SongShow Plus

Kommentare: Have used it since the mid-2000s every week. It gets the job done. We rely on it to produce a service where technical glitches do not distract from worship. Apart from the video issues which we are still troubleshooting, it's a workhorse.

Vorteile: If I need it in our church service, Songshow can do it. It may not always be obvious or handy, but the capability is there. Song lyrics, picture and video backgrounds, Bible quotations, video projection, Powerpoint, multi-screen handling, we use it all. We create programs for upcoming services and use them at practice, making mods as we go. Updating lyrics, reordering songs and announcements, importing slideshows and videos are all fairly straightforward. The software is reliable, the only problems we have had during a service were network or media related, not SSP itself.

Nachteile: The display is almost infinitely customizable, but finding the setting you want can be difficult. We have had problems with stuttering and freeze-ups when projecting video, but we're not sure if it's the program or the network. Normally the database is on a file server connected by Gigabit ethernet. Video projection improved when we moved the database to a local drive, but then we can't share it among presentation workstations.

Kommentare: I used SSP weekly to both plan and execute up to 4 church worship gatherings. It was used to display song lyrics, informational slides, presentation notes/points and audio/video elements to a gathering of up to 200 people.

Vorteile: I purchased SSP for my organization when it first came out and I have to say it was cutting edge for its time. I love that it is built from the ground up for churches and worship environments. It made managing service planning and database information much easier.

Nachteile: Although it was cutting edge initially, I feel that the software has not kept pace with industry shifts over the years. Specifically as standard resolutions, frame rates, and aspect ratios have changed.

Kommentare: I loved using SongShow Plus for our church services. It was convenient and a useful resource to make the service flow seamlessly.

Vorteile: I liked that this product had so many features to create a service. It also became easy to use after some practice.

Nachteile: The one downside of this product is that there is so much it can be overwhelming when first using it. However, after a little practice, it is easy to see just how much can be done with this product.

Kommentare: When we started using SongShow Plus around 20 years ago, it was a decent system--about as good as others out there, though probably not quite as good as ProPresenter. However, the company seems to have no vision as to what church presentation software should be, so they just keep making small, almost worthless updates a few times a year. There have been no major releases in recent history. The entire product needs an overhaul, but it seems unlikely that such a thing will happen any time soon. The past ten years or so have been frustrating in terms of using this for our services, and thankfully we finally replaced it with Faithlife Proclaim, which has been a MUCH more pleasant experience.

Vorteile: The song database organization was designed decently, in that you could have multiple collections of songs within a database, and could easily create copies, duplicates, etc when needed. You could also customize aspects of a song within a particular service without impacting other places it might be used. Songs were also built using Verse/Chorus/Bridge/etc parts vs. just throwing words on a slide, which made it easy to pick any part of the song you wanted for quick display.

Nachteile: There are many reasons not to choose SongShow Plus. First, it is buggy. We've had it crash numerous times in the middle of or just before a service. Once a service was running, we tried not to make any changes to the database, as that could cause the entire application to hang without warning. Sometimes it would recover, other times it wouldn't, thus leaving you stuck. Overall, things operated very slowly. Second, the provides an extremely poor UX. SSP has evolved over time to incorporate various features, but the UI has been the same for 20 years. It's hard to find what you're looking for, UI elements look old and pixelated, and screen real-estate is used poorly. Finally, r-technics (the company that makes SSP) seems to be making minimal updates to the software at this point, while still charging hundreds of dollars per year to keep it up to date. You don't have to pay the support fee if you want to stay on the current version, but then you don't even get bug fixes. There are much cheaper options out there that provide better value.

Kommentare: I recommend for Windows users if your budget allows. If on a Mac, try the trials of native Mac software.

Vorteile: This is a great way to stay organized and quickly change slides to the correct verse when you make a mistake. Powerpoint integration is also nice. Being able to backup is important. I also like being able to setup a sequence of the different verses, bridges, choruses, etc. so you can practice with the band and figure out the correct order. There are plenty of background options though black with white letters is always the most readable. Sometimes I would add snowflakes.

Nachteile: I wish it ran native on a Mac. Our church has to run VMWare Fusion in order to use this software. Also exporting to additional formats would be nice for if you ever switch applications (have not tried the latest version of this software, so exporting may be improved).