Speaking in Our Church — Remote

Thank you for agreeing to speak at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church.  Here are a few tips to make your experience as smooth as possible.

Preparation of Message

When considering your presentation, please be aware of our technical capabilities so that you can tailor your presentation as needed.  We have the capability to display slides from a variety of sources, including Google Slides.  You may also share your own screen from Zoom if desired.  We also have the ability to display your video as a smaller thumbnail, like picture-in-picture to allow viewers to see both your slides and your camera view at the same time, if desired.

We can also pre-record certain portions of your presentation and insert them into the service in real-time.  We do ask that you provide at least the sentence or two prior to each pre-recorded segment so that we can smoothly know when those need to be played.

Technology Preparation

We’re here to make your presentation the smoothest possible experience, and we have learned that the best possible results come from a few small tips and tricks.

  • Lighting is one of the most crucial components of a good Zoom meeting.  Natural sunlight is excellent for these sorts of situations, but please make sure you don’t have bright light sources or a window behind you, as this will overwhelm the camera and prevent anyone from seeing you.
  • Audio is also crucial to an enjoyable message.  We recommend that each person on Zoom use some form of headphones and a microphone which isn’t the one built into your computer or phone, as those often have a lot of echo or feedback.  Lots of folks use cell-phone headsets as they are decent quality and able to keep a low profile for a video presentation.
  • Your camera could be a built-in webcam or your cell phone.  We do ask that if you are using your cell phone, please turn your phone sideways so that we get a wide video feed coming into the meeting.

Pre-Arrival

Before presenting via Zoom, you might want to be aware of your wardrobe choices.  We have no specific dress code, but solid color clothing or large prints or patterns look better on camera.

We will be sending you a Zoom meeting link prior to the service.  We ask that you use this only for yourself, as we use Zoom only to bring you into the service.  Any of your friends, family, and/or followers should tune into the live Facebook video as this provides the complete service.

We ask that you join the Zoom meeting at 9:30am so that we can perform final audio and video checks before we go live at approximately 10:25am.  We also want to be able to coordinate any final media updates and changes as needed.

We will provide you both the audio and video of the service on the Zoom meeting to provide a very natural, conversational experience.  Also, while in the Zoom meeting, we ask that you keep yourself muted after we start the service until it is time for your presentation.

Other Questions and Concerns

If you have any questions or concerns prior to your scheduled presentation, please reach out to the tech team at allsoulsuustreaming@gmail.com.