I’m torn between grabbing a ProPresenter license and a used short‑throw projector for our Wednesday gym nights (dodgeball dust still in the air) or staying unplugged with acoustic worship and printed lyric cards so we can funnel the cash to camp scholarships and a second van rental. Teens lock in when the visuals pop, but my volunteer crew is thin and setup/tear‑down already eats 45 minutes - has anyone made this jump and felt it was a win for engagement and clarity, or did simple serve discipleship better?
With dodgeball dust and a thin crew, I’d skip the projector — our used short‑throw clogged filters and alignment cost us about 20 minutes every Wednesday. We stuck with acoustic + printed lyric cards and put the cash toward van rentals, and tbh engagement didn’t drop at all.
I’d try a no-commitment test first: we borrowed a 65" TV on a rolling stand and AirPlayed the ProPresenter trial from a laptop — setup/tear-down was under 5 minutes, no dust or focus headaches, and it showed us if visuals moved the needle before spending; could you swing a two-week tryout like that?
We’ve kept ProPresenter workable in a gym by letting the worship leader run slides with an AirTurn pedal mapped to next/previous — no extra operator, and setup is pedal on the floor and go. Small caveat: the “dust still in the air” means bag the projector between nights or add a cheap prefilter so it doesn’t clog up mid-set.
Quick win for our gym nights: a used 75" TV on a rolling stand instead of a projector — no dust clogging, 2-minute setup, and we run lyrics from an iPhone with ProPresenter Remote (ProPresenter Remote). Only caveat is glare/tipping, so angle it and sandbag the base; for bigger events, @hgreen46’s “rent for big nights” still makes sense.