Skip to content

TV Distribution

This page explains the TVs and screens around the church — which screen is which, what they normally show, and how the picture gets to them.

The screens

Screen Where it is Normally shows
Front TV Left Front of auditorium, left PowerPoint slides
Front TV Right Front of auditorium, right PowerPoint slides
Rear Confidence Monitor Faces the speaker The same slides, so the speaker can see them
Fireplace TV Fireplace area Optional — slides or off
Meeting Room TV Meeting room Optional — slides or off

Confidence monitor explained

A confidence monitor is a screen placed so the person speaking can see what the congregation sees, without turning around. Ours shows the same PowerPoint slides as the front TVs.

Two separate things: power and picture

Two different systems control the TVs:

  • Power (on/off) is controlled by the RTI 7" touch screen controller, located just below the PC. The TVs are not turned on by the rack power strip.
  • Picture (what they show) comes from the Bluestream HDMI Matrix.

So to get slides on a TV, the TV must be turned on via the RTI and the matrix must route the PowerPoint PC to it.

How the picture reaches the TVs

All screens are fed from the Bluestream HDMI Matrix. A "matrix" is a smart switch box: it can send any input (source) to any output (screen).

flowchart LR
    PC[PowerPoint PC - NUC] --> MX[Bluestream HDMI Matrix]
    RCV[RodeCaster Video - optional] --> MX
    MX --> TVL[Front TV Left]
    MX --> TVR[Front TV Right]
    MX --> CONF[Rear Confidence Monitor]
    MX --> FIRE[Fireplace TV]
    MX --> MEET[Meeting Room TV]

For a normal Sunday the matrix sends the PowerPoint PC to the front TVs and confidence monitor. The detail of changing the matrix is on the Bluestream Matrix page.

Everyday operation

For most services you do not need to touch the matrix at all:

  1. Turn the TVs on at startup using the RTI touch screen (see Sunday Startup — Step 5).
  2. The matrix is already set to show the PowerPoint PC on the front TVs.
  3. Start the PowerPoint slideshow (press F5). See PowerPoint Operation.

If a TV shows the wrong thing

First check PowerPoint is in Slide Show mode (press F5 on the PC). Only if that is correct do you need to look at the matrix routing on the Bluestream Matrix page.

Turning the external TVs on or off

The Fireplace TV and Meeting Room TV are only used when those areas are in use. Turn them on from the RTI touch screen (the same controller used for the other TVs), and the matrix will feed them the slides if it is routed to do so.

Why is a TV not working?

Symptom Likely cause Page
TV is black / no signal TV off, wrong HDMI input on the TV, or matrix not routing to it TV Not Working
TV shows desktop, not slides PowerPoint not in Slide Show mode PowerPoint Not Displaying
Only one front TV works That TV's power, cable or input TV Not Working