Written by Terry Doner. July 9 2020. Updated on Apr 10 2021.

Introduction

Many churches are trying to figure out how to launch a live stream capability. This article is a starting point for them.

One fundamental concept to establish before you start investing your money is to write down your purpose statement and how you will measure success. All your subsequent decisions should then be calibrated against those statements.

In general, the more you spend, the better the quality of the equipment. The scale tends to be logarithmic - To get a very noticeable increase in quality you likely need to double your investment. And in general balance your investment across the entire system. If you spend $10,000 on a video camera, don’t put it on a $50 tripod.

The best equipment in the world won’t work very well if you don’t know how to use it. Allocate some of your time and money to training those involved. In the sections below I have included links to other resources (Further Information).

Livestream Or Conference

This document has been written from the perspective of having already made the decision to Livestream. However there is another option, particularly for smaller churches; conferencing.

Conferencing allows for more congregational participation and can allow you to have a different sense of community than most livestream approaches. Many of the technology choices can be similar, especially in the hybrid in-person and at-home scenarios. The capability that is affected most is Encode & Distribute, and Engage & Promote portions of the capability map (see below).

Product and Service Reference

Within each section there are references to specific hardware and software products and many services. These are only a very small sample. There is separate more inclusive spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1v9g6WrEsuMKgN1nDWrTmjfebOoPu_liWmlMHY-HAEMs/edit?usp=sharing

There are several columns that indicate what kind of product or service each entry provides. For example, if you want to look at all listed video mixers, look at those with an ‘X’ in the ‘Mixer’ column.

Read the ‘Introduction’ sheet for more details.

Live Stream Capability Map

Live Streaming is a big topic which depends on a lot of other disciplines. We need a framework to decompose the capability, assess what we are doing, and build our investment plans.

Each box will be further described.

1. Create & Present

All planning, pre-recording, graphic production, music production and preparation of all teaching and related materials.

In the specific context of live streaming, we need to also consider the environment in which the presentation is delivered.

• To have good video, you need good lighting; the face needs to be well lit as facial expressions are a very important part of communication.

• Pay attention to what is behind the presenter - is the background clear of distractions and yet pleasant?

• Ironically, having good audio is more important than your video quality. Your audience will be more tolerant of video problems than they will be of audio problems. A few points about audio:

  • For a person talking, you need the microphone to be close to them, not on a phone 3m away from them.

  • Echoes and reverberations can be a problem and may need specific attention.

  • You also need to listen for background noises, traffic, air conditioning, etc, and try to minimize them.

Legalities

Disclaimer - I am not a lawyer. Please consult a legal professional for clarification or additional detail. Also, the details do vary by jurisdiction/country.

Copyright

You need to ensure that you are licensed to use all material you present for your stream, including music, videos, and graphics. If you don’t know then don’t use it.

There are broad coverage licenses you can purchase, such as CCLI, and CVLI. And there are options for those licenses that specifically cover streaming.

Be aware that purchasing a license to permit streaming the lyrics of a song, does not permit you to stream a commercial recording of the same song.

When purchasing media, keep a copy of your purchase invoice and a copy of the license rights with the purchased media.

Terms of Service

Be aware that internet services like Spotify, and Youtube provide their content to you via a contract, “Terms of Service”. And those terms do NOT typically allow you to distribute their content and are for personal use only. This means you are not permitted to show a youtube video in your service or to stream it. (There is an exception, see https://us.ccli.com/ccli-news/showing-youtube-videos-in-church )

Your Own Copyright Statement

You should seriously consider including in your recordings/stream your own assertion of copyright. A good place to start would be the Creative Commons licenses. https://creativecommons.org/

A good place to start would be “Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International” http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ . This would provide legal recourse to your organization if somebody took your content and edited it to say something contrary to your intended message.

Further information

• There are many great resources on the internet for photography and video and framing and composition.

• Creative Commons copyright statements: https://creativecommons.org/

• CCLI: https://songselect.ccli.com/

• CVLI: https://ca.cvli.com/

• CCS (a CCLI alternative): https://christiancopyrightsolutions.com/

• Fifty Shades of R80: An excellent discussion of the nature of lighting and colour, and in particular LED lighting. And "Messing with Light" covers the topic from a different perspective.

• Lighting Spaces that use Cameras:

2. Capture

There are three major types of content we need to capture for a live stream: Video, Audio and Graphics.

Video

To capture video you need a camera. The range of options are huge, from the cheapest webcams, cell phones, PTZ cameras, DSLR and mirrorless photographic cameras to dedicated high end video cameras costing $100,000+.

Cameras typically need to be mounted in some way. Some can be affixed directly to a wall or a beam, or you can use a video tripod. More sophisticated hardware includes jibs, sliders and stabilizers.

Audio

Good audio is a very important part of a quality live stream. If you have a sound system the best option is likely to take a feed from the sound board and get that into your stream. The possible combinations of are enormous. If in-house performed music things get even more complicated.

I have an article on using Digital Audio Workstations for Broadcast, and why you need an independent audio mix.

Graphics

Many churches use graphics (Powerpoint, ProPresenter, Mediashout, EasyWorship, etc) as part of a projection system, commonly for song lyrics and sermons points. Many also want that content included in their stream as well.

Further Information

• Joel Smith has many great references on his web site for cameras and such: https://www.joelwsmith.com

• If you use Allan and Heath (A&H) SQ or QU series mixers, this is an excellent guide: https://www.allen-heath.com/streaming-with-qu-and-sq/

• Presonus has a series of good articles:

• There are courses available from several sources, for example Church Sound University and MxU.

• You need a good understanding of how loudness works in the broadcast world. https://youtu.be/EiRMYoqU3ys

• If you use a Behringer X32 (or Midas M32) this is a great guide:

This is a video is a good overview of the mix process.

3. Mix & Enrich

In this stage we select and combine our various inputs resulting in the video we want to send to our viewers. This step is optional for very basic services.

As soon as you have more than one video source you need a component to select which one you want to transmit. This is accomplished using a “video mixer”, sometimes called a “video switcher”. These components typically also provide other capabilities such

Mix and Enrich

You can accomplish “Mix” via hardware or software solutions. The basic function is to take two or more video (and audio) sources and simply switch between them, perhaps with some kind of transition effect (for example a crossfade) or combine them (for example picture-in-picture, or a lower-third graphic).

Your video sources can be more than cameras, specifically it could also be a computer with presentation software that might display song lyrics, sermon support text or graphics, pre-recorded video for playback.

Products to consider:

Sling Studio:

• https://www.myslingstudio.com/

• Provides some interesting features to use cell phones as a video source

ATEM Mini:

• https://www.avshop.ca/video/switchers/blackmagic-design-atem-mini-hdmi-switcher-streamer

• One of the cheapest options available, also consider the “ATEM Mini Pro” which includes an encoder - see the next section.

Open Broadcaster Software

• https://obsproject.com/

• This software can mix multiple video sources and encode for broadcast.

Further Information

• Episodes by Doug Johnston, Ballast Media, AJAY the CEO, and Renewed Vision have some videos on the topic:

4. Encode & Distribute

Encoding prepares the video stream in a format appropriate for delivery to your distribution service.

Distribution delivers your video content to your viewers. Some of the available distribution services also provide features to engage with your audience. They may also provide live and pre-recorded (Video on Demand). Example services:

• Facebook LIVE

• Vimeo and Vimeo Live

• Restream.io

• Castr.io

• https://resi.io (Formerly Living as One)

Further Information

ATEM Mini Pro

• https://www.avshop.ca/video/switchers/blackmagic-design-atem-mini-pro-switcher-and-streamer

• This includes both a video mixer and a encoder/streamer

Open Broadcaster Software

• https://obsproject.com/

• This software can mix multiple video sources and encode for broadcast.

This article is from a vendor but is a good overview of many (but not all services).

5. Engage & Promote

For many organizations, they have a mission to broaden their reach, attract new participants and create community. Does this extend to your online platform as well? If so, how can you achieve it?

Brady Scheer, of Pro Church Tools, uses a construct he calls the “Next Steps Ladder” to provide structure to the process (you can listen to his detailed description of it here: https://prochurchtools.com/how-to-reliably-track-attendance-engagement-for-online-church/)

Next Steps Ladder

Aware

Getting them to know about our services and other ministries (i.e. Alpha, Life Groups, Kids programs, etc)

• Announcements within the livestream

• Like our page, receive notifications, share

• Boost posts, celebrate stories

Connect

When they actually reach out and give names or contact info with a digital connect card, a direct message or email. For example, on Facebook a couple ways to get them to this step is to:

• Invite those that are new to type the word “new” in the comments and then follow up with them individually

• “If you’re watching for the first time, like this comment.”

• “If you would like prayer, like this comment.”

Follow Up

This is when the Pastor reaches out

• “If you would like to speak to a pastor about …”

Commit

When they come in-person, affirming of their commitment through regular attendance.

Metrics

Many churches track various metrics to understand how well they may be doing with respect to their mission, for example: attendance, giving, confessions of faith, etc. How do you do this with an online community?

You need to determine what key metrics best represent the accomplishment of your online ministry’s purpose and start tracking those. This will help us when it comes time to re-evaluate the ministry and to determine if it is accomplishing its goal.

Metrics you might consider are stream viewers, total minutes viewed, likes or shares. One key point is to try to be consistent over time.

Problematic Areas & Solutions

OBS

OBS is a very popular streaming platform. And a common complaint is dropped frames. Fortunately OBS produces a log of events, and also provides an analysis tool to report on problems: https://obsproject.com/tools/analyzer .

Audio and Video Out-of-Sync

If you find that your audio and video are out-of-sync then read this Getting In Sync.

Appendix

Further Information

Jake Gosselin and Brady Shearer both have some good videos with their perspectives on equipment choices.

Selected Online Services

There are many which could be included here. A few have been selected for more details.

CHURCH ONLINE PLATFORM

viewer friendly, promotes engagement

https://churchonlineplatform.com/

support.churchonlineplatform.com

Features:

• 100% FREE

• Live Chat on the sidebar (one for attendees, and one for Chat Hosts team)/Chat moderation (delete, mute user, ban IP address, expletive filter)

• Live Prayer – one on one prayer time

• Notes – attendees can take notes in the sidebar and print/email them

• Synced viewing – simulated live (watch with a synced starting time); on-demand (starts playback anytime someone visits the site)

• Built in connections to social media platforms

• mobile-friendly

• different tabs for important host information like message notes, handy links, and metrics

• stats for every online event emailed

• customizable themes

• YouVersion integrations

• insert slides with certain cues

• chatbot automations

• permissions – allow different access for different roles

• real-time chat translations

FACEBOOK

https://developers.facebook.com/policy/

1. Ensure any pre-recorded content is clearly distinguishable from live content.

2. Don't use the API to publish looping videos; static, animated, or looping images; or to live-stream polls associated with unmoving or ambient broadcasts.

3. If you enable people to publish Live Video to Facebook, remind them of their obligation to not include third party ads in their video content and to clearly distinguish any pre-recorded content from live content.

YOUTUBE

https://developers.google.com/youtube/v3/live/getting-started

Gear Guide

This is a small subset of the gear available to accomplish your mission. Use this to help you learn the types of products available and the price ranges.