Kids Church DJ - Part 1: The Basic Setup

In this post, I want to talk about the nuts and bolts of this new Kids Church DJ role by detailing the hardware and software that we use and what our basic setup looks like. I'll stick with our initial basic setup for now.

Here's what it looked like:

1 Computer

2 Soundboard

3 Other input (mics, etc.)

4 Speakers

Our computer is the main hub of our DJ Booth as well as the central source of all of our kids church media cues.

The computer is connected to our soundboard via a 1/8” to Dual Stereo 1/4” adapter cable to two 1/4” cables. There’s also a USB-C adapter for our HDMI video output into our screen.

This is the setup that most of our DJs are familiar use.

We run ProPresenter for our videos (which consist mostly of loops and countdowns, transitions, story videos and worship songs) as well as any sound effects or specific music cues.

We use Spotify for most of our background music for before/after service, games and service segments.

We have Spotify playlists that we’ve put together for the various parts of our service. 

• The Pre/Post playlist is upbeat and friendly to create a pleasant and welcoming environment for our families. It consists mostly of worship songs geared to upper elementary-age kids.
• The Background Music playlist is what we use behind some of our segments in which someone is speaking, like our welcome segment or game introductions. It features instrumental music that is upbeat but not overwhelmingly so.
• Our Game Music playlist is a grab bag of high-octane songs designed to bring some real intensity to our game segments that will pump up the entire crowd.
• Our TBS (The Big Story) Playlist features instrumental songs that are mellow and calming. It’s designed help kids get into the mind-frame in which they’re able to pay attention to content happening on stage.
• Our Response Playlist features instrumental hymns or worship music designed to help kids reflect on God’s Word and respond to His presence. This is the playlist that we use when we want kids to respond to the content that was just shared.
• Our Misc Playlist features music or clips that don’t fit into any of the other categories. It’s got songs that we use for recurring jokes or segments as well as music that will only be used a few times.

The DJs that use this setup have all the basic skills required to maintain the environment and atmosphere that we are trying to set during our service segments and the transitions between them.

They can cue media and/or songs from ProPresenter and Spotify and 

In the next post, I’ll go over our advanced Kids Church DJ setup. This will include some actual DJ hardware and software as well as some tips to help your Kids Church DJ feel like a real DJ!