Exciting things are happening at WES to support our hybrid community! If you have been in the building since we have reopened to a hybrid platform, you may have noticed some of our new equipment, including some construction at the front of the Main Hall. 

As you may recall from a few years ago, members participated in a Digital Outreach Fundraising campaign we did back in 2018. We raised money specifically for boosting the live stream setup and increasing accessibility through technology for our platform. That account wasn’t fully spent down with that upgrade. We saved a chunk of that fundraiser because we assumed technology would change and we would need to adapt. Little did we realize that we would need to adapt so drastically and quickly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Lyn and the Tech Team began discussing and planning for “hybrid” platforms during February 2021. After nine months of meetings, demonstrations, patience, and COVID delays, WES began streaming with its newest video system in the fall of 2021. Since then, our Tech Team and Building Team have been working diligently to spend the remainder of the Digital Outreach fundraiser monies to carry us into this hybrid platform frontier. They’ve been behind the scenes (and sometimes in front of the scenes!) to make hybrid platform an engaging, community-building experience for those in the Main Hall and those tuning in from afar. 

Spearheaded by Jon Leca, Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) has become an integral part of Sunday platforms. Simply put, OBS is really cool software that allows us to capture all the elements of a platform, organize them into a cohesive presentation and stream it to you at home, in your car, or the park across the street. 

Ross Wells has been in the building over the past couple of weeks working toward installing televisions on both sides of the stage. Together, Ross and Jon are hoping to give the folks in the Main Hall the same experience as the folks at home. Instead of a projector in the middle of the stage, they are working to have images fed into the TVs above the doors on both sides of the stage. Abi and John Daken have been doing an amazing job creating the slides every single week, and we look forward to featuring their work with greater clarity. Using television screens instead of a projector is more visually accessible, and will help our space to be more attractive to renters. 

WES has also been so fortunate to have gained some new members over the course of the pandemic and, let us tell you, these new members have really stepped up to the plate! We have been thrilled to welcome Michael Dimyan and Denise Howell as Sunday morning tech team regulars. Michael has been learning all about our sound system from John Pfeifer, while Denise has joined with Pat McNeely to learn how to craft our virtual experience through OBS from Jon Leca. Longtime member Kate Lang has also been trained on the sound system, and several other members including Jami Ansell and Paul Baker are looking forward to their sound system training. We are also grateful for Zoom Chat Ushers, who create a hospitable environment in the chat on Sundays for our online participants. These volunteers include Trang Duong, Kate Lang, Judy Myers, Michael Dimyan, and Peter Bishop.

There have been so many variables each week. And WES is evolving with the times’ thanks to our amazing volunteers. Thank you, volunteers, for being the heartbeat of WES.