A Conversation with Kenny Jahng about Virtual Reality World and Amazon’s New Social Network

audio Block

Double-click here to upload or link to a .mp3. Learn more.

What is the future of virtual reality? Will Amazon’s new social network compete with Facebook?

Our regular guest, Kenny Jahng, answers these questions and more in this new podcast with Nils Smith. Together, they share their experience and insights from their immersive virtual reality (VR) experience at VR World in New York City. Kenny and Nils try to predict the future of VR in churches, like having a quiet time with a VR tour of Jerusalem, or attending an actual worship service through VR in your own home. They also discuss how Amazon’s new social network revolves around and with their actual products for sale.  Is this a threat to Facebook?

Check out my new VLOG

Hey guys, as you might have noticed, I have been a little quiet here lately. That's because I've been working really hard on my new VLOG on YouTube. Take a look at the Intro Vlog:

It would mean a ton if you would subscribe the VLOG and engage in the conversation on YouTube. I will be releasing a new VLOG every week on the channel (every Thursday). I would love to know what you think and look forward to the continued journey of learning out loud as I transition from Blogging to Vlogging. 

Creating a Generous Culture in Your Church

I met Trent Dunham over 3 years ago now where I first heard him share a presentation titled “Creating a Generous Culture” to church leaders. I immediately began to integrate some of these learnings into my ministry and when I joined Dunham+Company about a year ago, I got to work building a platform for church leaders to learn these principles.

The reality to creating a generous culture is that there is no magic bullet and these principles can’t be taught and learned in a 1 hour session. They are processed through and developed over time. That is why we built ChurchPlus.

ChurchPlus is a community of church leaders learning together to create a generous culture in their churches. As a member of ChurchPlus you will participate in a monthly webinar based around a theme. This theme will be processed out in a private Facebook Group where participants will be able to process the topic further together and ask questions to the Dunham+Company team. Not only will participants have access to this ongoing content, but also to the content library that will include all previous webinars on-demand as well as 2 courses in the Dunham Fundraising Institute:

• Creating a Generous Church Culture ($199 value)
• Social Media for Ministry ($199 value)

For a limited time we are offering new members access to ChurchPlus for the first month for just $1 (and you can cancel anytime). You will have full access to the community and webinars as well as the 2 additional courses.

Sign up for ChurchPlus today by going to http://ChurchPlusNow.com and use the coupon code “MORE”. I will personally be leading the conversation in the Facebook Group and hope to connect with you there!

My 360 Camera Rig

In January I got my first 360 camera and many have asked me about my camera rig as they’ve seen some of my 360 videos on Facebook. It’s actually quite simple and consists of 3 things:

1. Insta360 Camera
2. iPhone 6
3. Right Arm (literally my right arm)

Take a look at this 360 video I shot with my “rig" from the Shoreline Church worship service on Sunday:

You can see that the video quality isn’t tremendous and the audio has room for improvement, but you are still able to capture a unique experience from the worship service at Shoreline Church. Naturally, you can get fancy with a GoPro Rig, microphones, monopods, drones, etc, but jumping into 360 video doesn’t require that level of investment.

With the Insta360 camera you can see what you are capturing on your iPhone at the same time or you can also use the camera independent from the phone. The camera has a MicroSD slot where the footage is stored and when connecting the camera to the phone I am easily able to upload to YouTube, Facebook or wherever I want to push the content. The Insta360 app makes it very easy to make simple cuts in your videos before sharing out.

After playing with this camera for almost 3 months now I really can’t recommend it enough. It’s affordable being right at $200, it’s portable easily fitting in my pocket, and it’s easy to use simply connecting to my phone requiring no upload to my computer or post editing.

The one downside that I have found with the camera is that it does heat up fairly quickly when connected to the iPhone. So, if you’re using it for more than 15 minutes or so it might not be a good fit. I think the optimal time for a 360 video at this point in time is 1-3 minutes, so I don’t anticipate doing longer videos using the Insta360. I do see a place for longer form 360 video experiences, especially around live events like church services, sporting events, etc.

All this to say, if you’re looking for a 360 video rig, I highly recommend the Insta360 camera partnered with your mobile device and right arm.

YouTube vs Vimeo

Organizations are always asking me if they should use YouTube or Vimeo. My answer is almost always the same: both.

These 2 platforms are great, but for different reasons.

YouTube is a great standalone platform where people will find your content via search and the high traffic community exists to build a new audience.

Vimeo however would likely store your content for years publicly and only get a handful of views if left just on Vimeo. The advantage to Vimeo is in what you can do with these videos beyond the platform alone as they can embed easily into other platforms. With TVApp.Church our primarily integration point is Vimeo because of how well it integrates into our system where YouTube makes it near impossible to integrate. Vimeo videos also embed nicely into websites, online courses and so many other uses.

So, you’re likely frustrated feeling like you now have to do more work managing multiple platforms. Well, yeah, that’s pretty much what I’m saying. .

As you get started with video you will likely only need YouTube and for many video creators YouTube might be all you ever need. As your platform grows and you desire to drive people to your website, blog, apps, etc. and host video content on your own platform you will likely need to expand to Vimeo.

It’s really not that complicated. It also doesn’t take as much time as you might think as you begin to get your systems down. Getting to know both of these platforms will prove valuable long-term as neither of them is going away and online video is only going to increase.