Livestreaming a Church Service Properly

A great many churches across south Georgia stream services, and most of the problems we are asked to fix are the same problem.

Audio is the whole thing

People will forgive mediocre video. Nobody watches a stream they cannot hear clearly. Audio taken from a camera microphone at the back of a sanctuary picks up the room, the air conditioning and the congregation, and very little of the person speaking.

Taking a feed from the sound board — properly, at the right level, with the right connection — is the single largest improvement available and it usually costs less than a camera.

The order to spend

1. 1.Audio from the board, converted and levelled correctly.
2. 2.A stable internet connection, wired rather than wireless.
3. 3.One good camera in a fixed, well-framed position.
4. 4.Lighting on whoever is speaking, which matters more than camera quality.
5. 5.A second camera angle, once the first four are right.
6. 6.Graphics and titles, which are the last thing rather than the first.

Common failures

• Camera-mic audio, which is the most common problem by a wide margin.
• Wireless internet dropping mid-service.
• A camera framed too wide, so the speaker is a small figure.
• Backlighting from windows, which silhouettes the speaker.
• Nobody assigned to actually run it, so it fails when the usual person is away.

What we do

We set systems up, we train the volunteers who will run them, and we document it simply enough that somebody new can follow it. A system that only one person can operate is a system that fails.

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