Unified Ecosystem
Before you run your first service, it helps to understand how Nova is put together, because almost every feature in this guide builds on the same three-part foundation. Nova is not a single program but a small ecosystem of three engines that talk to one another in real time. Each one has a clear job, and once you can picture how they fit together, everything else — pairing a phone, sending lyrics to OBS, running voice mode — becomes much easier to reason about.
The heart of the system is the Desktop app, which runs on the computer connected to your projectors. Everything your congregation sees is drawn by the Desktop. Around it sit the Cloud, which handles the parts that need the internet (your licence, your team's account, and your monthly AI allowances), and Mobile / Web remotes, which let anyone on your local Wi-Fi drive the presentation without touching the main computer. The important thing to remember is that your actual content never has to travel through the cloud — songs, notes and Bibles live on the Desktop, and remotes connect to it directly over your own network.
Nova Desktop
The main engine. It stores your entire library, hosts the local remote-control server, and renders high-quality content out to your projector and stage screens.
Nova Cloud
The backend that secures your licence, keeps your account and device seats in sync, and meters the AI quotas (voice, lyric search and slide generation).
Nova Mobile & Web
The remotes. A native phone/tablet app and a browser-based Web Remote give your team tactile, wireless control of the whole production from anywhere in the room.
A live service is unforgiving — there is no second take when the sermon starts. The checklist below is the ten-minute routine we recommend running before every service. It is deliberately short, and each item exists to catch the failures that most commonly surface at the worst possible moment: a projector that never woke up, a phone that quietly lost its pairing, an AI balance that ran dry, or a 4K background that stutters on an underpowered machine. Walk through it once and you can relax for the rest of the service.
The 10-Minute Pre-Flight Checklist
- Screens: Verify that your "Main" (congregation) and "Stage" outputs are active in the Status Bar and are landing on the correct physical screens.
- Handshake: Open a remote — phone or browser — and confirm it shows "Connected" so you are not troubleshooting pairing once people are seated.
- AI Quota: If you plan to use Voice Mode, check you have enough Voice Minutes left for the length of the sermon, and top up beforehand if it is tight.
- Media: Play five seconds of your heaviest background video. If it stutters now, it will stutter live — drop to a 1080p version or close other apps before the service.