In this presentation, PTZOptics has prepared tips for live streaming churches services with insight from over 20 video production experts. In order to create this presentation we reach out to various live streaming Facebook Groups including the Streaming Idiots and Church Sound & Media Techs.

Church Streaming

In these groups, we asked “What should a complete newbie know about live streaming a house of worship server?” We received over 100 comments from experts around the world. These insights on church streaming have been gathered into this concise presentation and reviewed by the PTZOptics Team.

1. Upgrading your Church Video like a Boss w/ Jason Jenkins
2. Planning for live streaming a church broadcast
3. Thinking about lighting
4. Thinking about multiple cameras
5. Camera Placement
6. Working with Audio
7. Working with Volunteers/Team
8. Hardware Selection Tips
9. Working with Computers for live streaming
10. Networking & Bandwidth Advice
11. Tips for Camera Control
12. Streaming Emergencies & common Fixes
13. Closed Captions – Web Captioner
14. Newtek NDI – Free Scan Converter
15. Example Systems and Setups

#1 What do you want to accomplish?

Jason often hears

1. We want to increase the production value of our services by sending live video and graphics to multiple screens.
2. We want to live stream our church services, to increase our audience and spread the good word!
3. We want to record our sermons, and upload them to Vimeo or YouTube, so that our house-bound parishioners  can watch them at home.

#2 How many cameras do you want? Will you have camera operators?

A church just starting out may only need a single camera. Others may want three to five, or more… If they don’t have employees or volunteers to operate these cameras, the conversation turns to PTZ cameras (Pan, Tilt and Zoom).

You may want to consider the scalability of your system. Can you easily add cameras in the future? Can you easily add additional video inputs or outputs later on?

#3 How is your Audio?

You can have the greatest video in the world and bad audio will make the entire stream a wasted effort.  It could be that a simple microphone upgrade could significantly improve your audio results. You may need a more powerful transmitter to counteract signal loss.

#4 How is your lighting?

A common problem is not enough light. Without enough light the cameras will compensate with larger aperture and additional gain which will increase the image noise.  Another frequent issue is that of mixed color temperatures. If you have tungsten lighting in your chapel, plus natural light from windows you have a clash of kelvins! You can either invest in drapes/shades to block out daylight or replace interior lights with daylight fixtures to color match each.

Planning for House of Worship Live Broadcasts

Planning for House of Worship Live Broadcasts

Dos:

• Do plan for your first months worth of streaming services to have issues.
• Do try to have someone you trust watch from outside your churches network. Either cell data or from home. Allow them to provide you live feedback via text.

Don’t’s:

• Don’t expect perfection without practice. And it’s hard to practice without a “live” service.
• Don’t be discouraged by a small audience. Everyone attending online is someone who would not be in service otherwise.
• Don’t look at your streaming statistics on a regular basis. Statistics and metrics are for businesses, you are using the internet to perform the Great Commission. There are no numbers requirements in that verse. 😜 – Christopher M. Chinni

Lighting:

1. Lighting will make or break your video quality. Buy gear with a long term plan in mind – Barry Carpenter
2. For churches you need good quality lighting (as mentioned), at least two takes/shots (tight and wide) should do. Incorporate media that is shown in church via another computer/device (this is now shot #3). Ensure clean audio input from main mixer. But most importantly engage the viewers along the way. – Carlos Gonzalez
3. Good lighting is very important to quality video.

Using multiple cameras for a church service

Multiple cameras for church streaming

If you have multiple cameras I find it would be better to frame the camera shot off air and then switch to the camera and move the off air camera to the next shot and switch.  When recalling presets from the controller, the camera zoom will quickly snap to the recalled zoom setting and the camera will then pan to the programed position. The PTZ cameras are great solutions for churches that don’t have much room to put camera platforms or operators. They are great for churches with limited staff, since one person could frame the camera shots and switch all from one small console.

Church Camera Placement for Church

Camera Placement Tips for Churches

We mounted the camera close to eye level with someone standing at the pulpit. This angle is best for live IMAG shot. If it was at a higher angle like on a ceiling it could have this looking down from heaven kind of shot feel, great for when you want to show the crowd or people in a room but not so great when you need to watch the preacher on stage for a long time.

With the camera zoomed a lot, the image will move much faster when panning or tilting with the controller. Small slow movements are necessary if you have to follow a speaker on stage. Moving the camera even a half of a degree can cause a shift in the view position of the camera when zoomed in very much.

Working with Church Audio

Working with Church Audio

Good audio is half of a good video. Bad audio will get you discounted quickly. You need to at least get a feed from your sound console, preferably a mix for broadcast, which is different from FOH. Try to capture audio the Front of House mix from the church mixer if you do not have enough hardware in terms of a second mixer for a separate mix of the church. – Alfredo Tigolo Use a couple good shotgun mics to pickup ambient sound from the room, pick up worshipers, shouting, singing, etc. Keep the gain down far enough to pick up sounds yet avoid echoing – James Bond

With Sound, do not only rely on the sound desk. Always, have at least i mic into the system as a backup. Usually off the lectern. . – Chris Morton

Working with Church Volunteers

Working with Church Volunteers

Remember that just because it seems simple and easy to use to you doesn’t mean it will be for your volunteers so always follow the Keep It Simple Stupid principle when designing a system only add as much complexity as is needed to get the job done and only when your team is comfortable add new things. Start with 1 or 2 cams more than that starts to become more complex to manage. Minimize the number of adapters and converters you use, because at the worst possible time one of them will fail. Also have a few spares on hand in case one breaks. Avoid HDMI like plague due to the hdcp copy protection protocols on that format. SDI is your best bet for reliability and quality. NDI is great but only if you have the networking chops to build out the infrastructure to handle it. – Kevin Amos Schmuhl

Volunteers. Perhaps this should have been higher on the list, maybe the number one thing to consider.  You need to make sure your volunteers are ready to go and that they understand their responsibilities and the equipment. I also believe having regular meetings with your volunteers (other than Sunday’s), can be very beneficial and build relationships.  Review order of service with your team. This is more than just the people running video, sound and cameras, this should include everybody that is involved in the service from the pastor, the band or worship leader, to the person making announcements, and whoever else is involved on the platform.  You may need to know details about where on the stage someone might be and who is on what microphone, etc.. –Phil Thompson

I think one of the key aspects is the team integration. Most church set-ups will not have the ability to have two consoles, and multiple camera ops, sound techs, and graphics teams. I think the tip is to do a realistic plan with the people you have now to determine just how far you want to go. From this point begin with a budget, add 10% and spec equipment. Audio is really important and adding in a room mic or two can really make all the difference in the world, better yet if you can add a little effects to it through a bus mix out. We just took our level to live captioning through ATEM which is no small feat. We also display the lyrics using ProPresenter while in worship. We have a campus license and use the master/slave option. Here is a video of WebCaptioner doing its thing. FF just a few minutes, we let it build up since it is all mumbo jumbo from trying to caption the worship part. – Ryan Michael

Assign production roles to anybody assisting with the production. This is very important with amateur and/or volunteer production teams as it allows specific people to “own” a particular part of a workflow. Assigning roles makes it easier for people to learn broadcast critical elements of a production, without overwhelming them. This leads to better broadcasts and accountability on specific tasks. – John Basile

Hardware Suggestions for Church Streaming

Hardware Suggestions for Church Streaming

Hardwire only. Do not try streaming from your laptop with wifi only. Also, most streaming software works best on PC’s. – Frank Chyz The KISS Rule. Keep It Simple Stupid. Start slow and add flash as you learn and feel comfortable. – Dan Abrams NDI is your friend. Run NDI scan converter on your presentation computer so that you can bring in sermon graphics, scriptures, PowerPoint, worship lyrics, ect… -Mackenly Jones

Power Conditioners. I simply cannot stress the importance of having a great power conditioner or surge suppression system. In venues with older wiring, this is an absolute must as voltage fluctuations caused by projectors, large amplifiers and lighting can put your equipment at risk and affect overall system performance. – John Basile. A good cross-converter is worth its weight in gold. You never know when a component might fail or if a guest speaker wants to bring their own equipment into your workflow, having a good cross-converter on hand can make all of the difference.

There are a lot or great advice given here. What can really help anyone get their mind around what it takes to broadcast a service is to go visit a church in your area who is doing what you want to do, make a phone call and see if they will let you take a tour and ask question. Bring some people from leadership and volunteers. After a visit you will have a good idea on what needs to be done to do it well. Even if you don’t have the budget it will give you perspective. – Benjamin Dillenback

Learn how to build and optimise computers, if you go the vMix route. Your computer might act weird just before the gig, you should know how to fix it yourself. A help desk might not be available on a sunday morning or a saturday night, so being able to detect and fix problems yourself is important. Also dedicate a machine to livestreaming only. This means: no browsing, video editing, gaming… – Ittai De Vree

CPU Load on Computer. I put this down the list aways because to really get an accurate idea on how your processor is doing you need to have everything up and running including your live encoder as you stream.  If your computer is running above 70% CPU, I would be a little nervous. If it’ above 80%, I would be really nervous. If it’s above 90% I would leave the room and run for the hills.  Just kidding about that one, but anytime your CPU runs over 70 to 80%, it’s going to cause problems with your streaming video. Video buffering, video pixelation, and more problems will develop. If your CPU runs high you need to examine the resolution that you are streaming. You may need to lower it. If you are sending multiple streams, that can be taxing on your computer. If you are recording your service using your live encoder that can drain your computer’s resources. One solution is to beef up your computer’s processor and ram. – Phil Thompson

Networking and Bandwidth for Streaming

Networking and Bandwidth for Streaming

Whatever bandwidth you’re broadcasting in (total, all upstream outputs) add a minimum of 40% for overhead. So if you’re encoding three bitrates on site, a 1080p 6mbps stream, plus a 2.5mbps 720p stream, plus a 1.5mbps 480p stream (total of 10mbps), you don’t just need 10mbps, you need 14mbps (minimum, for mission critical applications you want at least double, 20mbps). Remember that this is upstream bandwidth, not down. Many cable modems provide very asymmetrical data rates: 300mbps down, but only 20mbps up, say. And you need to make sure you’re getting this rate steady while the network is under the normal use it will be while streaming. I’m Jewish, so I don’t really know what Christians do with their phones during a religious service, but if there are people on the network using it, it will take some of you bandwidth away. – Dan Abrams

NDI is rapidly becoming an industry standard, so make sure your network is ready. Since NDI relies on a good amount of bandwidth, a robust router and switches capable of 1Gbps speed is a necessity for reliable streaming. Speaking of- utilizing products such products such as NDI-enabled PTZOptics cameras along with solid PoE+ can make upgrading your current cameras easier than ever. – John Basile

Tips for Church Camera Control and Operation

Tips for Church Camera Control and Operation

1. Serial Control
   1. RS-232
   2. RS-485
2. IP Control
   1. VISCA Over IP
   2. Built-in vMix, MimoLive, TriCaster
   3. Wireless iOS App
   4. Open Source Control Software
3. NDI
   1. Built into many live streaming platforms

Above you will see a list of PTZ camera control options you have for your church. As discussed earlier, if you do not have dedicated camera operators the ability to have remotely controlled PTZ cameras is ideal. We have quite a few options for remotely controlling these cameras.

Preparing for Streaming Emergencies

Church Streaming Emergencies

Emergency #1 – Buffering & Skipping

What happens when you video stream starts to buffer and skup? The common issue here is lack of bandwidth. You need to increase your upload speed most likely. In Wirecast, the broadcast icon will change colors from green to yellow or red.  In vMix, the stream button will change color from red (which means broadcasting live without issue) to yellow or orange.  In OBS, there’s a similar alert on the lower right hand part of the screen showing the stream status.” Next run a speed test at speedof.me to measure your current upload speed. Remember we are looking for upload speed not download speeds.

As a rule you should have twice the amount of upload speeds as you are consuming with you stream.

• 720p can be between 1.5-4MBps.
• 1080p can be between 2-6MBps.
• 4K can be between 8-30MBps.

Tip: Consider putting a password on your WiFi. Your church members may be consuming the bandwidth you need to broadcast. So password protect your WiFi Access point during live broadcasts. Another option is purchasing a dedicated ISP service for your broadcast PC.

Emergency #2 – Pixelation

“Pixelation is normally due to your encoder not able to encode your stream fast enough.  Commonly, the moving parts of the video image are pixelated while the static items remain crisp.  The encoder works hardest when the video contains moving subjects and backgrounds. Encoding your stream can be very taxing on your computer.  You’ll want to make sure that the CPU on your computer doesn’t reach above 80% at any time you’re streaming.

Option 1: Reduce the workload of your computer

Option 2: Upgrade your computer

To reduce the load on your computer, you can change your encoder settings to either remove some additional streams and/or change the settings of your existing streams.  Removing one of your two streams can reduce the CPU load by almost 50%.  The key parameters to reduce the workload when encoding a single stream include the stream resolution, the stream bit rate and the stream frame rate. Changing your frame rate from 60 frames per second to 30 frames per second can reduce the encoder workload by 50%.  So set your frames per second at 30 frames per second.  Reducing your broadcast speed and resolution can also dramatically reduce the workload on your encoder.  Although certain resolutions require minimum broadcast bit rates to broadcast properly.  

Emergency #3 – Unable to Stream

If your encoder is unable to connect, the first thing to test is that you have a good internet connection on the encoder computer.  Launch a browser on the encoder computer and navigate to a known website. If you have a good internet connection the likely problem is your stream key. Try to copy and paste your stream keys into your encoder software once more. If this doesn’t work try refreshing the keys from YouTube/Facebook or other CDN.

Emergency #4 – No Audio

The first thing to check is the audio output level/setting on your encoder.  Make sure the audio setting is appropriate. If you’ve had audio in weeks prior and you don’t have any audio now, then you should first check for loose or disconnected audio cables to the encoding computer. If the cables check out OK, then check to see if the audio source is sending audio to your encoding computer.  A common problem is the sound guy may have muted the audio feed to the live stream. “If you still haven’t found the issue, then it’s time to double check your encoder audio settings to ensure you’ve selected the proper audio source. If you still haven’t found the issue, then it might be time to test the audio input using a pair of headphones to determine where the audio outage is occurring.