Set-Up Considerations

Sounds

We have included several different format sound files in different stages of the weekly Service. At the beginning of many brief Service stages, we arranged for an appropriate sound file to automatically begin. If your browser does not recognize our programming for this, and you do not begin to hear the sound within a few seconds, you will always see a small link near the top of the page to begin the appropriate sound file. This allows you to hear the Pastor's voice along with reading the words. Normally, such sound files would be very large and would involve very long download times, but we have used advanced audio compression techniques to make these downloads rather brief.

For the stages that include more extensive content, we use a "streaming audio" sound format, so that there would not be a long delay for a file download, but the sounds are begun while the download is still progressing. This again allows you to hear the Pastor's voice.

Similarly, in stages where Praise music or singing is involved, appropriate types of sound files are used. We are still working on a "Karaoke-style" arrangement where you would be guided in the text as to what words are being sung, so you could sing along.

WAV Voice/Music Sound Files

All Windows computers are set up to be able to play WAV format sound files. If you can hear Windows start-up and end sounds, you're probably already OK. If not, your computer might not have a sound card, or the sound capability may be shut off. See the Windows Control Panel to activate sound. We include a compressed version of this format sound file (for brief portions of the Service) because of the common ability of nearly all computers to play WAV files. For the Pastor's main Message, this would involve a VERY LONG download, so we use a different sound format for the longer stages of the Service.

Streaming Audio Sound Files

This type of file is very compressed in size, and can down-load in less time than it takes to hear. This allows the sound to start almost immediately, and to be heard while the rest of the file downloads. In order to be able to hear the TrueSpeech files, you need a TrueSpeech player. Windows95 comes with a built-in player for TrueSpeech. A player is also available here for non-Windows95 computers:

To get the TrueSpeech Player, CLICK HERE
Once you have it available (in Win95 or down-loaded and installed,) you should be able to listen to our Pastor's voice in all the stages of the Service. The first time you Click on the Streaming Audio Button, a little Window may open up asking about a 'Helper' file. Once you complete that, you will be able hear the Pastor's voice and the other Streaming Audio entries.

MIDI Music Sound Files

Your Browser may or may not be prepared to play MIDI format music. When you Click on the Praise music the first time, you may be asked about adding a 'helper' program to play it. If asked, you probably need to do it. All Windows computers include a Media Player that will work. Use 'Browse' to go to the Windows directory, then look for mplayer.exe. Pick it to play files with .mid extensions and you're set!

Karaoke MIDI Music Sound

We intend to set up our songs of praise so that it will be even easier for YOU can sing along! We hope to arrange a Karaoke-type set-up where the words and syllables will be high-lighted at the time you should sing them. This is a variation of the MID music file. These may or may not play for you. For this feature to work best, you probably need to be using a recent Netscape Navigator or InterNet Explorer Browser and a 'plug-in' program called Crescendo, which you can down-load below.

To Download 'Helper' Software or a New Browser

To get Netscape Navigator, CLICK HERE
To get InterNet Explorer, CLICK HERE
To get Crescendo for Karaoke Music CLICK HERE

The Discussion Group

If you have joined us on a Sunday evening (from 8:00 pm to 11:00 pm Chicago time), after the Service concludes, you can join into a Discussion Group which includes at least two of our Ministry people.

To participate in the Discussion group, you may need to upgrade your Browser to a recent version of InterNet Explorer or Netscape Navigator (available above.)

Please Click on your Browser's BACK button to return to the Service.