With the internet continually spurring innovation, live streaming seems to be getting simpler and simpler. A decade ago, only companies with huge budgets and important announcements even considered live streaming. Now, with the technology to live stream weaving its way into more and more online services, even small churches are joining those live streaming online.
Because now you can pop open an app on a smart phone and live stream, it's easy to forget just how much is involved in taking video from your weekend service and distributing it all over the world. For those that think that their church can stand out from the crowd using a phone, let's talk about the other pieces of the puzzle that can take a so-so stream and give it the quality that not only removes distractions, but says, “This message must be important because look at the effort they put into sending it out.”
Planning
While sometimes you can “wing it” in some areas of life, with video production in general, and live streaming in specific, the old adage is true, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.”
It all starts with the audience. Who is going to be watching your live stream? Will your audience be a couple of people who are regular attenders, but can't make it to church on a given week? Maybe your live stream is an outreach tool to people in your community who've never gone to church. A live stream for a few people who will only watch a couple of times a year is quite different than one for people who are asking sincere questions and considering our faith. The audience matters.
When you're planning to start live streaming, it's worth the effort to take stock of what equipment your church already has that can either be repurposed for a live stream or dual purposed. Is your audio mixing desk capable of sending a unique mix for the live stream? Maybe your church does IMAG already and has video cameras and a switcher that can create professional live video appropriate for your live stream, just using a different MLE. Has lighting always been a priority at your church? If so you may not need to add new lighting to the budget to make your live stream viewable. Whatever you have, that can dramatically affect the list of equipment you need.
Space is also something you should consider. If you don't have cameras in your current media system, where will they go? Your church's leadership may assume that cameras will go in the back or in some other out of the way location that may make better zoom lenses a necessity. Is there a good place for a video switcher and source monitors? People and equipment need to be placed in certain locations, so ask yourself if you have enough space and the willingness to use those locations.
Don't forget people. When you're planning a live streaming ministry, if you have the best equipment, but no one to run it, it's much less useful. Having enough people could also present challenges if they're all willing, but not capable ---- or worse; capable, but not willing. You may need to include paid staff or training in the budget to get the best possible stream.
Capture
Once everything (and everyone) is in place, it's time to capture the service. To do so, you have to make sure the critical elements of the media team work together to create the best production possible.
Will the lighting director be willing or able to provide enough even light for people in front of the church to be seen by the cameras? Without enough light, even the best cameras may be forced to open their apertures to f1.2, making focus difficult. They may need to slow down their shutter speed to the point that the motion gets blurry. Maybe they'll need to crank up their gain until the image is noisy. Blurry, noisy images are distracting.
As churches that do broadcast or live streaming know, what sounds good in the same room may not sound that good remotely. A separate mix is all but required for a live stream Perhaps that separate mix adds in a little ambient mic to bring audio from the room back into the mix. Maybe it adds instruments that are loud enough in person and wouldn't normally be mic'd.
Consider your camera angles. Online viewers need a different set of shots than the live audience viewing on IMAG. Wide shots of the room provide a better sense of context for the online audience. Live audiences don't need wide shots, then can look around the room.
On more thing about cameras and camera angles: Are your tripods capable of smooth panning and tilting, while maintaining a rock-solid shot? Erratic camera movements can be even more distracting than those that are blurry or noisy.
Encoding
Once you have the capture of the video, it needs to be encoded. This can be done with a computer and software like Wirecast from Telestream, or with dedicated hardware. While your IT guy may be more comfortable with the computer solution, it's not always an ideal solution. For example, many churches choose to use the encoding computer for other purposes during the week. Doing so can lower the reliability of such a machine. With OS updates and software upgrades, a computer that's not carefully monitored by an IT professional, could also work well one day and have problems the next.
In contrast, encoding hardware from Telestream, Matrox, ChurchStreamer, Living As One or Teredek's Vidiu series are purpose-built to encode video. They may cost more, but remember that this hardware isn't used to play games or create spreadsheets, so no one will try and use them for those purposes, possibly causing problems when called upon to encode a stream on the weekend.
Upload
While ISPs like to advertise maximum download speed, the most important number for live streaming is upload, which is typically much lower. Depending on the bitrate and resolution your church live streams at, you'll need between about 1,000 kbps and 9,000 kbps for streaming alone.
Don't overlook the fact that this much speed is not for anything else your church may do. So, if you also encourage people to post to Instagram or upload videos they take during worship (or they do it without encouragement), you may need much, much more.
Make sure you can get the speed you need for both how your congregation uses the internet during church and how you plan to live stream.
Distribution
Now that the service is captured and encoded, it needs to be distributed. Typically, this is done with a live streaming host. Some charge based on usage. Some charge based on a more “all you can eat” model. Some are free, monetizing the service with ads, limiting usage, or stripping away services to the point of making it difficult to get support, when you need it.
Depending on the needs of your congregation, you may gravitate to one service over another. If you have IT people on staff, perhaps you'll be able to use a service like a CDN with less support or an install of a Wowza server on Amazon's cloud services.
If the live stream is completely volunteer-run by people who don't have a background in supporting these systems, a service with more management and support may just be worth some additional investment.
Other considerations
While these are the basics of live streaming, there's always much more to cover. Equipment may work fine one week and not at all the next. Make sure someone can troubleshoot it.
Because of the live performance exemption in the U.S., your church should be prepared to add a live streaming copyright license. Do your research and decide whether the CCLI streaming license or the WorshipCast license is right for you.
Also consider how you define success with your live stream. If you have an average of one person watching per week, will you consider that a success? What happens if the online congregation gets larger than the one attending in person? In most cases, it's better to know the answer before it happens than after.
Lastly, consider some of the questions from naysayers. Will your church blame the live stream if attendance drops? How can you keep potentially vulnerable people safe from being recognized online by an abusive ex-spouse or a non-custodial parent? If you have a ready answer and a plan you've already implemented, that can go a long way to solving problems before they happen.
It's a lot to think about, but it's better to count the cost before you start than to realize what a huge undertaking a live stream is after people start depending.
It's worth it. Just don't skip over any of these considerations as you're planning and creating your live stream. You wouldn't do so when planting a new church or another campus. Think of a live stream the same way and you'll reach more and more people, which is, of course, what we all really want.
