Nick

Nick is the owner of Open Box Technology. He has been a church sound guy for as long as he can remember. He has worked in the AV industry since leaving school, while also completing a degree in Audio Engineering. He has worked at many events including the London Olympics, and can also be regularly seen helping out at many Christian events and conventions. Nick is excited about using his knowledge and expertise in the professional AV world to assist, develop and enhance Christian Ministry.

Church Presentations Part 1

June 2, 2016 by Nick

Presentations are usually an integral part of the modern church service. Song lyrics, bible verses, liturgy or videos displayed on a projection screen form the basis for many aspects of the service. However, behind the scenes this is often a nightmare to manage. What presentation software do you use? How can you ensure the right content will be on the screen/s at the right time? How do you train people to use it? How do you manage the processes required to collate all the material together? What happens when a guest speaker or presenter turns up last minute with a presentation on a USB Stick (or CD, DVD…)?

Projected Lyrics

But the questions don’t just stop with the technology. The purpose behind presentations is to visually communicate ideas. What does it mean to communicate ideas well? How do you communicate effectively? How do you ensure the technology doesn’t get in the way of the communication, or the other way around?

What We’ve Done: St Anne’s Ryde

May 26, 2016 by Nick

Open Box Technology has been working with St Anne’s Ryde since 2013, supplying and installing new equipment for their audio visual system. Their AV system had been in use for about 10 years and was in need of updating. We supplied new EV ZXA1 foldback speakers, a few additional microphones as well as an Allen & Heath GLD80 console and stage box system.

GregDesk

The Allen & Heath digital console has allowed the reduction in outboard equipment required. Some of this equipment has been donated to other churches, and some reused in other areas of the St Anne’s facility. Further, the digital console has given more power to the operators, while allowing recall of the default settings. This ensures a basic standard of quality regardless of the operator.

What We’ve Done: St Barnabas Broadway

May 19, 2016 by Nick

Open Box Technology manages the Audio Visual and IT systems at St Barnabas Broadway. We are responsible for upgrades, servicing and maintenance, as well as general advice and assistance.

St Barnabas has a state of the art Public Address system. A D&B Audiotechnik speaker system and BSS London system processor take care of the reproduction responsibilities. A Roland M480 console, digital multicore and personal monitoring system takes care of the audio front end. The presentations are run through Pro Presenter 5 off a new Hewlett Packard PC.

Barneys Broadway Desk

The Essential Website

May 6, 2016May 5, 2016 by Nick

You may have heard the adage, ‘Programmers are tools that convert pizza and coffee into code’. This oft repeated phrase captures the imagination with its humour and apparent truth. It also captures the sentiment of many management types and those outside the developer community. So you could be forgiven for believing that, when the developers of St Barnabas Broadway (some of whom are Open Box Technology employees) were invited for dinner and drinks to discuss the Barneys website, we joined in like lemmings.

However, this sentiment is incorrect. Programmers and developers are not subservient tools that will do the bidding of the puppeteers, we require a good reason to spend time writing code. This is why companies like Google have grandiose mission statements such as “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” and motto’s of “don’t be evil”. Without something to believe in, a big vision for something new and better, we do the pizza and coffee part of our adage without any code to show for it.

What We’ve Done: Vine Church, Surry Hills

June 1, 2016April 21, 2016 by Nick

For the past couple of years, Open Box Technology have been advising and supplying Audio Visual systems to Vine Church (Surry Hills) as it has grown from a small church plant into a vibrant inner city community. Vine Church faced the challenge of needing to set up in a school each week in a limited timeframe. We have helped advise and supply them as they build a quality portable Audio Visual system in affordable increments. The equipment Vine Church are using is a combination of equipment donated to the church as well as various items OBT has sold them. Buying equipment in stages and integrating with existing equipment has allowed Vine to manage budgets and the investment often required in purchasing AV equipment.