Marshalswick Baptist Free Church

How do I...

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Answers

Record a prayer or reading on my computer, tablet or phone

You can record audio on a PC/laptop, table or mobile phone. It's easy! Tablets or mobile phones are good as they are quieter than PCs (no noisy fans) so you have less background noise. If you already record your voice and have a preferred program or app please use it. If you have never done this before here are some suggestions. There are lots of free apps available and also computers and tablets often have preinstalled ones. The following have been tried by Kirsty or Michael:

Choose your device for recording and either find your built in app or install one such as Easy Voice Recorder. Whichever app you decide to use have a play and get used to using it. Record a short segment of speech too see how it sounds. See if you can rename, save and send the recording. If you don’t like the app try a different one.

For more help see:


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Zoom

Zoom is a video conferencing programme that we will connect with on a Sunday. You can use it on your desktop or laptop computer from zoom.us or you can download the Zoom app for your device from the Apple store or Play store.

First you need to create your account from the sign up section (on a pc click on the blue button on the top right of the screen).  Once you are signed up you will just need to sign in on future visits. On a PC you can either open the Zoom app from the Windows menu or sign in via the zoom webpage and it will do it for you. Click here to be taken to the Zoom sign in page. On a tablet or phone simply start your Zoom app.

Join a meeting via webpage: The main things you will need to get started are how to schedule and join meetings. Once signed in on the website you will be shown your 'My Meetings' page. This displays upcoming meetings, and you can choose to look at previous meetings as well as a host of other things. Look at the top right hand corner of the page and you will see these options (in blue): Schedule a meeting, join a meeting and host a meeting. 

zoom meetings

Click on join a meeting from your 'My meetings' page and Zoom will prompt you to enter the meeting ID and password. It may ask you if you wish to join with video. Once you have done this Zoom will connect you to our meeting.

Join a meeting via Zoom app: Start the app on your pc, tablet or device. On the home screen on the pc app, or the meet and chat screen on a tablet, you'll see a set of four icons, one of which is join. Select this and follow the instructions to enter the meeting ID and password. The image below shows how it looks on a PC, the layout is slightly different on a tablet or phone.

zoom home screenshot

Meeting ID and password: If we are going to meet as a church you will get an email from Graham or the mbfc admin account which will give you the meeting ID and password. If there is a link in the email you can follow that to join. If not, you need to enter the details when prompted by zoom. 

Mute/unmute: When you are in a zoom meeting you can control whether your microphone is on or off. This option is on the bottom left of the window but sometimes only appears if you move your mouse pointer to the bottom of the screen or tap the bottom of your screen on a device. It is useful to be muted if you are listening and not contributing as it makes the sound in the meeting clearer and easier to follow because Zoom will focus on the loudest contributor.

Start/stop video: This is at the bottom of the screen to the right of the mute option. If you are not displayed check that your video is on.

Speaker view (on PC): If you want a large image of the speaker on your screen e.g. when we are having communion, you need to select speaker view. Move your mouse pointer to the top right of your computer screen. You should get options for Speaker view and pictures of boxes that indicate how many participants you want to view on one screen. You can change these settings throughout the meeting - it only alters your display.

View on tablet or phone: You can swipe the screen across during the meeting to change between views and see other participants.

Zoom have some useful help on their website. If you want any advice a member of the technical team at church will be pleased to hep you.

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Live Stream

Some useful info on the Baptist Union Website. The top tips partway down their webpage should be read by anyone before they take church business online. The tips were adapted from an older Church of England article which is also good reading if you intend to present online.

If you are planning to stream from the church building please note that we have a broadband connection provided by Virgin with a 50Mbps download speed and a 3Mbps upload speed. It is the upload speed that is important if you are streaming out of the building. The upload speed is a theoretical maximum but when I have tested the speed over WiFi in the rear halls it tends to be round about 2.7Mbps. However at certain times of day this speed may reduce if the internet traffic is busy in the local area.

The upper hall and red and blue rooms all have dual band WiFI, whereas the worship area has only 2.4GHz frequency and will be upgraded to dual band when the refubishment work is complete. Using the 5GHz WiFi is preferable if your device is compatible as there tends to be less congestion on this frequency.

There are some useful tips in a recent article released by Virgin if you want more information.

If you are having problems please check the broadband speed - I like the broadband speedchecker app. If that is approaching 3Mbps you will then need to look at your settings on your computer. Reducing video quality will reduce the bandwidth required. Don't forget to turn of as many apps as you can while you are streaming. 

If you can't sort any of this out and think there is a problem with the church network please make a note of the broadband speed, time and date, your location, software you were using and any specific details that will help us to fault detect. Thank you.

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Send pictures or slides to the church computer for display on the screens

Slides for talks should be in powerpoint format if you want to run them from the church pc. We can also support presentations that load into Google slides. Remember some formatting may be lost when slides are transferred between programs. 

Please make sure your font is big enough to read on the screens -  the hymns are typically produced in Calibri with a font size 50+, although we have dropped down to 48 for longer verses. Also try to keep slides uncluttered and have a contrast between the font and background colours.

To get pictures (jpg, tiff, png etc.) or slides to the audio desk laptop for display on the screens either email them to us or bring files on a USB stick (preferably virus free!)


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Get on the Church WiFi

Ask Kirsty for the guest password. 

We have dual band WiFi in the upper hall, and downstairs in the red and blue room. The WiFi elsewhere is 2.4GHz but we plan to upgrade the network to dual band in the worship area after the building works are complete and the COVID restrictions allow us to work together.

The church network has many users so please treat as you would any other publicly available unsecured WiFi. 


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Print a document on the photocopier

Ask Kirsty to put your device on the photocopier network or email the items to the church pc. If you need assistance to print from the pc one of the visual operators will be pleased to help.


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Get a copy of today's service

If you want the sermon only it will appear on the website podcast pages and can be listened to via the web browser or downloaded. Our aim is to have it available within one week.

If you want a CD of the whole service please ask the audio technician as soon as the service ends when the master disc is available for copying. Please collect your CD from the audio desk. Queries later than that should go to Kirsty.


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Use the audio desk

Ask Kirsty before you touch anything. Never alter any of the set levels on the mixer or equaliser. I know the knobs are tempting but if you don't know what they do then don't turn them! Only connect a condenser microphone if you have turned the phantom power off or you may get an electric shock. A short guide to radio microphone use can be found here. 


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If you have any other questions please email them and I'll reply and add them to our FAQ list.