digital projectors
Digital projectors can vary greatly in cost and quality, basically you want one as bright as possible - even then you’ll probably find you need to black out the room you’re using it in. Reconditioned models can be a good buy.

A digital projector will enable you to project video and computer onto any surface. We use king-size bed sheets and project from behind [with the projector set to reverse projection] so the equipment doesn’t clutter the worship area. This avoids people walking in front of projections and blocking the image and is also good from a safety aspect. By editing all the video onto one casette it can be operated from the worship area via remote control.

video
Video is immediate and a natural means of communication in comtemporary society. There are some purpose-made alternative worship videos [ try 'one small barking dog' www.osbd.org.uk ] and other footage can be grabbed from commercial sources - probably wise to check on copyright though. Two home video recorders can be easily linked together and you can edited clips together to an adequate standard.

Creating your own footage is a little more complex, although some modern camcorders have special effects built in which if used with restraint can look effective. Otherwise you’ll need a PC with a video card, video editing software and the ability to record back onto video tape.
[ The alt.worship FAQ has plenty info on video: www.trinity-bris.ac.uk/altw_faq/ ]

computers
Using presentation software on a PC or Mac with a digital projector gives you far more flexibility than slides as material can be added up to the last minute . You will find though that photographic images projected from a computer do not have the same depth of colour as can be achieved with slides, so we’ve usually used PCs for text and slides for images

digital cameras
Some digital cameras can be connected straight to a digital projector or television allowing a ’slide show’ of the photo’s you’ve taken . These can be operated manually or put on automatic to run through the photos in a continual loop . We have experimented with using a digital camera connected to a video projector for words, having photographed print-outs on colour paper . By using a tripod you can get consistent images which look as good as powerpoint, maybe better as they have a photographic quality .

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