Today started so well. I woke up actually feeling as though I had had enough sleep for the first time in a long time. I did my usual morning routine and was ready early for morning prayer with my colleague Garry at 9am. We go live on the church Facebook pages so that others can join in.
The first technical hitch hit us. Garry and I both use an app that enables a phone to be used as a microphone and camera connected to a computer. He got a voice saying ‘trial version’ over his audio input. Most distracting. So after a while of trying to fix it we gave up. I said morning prayer on my own in my prayer/art room.
I had created a video meditation and uploaded it to YouTube yesterday. This morning it still said it was processing HD version. However it played OK so I thought I’d go live on Facebook to tell people about it and put a link in comments. I got the ‘trial version’ over the top of my audio. I couldn’t hear it as I broadcast but when I watched the Facebook live video I realised it was there. Not pleased.
After a late lunch I went for a walk – the sun was shining and it looked like a nice day. I stopped and had a good chat with a member of one of my churches (the highlight of my day). This was half way round a 3 mile route and it started to rain. When I was almost home (and it had stopped raining) I met a family of a pupil of one of the first schools. It appears that there was a problem with the video I had created and sent for a worship assembly. When I looked at it at home a section of me and my puppet had been cut. ???? Who knows how that happened!!!! I enjoy creating videos, but it is time consuming and can be very frustrating when the software doesn’t behave.
Having looked online in the morning I realised that others had had the same issue with the camera/ phone app when going on Facebook Live and using OBS. I had suggested that Garry send a message to the software providers. We had both got the paid for version. In the afternoon he texted me to say he had uninstalled the app on the computer and re-installed. So I did likewise. It seemed to work.
Great ! I tested it live on Facebook using my personal account and did the advert for the meditation video. No problems.
I set up for leading night prayer live on the church facebook pages as usual. I usually play some music as people connect. I listened in and realised it was going wrong. A snippet of music was stuck in a loop. A vaguely recognised it as part of a modern worship song. Despite several attempts to stop it I had to abort the live session and start again without music. I think something had been playing on my phone from when I’d gone for a walk listening to some music. But the snippet that played was not the last song I had listened to. Very strange. The second attempt also got off to a bad start because I had not re-set the microphone on OBS to use the phone. So nobody heard me. But we got going eventually and all was well (except I did notice half way through that my screen shot wasn’t quite right, but not too bad I think).
I was glad to sit down with my darling husband for a meal he had cooked and to watch a film. So, the day has ended and despite the technical problems I have to count my blessings and know that they are minor irritations in the grand scheme of things.
I hope that your day has been better than mine. I have not been able to cross many things off my To-Do list but at least I did manage to get some sermon preparation done in the morning after my prayer time.
Elizabeth Jones' Diary 