Playback Drive

Every time I VJ, I get the golden question. “Where do you get all your backgrounds?” If you’ve been around me long enough, you’ll know there are many answers to that question. Much of what I use I download from sites like WorshipHouse Media, and some have even come from 20-year-old DVDs that I’ve discovered across the years. But more and more, the content I VJ is being created by friends of mine or even myself. Time and time again, I point to a shiny silver box sitting next to my MacBook Pro and explain, “This is my external hard drive. It contains all the videos & images I could ever need.” I get varied responses, from “Is that for sale?” to “You better not walk away b/c I might steal that!” (jokingly, of course…I think.)

Well, what if you COULD walk away with a hard drive loaded with content?

Now you can!

For a long time, a few buddies of mine and I have sat around dreaming. This usually takes place over a burning fire-pit, a stack of pancakes, or chips & salsa after loading out an event. We dream about everything from high-end technology that doesn’t exist (or isn’t affordable and user-friendly) to our philosophies on visual worship to the direction the Church is headed and what we love/hate about it.

One of those dreams was to start creating more content…a fresh wind of creativity that would sweep the Church and cause a shift in thinking in how we approach visual media for worship. And another dream of ours was to see all of this packaged onto a hard drive…a “one stop” solution that we could share with the Church at large. And not just a heaping pile of random clips…but media we could actually see ourselves using! A carefully curated collection of our prized gems.

This is way more than a product. It’s our expression of community & relationships. This project is a collaboration between Orange Thread Media, Visual Worshiper & worshipVJ. Those are our business names & brands…but most of you know us by our real names…Luke McElroy, Camron Ware, Nicholas Rivero, Nate Griffin, Jason Norris & Stephen Proctor. And many of you in our community have spoken into our lives and helped shape the way we think.

We hope that the Playback Drive will be a simple & effective solution that will empower you as you journey on this road of “visual worship”. Because no matter what software you are using, how big your HD screens are, or how simple or complex your approach may be, at the end of the day, you’ve got to have good content. The type of content loaded ranges from artistic & abstract to film-based images & realistic. There’s also a good selection of fast & vibrant loops for more energetic contexts, as well as slow & reflective imagery for more contemplative times. We wanted to make sure that there is a wide variety that suits every situation!

More importantly, we hope that this will be a tool that creates community and edifies the Church at large. To read more about why we are doing this & the community behind it all, read what Luke McElroy has to say.

And for those of you on Twitter wondering what the heck “#pbhd” means (that is, if you haven’t already figured it out), it stands for “Playback Hard Drive”. :)

Pre-orders begins TODAY! We will begin shipping on April 30th, 2010. If you pre-order before April 28th, we guarantee to have you drive shipped on April 30th.

Oh, and there is just one more thing…

…all Playback Drive Users will receive a new clip every month for FREE!