for a song. An X-Box running Linux 
would make a great back-end for a projector...

I will check out the sites you mention.

Clinton

On August 7, 2005 08:56 pm, Don Parris wrote:
> On 8/7/05, Clinton Evans <clinton.evans at rogers.com> wrote:
> > For many years, my Church in Ottawa has been providing audio recordings
> > of the service on cassette tapes. It is clear that cassettes are
> > approaching the end of their product life and we wanted a CD-based system
> > in place before cassettes cease to be available.
> >
> > I volunteer for our library which, traditionally, has distributed the
> > tapes. Being a Presbyterian Church, we NEVER challenge tradition so we
> > wanted to produce CDs in the library, too.
> >
> > The system that has materialized, so far, works as follows:
> >
> > 1)      The person who operates the sound system captures the
> >         service audio on his OSX Mac laptop.
> >
> > 2)      After the service, he runs a shell script which pipes the data
> >         to a Linux machine in the library. This machine captures
> >         the raw file and also produces a processed file, suitable for
> >         immediate burning. Optionally, it burns a couple of CDs of
> >         that service, automatically.
> >
> > 3)      We keep past services on disk and burn copies, while people
> >         wait, after the service.
> >
> > Steps (1) and (2) are so tightly coupled to the operation of our Church
> > that the options for using them elsewhere are pretty limited. However,
> > item (3) may provide opportunity for a little cross-pollination.
> >
> > I originally planned to use a music database, e.g. Juk, to index the
> > audio files and burn them, as required. This system is in use, now, but
> > has not proved very satisfactory.
>
> Have you looked at Asaph?  I'm not sure it quite fits the category of
> what you want to accomplish.  It is a song database, but seems more
> concerned with lyrics stuff than what you seem to desire.  It's a Java
> solution.  PyAsaph builds on that to offer lyrics projection.
>
> > I looked at a number of programs but did not see anything I really liked.
> > In all cases, the program did lots of things I did not want, with the
> > associated complexities, and did not things I did want. In the end, I
> > decided to write my own code.
> >
> > Currently, I have the database editor in a working condition but with
> > some planned features still missing. The searching and burning code is a
> > little behind the editor but it should be working in a few weeks.
> >
> > Here are some details:
> >
> > Language:               Python
> > GUI Toolkit:    qt, pyqt
> > Database:               Zope object database
> >
> > I am also considering libbatch to run the conversion and burning queues.
> > Alternatively, I may write my own queues.
> >
> > I expect other folk must want to organize audio service recordings on
> > disk and burn them, to order. I am interested in the possibility of
> > collaboration and would appreciate any advice on getting such a project
> > going.
> >
> > Clinton
> >
> > _______________________________________________
>
> I'm just starting to learn Python, and have a vision for eventually
> bringing my own CHurch ADministration DataBase (CHADDB) project to
> life at some point.  I got off to a good start but recently decided to
> migrate to PostgreSQL from MySQL, due to the former's feature set.
> That is slowing me down just a bit.  However, I do like your choice of
> Python - sounds like a great fit for the project!
>
> You should also post to the Linux4Christians list - you might find
> some interest there.  However, the Christian Open Developer Network
> has revamped its site, and you should sign up and post your project
> there.  I would appreciate being kept aprised of your progress, as I
> can include mention of it if/when there comes a need for a 3rd edition
> of "Penguin in the Pew".
>
> Blessings,
> Don

-- 
Clinton