Now Presenting: Proclaim
We got a little behind last week, but we are back and ready to discuss more church presentation software options. The first week in October we explored ProPresenter, which is probably one of the most recognizable names in this field. We highlighted some major features of the software and covered their particular pricing structure. We also summed up who we thought the best audience was for ProPresenter based on our experiences and our research into the product. Today we continue the series with a look at Faithlife Proclaim.
INTRODUCTION
Faithlife Proclaim, which we’ll continue to shorten to just Proclaim throughout the rest of the blog, was developed by the Faithlife corporation, which is the same company that developed Logos Bible Software. Faithlife is a company that was founded in 1986 and whose mission centers around using technology to equip the Church.
FEATURES
While we won’t cover all of the features of their software or all of the media available from their partners, here are some of the major features you should know:
Cloud-based, Unlimited Access and Installs
You’ll find a lot of software in general is priced according to how many computers it’s being installed onto. This is where Proclaim is pretty unique; you can download it onto as many computers as you want once you have the subscription in place. This also means you can have unlimited collaborators, which is helpful if you have several people working on different facets of your worship service at the same time. All of this is possible due to their cloud-based system.
Proclaim Remote App
The company has developed a remote app for Proclaim, which you can download to your phone. Through the app, you can control the presentation itself, adjust display settings, or even annotate your slides.
Live-Stream
Technically this feature is only available on Windows machines, but they’ve indicated that soon this feature will be available on Macs as well. Live streaming is obviously a big topic in light of the pandemic, and a lot of churches are still using this for services. This feature saves you the need to purchase extra software for live-streaming since it’s available through Faithlife Live Stream.
Digital Signage
Through this feature, you can create customized signage feeds. Their site actually walks you through the process of how to do this through the software, but the main benefit is that you can use this to create and schedule your digital announcements.
On-Screen Bible
This feature obviously makes it easy for you to add scripture references to your presentation. This saves you the time of having to type out these references yourself, and it allows your scripture references to be on an animated slide.
Sermon Recording
Proclaim has included a feature where you can record, edit, and publish your sermon without having to leave Proclaim. They even have a small video on their website explaining the process of recording and exporting the sermon.
Confidence Monitor
This is basically their nomenclature for providing stage displays. Like with ProPresenter, this feature allows you to communicate to people on stage with slide notes and a variety of other features. It also allows you to customize the font, colors, etc. on each of these slides.
Media Browser
Of course Proclaim has a variety of media already available for use with the subscription that you can customize to your needs. With the media browser, it will even give you recommendations in the future based on items you choose for your presentations. Also, any custom images or videos you upload to your group are available to others in your presentation group.
PRICING
Proclaim determines their pricing based on the size of your ministry; so, smaller churches pay less and larger churches pay more. We won’t break down all of their specific pricing groups here, but you can find the full list and interactive menu here. All of their pricing options are available monthly or annually depending on your ministry’s preference, but it should be noted that the annual option ends up saving you money. They also break down their pricing options into three different categories depending on the accessibility you want to different media options.
Proclaim On Air
This is the base price for the presentation software and all of its standard features.
Starts at $199.99 annually (churches sized 1-49) and caps out at $349.99 annually (churches sized 2500+).
On Air + Pro Media
This basically gives you the presentation software and the access to their media library, which they are always updating and expanding.
Starts at $299.99 annually (churches sized 1-49) and caps out at $524.99 annually (churches sized 2500+).
On Air + Pro Media + Partner Media
With this package, you get the benefits of the above options with access to 10,000+ motions, stills, and mini-movies from their partners.
Starts at $799.99 annually (churches sized 1-49) and caps out at $1174.99 annually (churches sized 2500+).
TYPICAL AUDIENCE
Since they adapt their pricing structure for churches of all different sizes, it is fair to say that any church could find Proclaim helpful. I think that any church with a congregation of 100+ would find it useful; they also offer a free 30-day trial for anyone interested. One of the major benefits for Proclaim is the fact that you can have unlimited installs and collaborators within one account. Your entire team can have it on their personal computers in addition to the church’s computers, and it makes it easy if you have a different outlet supplying your graphics and/or video. This feature is especially helpful in light of COVID-19, especially if your staff is trying to social distance more during the week.
Admittedly, we are currently using Proclaim with a couple of our Creative Church Services clients, so we can vouch for its ease of use and quick syncing capabilities.
So, have you ever used Proclaim? What did you like about it? What did you not? Comment and let us know.
Stay tuned next week as we delve into another presentation software specifically designed for churches.
