Website + Automation + Tech Set up: IBCP.CZ

A free project for a charity / church called the International Baptist Church of Prague. It consists of three parts.

1. Website re-design (from scratch)

A WordPress site with a church-related theme optimized for storing sermons. I have added additional elements such as an MP3 player, as requested.

 church’s website via FTP.

Landing Page
Coming up + Sermon Widgets
Sermons Page Details

2. Automated Recording + Uploading to the Website

In addition, they requested an automated solution for sermon recording. The idea was to have a single button on the speaker’s pulpit that would start recording the input into the sound mixer when pressed. A little icon would appear on the screen to indicate that recording is in progress. When the button is pressed again, the recording is stopped. Lastly, the raw .WAV would get converted to MP3 and automatically upload to the website.

USB Button

A programmable USB button. The way I set it up is that when pressed, a command line script is triggered to start a recording and an icon pops up on the screen to indicate that recording is in progress.

The script s are written in AutoHotKey (Windows platform) and consists of several parts, each doing one part:

  • Phase 0 – Monitor (a background process that checks if the button is being pressed)
  • Phase 1 – Start recording script.
  • Phase 2– Stop recording (when the button is pressed again).
  • Phase 3 – Upload recording to FTP
  • Phase 4 – Set file permissions on FTP and lifecycle (remove old recordings as per settings).
  • BONUS – For language translation . localization – automate_recordings.ini

Download the AutoHotKey scripts below!

3. Technical Set up – Projector + 2x LCD Screens + Sound Board with 4x Mics

Lastly, it was important for the congregation to see the lyrics of the songs well as well as the sermon slides. Previously, there was a single projector with a rather faded output.

I have installed a new projector together with 2x LCD screens (one of them is being used by the speaker and the choir to see what the audience sees).

The sound board is connected to four microphones and to  PC that receives the recordings once triggered y the USB button.