Analysis. Identification of the problem

Transcription

1 Analysis Identification of the problem With the rise of the information age churches all over the world have begun to embrace multimedia as a way to communicate their beliefs in a way which appeals to the techno generation. A church has approached me and asked me to program a solution for them which will interact with a projector and project bible verses, song lyrics and Powerpoint presentations onto a screen, while maintaining a completely controllable environment for the projector operator. In the past this has been achieved by means of an OHP, then Microsoft Powerpoint, which did not provide all the facilities they needed, and then another piece of software which, while providing a little more functionality than Powerpoint, did not completely meet their needs. They have decided that the best way to go will be a custom built solution, specifically suited to their needs. Identification of the prospective users The multimedia co-ordinator has approached me and asked me to provide this solution. The solution would be used by the co-ordinator himself, he is competent with computers, and also by a number of other members of the church, some of whom are only familiar with using a computer for browsing the internet and other basic applications. He has expressed the desire that the software should be easy enough to use that, with the help of a help function, a new user, who has only a small amount of computer knowledge, should be able to use it. Identification of user needs and acceptable limitations In order to identify the needs of the user, I have observed the projector operators at work in Sunday services, and also have interviewed the multimedia co-ordinator. A full transcript of the interview is printed in Appendix A, but the conclusions drawn from the interview, along with the conclusions from observing and talking to the projector operators, are outlined below: Summary of feedback from projector operators: Worship leaders at the church are often spontaneous in worship. Song lyrics cannot be searched for on the current software, so when a leader spontaneously starts a song it often takes a while to find what song he is singing. At the moment it is imperative that the projector operator can identify a song title from the opening few words, we do not want this to be the case. A search function would improve this situation. The current software only allows for slides and lyrics. If we want to use a Bible verse we have to manually enter it as a slide. We would like the whole Bible available in order to put verses up on demand. At the moment we have to have Powerpoint and our other software open at the same time to use Powerpoint presentations. It would be nice if we could have software which integrated both of these functions. Also the way a Powerpoint presentation is controlled from within Powerpoint is flaky, we would prefer an interface in the software where advancing to a slide, or jumping to a certain slide, was a matter of clicking a button. The current software forces us to find a list of marked songs inside a list of all the songs we have on our software. So if, for example, we had 400 songs on our software, and the worship leader went into the next song, we would have to scroll through 400 songs to find the one marked for playing next. A software where songs for a service are in a separate list would be ideal. Page 1

2 The current software is fairly intuitive, in that the layout is pretty easily learned by a new user. It only took the projector operators I was with around an hour or so to figure it out to a competent level. Summary of feedback from multimedia co-ordinator: The current software runs as a multi-monitor system from one computer. Each monitor displays a different image. The people who have been using the current software are certainly not what would be described as computer experts. Finding songs is simply unfeasible if one doesn t know the title of the song. Also some songs are known by multiple names ie. Their first line, their chorus first line, their title. The current software doesn t allow for urgent alerts to be quickly and easily displayed on the screen. For example Could the owner of car with registration number Y58 YDA, please move their car before it gets towed The current software doesn t have any bible integration at all. It would be extremely useful to call up any bible verse on demand. The current software doesn t allow any video integration. It would be fairly useful, but not essential, for the solution to be able to integrate video from some source, either a file, video camera, or DVD, and display that, merged with text, on the screen. The current software doesn t allow us to save set lists of songs. The current software doesn t allow us to change songs while they are up on screen. This would be an extremely useful feature. The current software doesn t allow us to have transitions between slides. Although this is not required it is a very nice feature. From talking to the multimedia co-ordinator I got the feeling that he was fairly dissatisfied with the current software and was looking to me to get an extremely well working system up and running. Appraisal of the feasibility of potential solutions In solving this problem, there are three main paths which could be pursued. Firstly a manual system could be put in place, secondly an off-the-shelf package could be used, or finally bespoke software could be put in place. As outlined above, the first two methods have been tried by the church already. The first, feeding transparencies onto an overhead projector, was a good solution in that it was extremely easy to use. However searching for songs was an even more arduous process than the second solution. The second solution, using an off-the-shelf package, called Lyrics, worked successfully compared to the manual solution. However, the projector operators soon got fed up with the inability of the program to do what they saw as simple functions such as searching. Generally there is not a lot of off-the-shelf software for this kind of application. What there is costs a great deal more than the church can afford. The final solution, bespoke software, has never been considered at the church until now. The main advantages of employing this would be a complete system completely tailored to their needs. However, in the commissioning of bespoke systems there is often a hefty price tag. This will not be an issue in this case, as the time for programming the software is being donated to the church. Page 2

3 Justification of chosen solution The solution to be employed will be a piece of bespoke software. This seems to be the best in the case of the church as described above. The main reason to choose this solution is because at the moment there isn t a system which totally fits the system that the church requires. As this is the case, and the needs of the church are different to a standard system, bespoke software would be the best way to go. The only downside, as stated above, to bespoke software is the cost involved. However, as the time is being donated to the church this becomes not an issue. Data source(s) and destination(s) The main bulk of the data will be stored in a database of some kind. This will be accessed by a Delphi front end. The main outputs from the system will not be of a printed kind. The program will be able to print out service programs but these are not the main outputs. The main outputs from the system will appear on the projected image. The database will be the main source of information; it will contain the following relations: Authors (AuthorID, AuthorName, CopyrightLabel); Songs (SongID, SongTitle, Lyrics, AuthorID, AlternateTitle1, AlternateTitle2); BiblesInstalled (Translation); BibleBooks (BookID, BookName); BIbleVerses (BookID,Chapter,Verse,Translation,Text); Diagrams to express the system The following DFD expresses the basic objective of each system. They each need to produce output, decided by the projector operator, to the projector screen. Page 3

4 The hardware of each system works in the way illustrated by the following diagram. Page 4

5 The original system, however, did not have all of the features the church required. Its level 1 DFD is displayed below. Graphics Settings Graphics settings telling how to format Operator song to display Formatted song/slide Information for song/slide File Song/slide is stored Inputs song/slide info to add Add Info is passed to add song/slide song/slide to edit Edit Page 5

6 The new system will have a lot more features, according to the objectives, than the original system, as is illustrated below. Bible File Bible verses Process current display and notice together Powerpoint File Powerpoint info DVD/Video File/Capture Source Video frames Bible Verse List Pick verse To be ed Processed image Use OLE to run Powerpoint presentation Process Digital Video, either with or without text Request Bible module Send notice Processed video frames For screen Request Powerpoint Presentation Request DVD/Video Operator song to display To screen Formatted song/slide/verse or notice Information for song Song File Information for song Inputs song info to add Add Song Info is passed to add song song to edit Edit Song Page 6

7 The tables in the database will relate as follows: Songs Database Bible Database Authors PK AuthorID AuthorName CopyrightLabel Text PK Chapter PK Verse PK Text PK Book Songs PK SongID SongTitle Lyrics FK1 AuthorID Note: there can be many of both databases, although only multiple bible databases will be loaded simultaneously. Objectives of the project The solution s main objectives have now been decided and are underlined below: 1. The solution should run on an IBM compatible PC. 2. The solution should support multiple monitors. 3. The solution should be able to search through song lyrics, for a word or phrase, in a reasonable amount of time (<5s). 4. The solution should be able to display verses from the bible on demand. 5. The solution should be able to display video files and/or DVDs onto the screen and, if possible, merge these with custom text. 6. The solution should support all common Powerpoint functions without the user having to directly interact with Powerpoint. 7. The solution should allow notices to be displayed on the screen during a song. 8. The solution should group songs selected for a particular day separately to the complete set of songs. 9. The solution should allow set lists to be saved. 10. The solution should allow song words to be changed while they are displayed on screen and then updated. 11. If possible, the solution should allow for transitional effects between slides. Page 7