Communication and Outreach

Since the early days of the Covid pandemic, members and friends of Mt. Tabor have been able to worship together via Facebook and Zoom. For nearly two years, services were captured with a cell phone and initially there were only two or three people at the church during those services. Sometimes there was only Pastor David and Shem Greenwood. More often, it was Pastor David, Bob Brown and neither Aly Olson-Turek or Mallory DeForest. Later, we added a Zoom option for Holden Evening Prayer services and once-a-month Sunday services. The cell phone and a single camera (for Zoom) were located between the lectern and the podium and there was a microphone for Pastor David and singers and another for Bob’s keyboard. The scene was a bit crowded.

When we resumed meeting in person, the cell phone/camera was moved back near the organ so that viewers could see the entire front of the church. Bob’s equipment was moved to the platform and all of the cables that had been lying all over the floor were relocated.

Around this time, the council and the Worship and Music committee agreed that we wanted to continue providing online services for those who did not yet feel comfortable attending in person, for those who could not attend in person and for those who might be traveling but wanted to maintain a link to Mt. Tabor.

If you’ve been attending services, you will have noticed a few changes in the surroundings. There are now two ceiling-mounted PTZ cameras, so called because they can Pan left and right, Tilt up and down and Zoom in and out. There are also two pairs of ceiling-mounted microphones. One pair covers the choir and the other pair covers the organ. Less obvious is a set of four microphone jacks behind the organ and four more behind the pulpit. These will be used as needed for activities requiring additional microphones at the front or back of the church.

What used to be the sacristy closet near the east sanctuary door is now an audio-visual control room and houses all of the equipment needed to manage the cameras and sound system and to send services to Facebook. To accommodate traffic in that area, the wooden doors have been replace with accordionstyle doors that take up no space when open.

If you have been viewing services from home, you’ve seen the result of having this new hardware. The cameras give us multiple views of the proceedings and the sound is much clearer because we use the microphones on the podium, lectern and altar rather than a cell phone that was thirty feet away.

The Endowment and Memorial committee generously funded this project. Harry Heightman and Duane Lee provided the planning and labor to make it happen and we “went live” with the new system on Christmas Eve.

If you haven’t seen an online service, we encourage you to go to the Mt. Tabor Facebook page at facebook.com/mttaborslc where all of our services are archived. Your comments and suggestions have been and will continue to be welcomed, appreciated and helpful.

Respectfully submitted.
Harry Heigtman