Church live streaming setup

Begin with a simple, affordable live stream setup. Maybe you can upgrade later when you see how well your congregation interacts with the new technology. Look for a lower-cost camera and a free streaming platform, to begin with. As a nonprofit , some businesses may offer you a free camera or a deep discount.

If they don't offer outright, it never hurts to ask. While the camera will be your most significant expense, it's a one-time cost, so it's easier to swallow. When you're just starting, you can easily live stream your sermons for less than a few hundred dollars. However, if you're excited and want to go all out, you can easily spend any amount of money.

After you have your equipment, the only other expense is investing in a live streaming platform. Now that you know that your camera will be your most significant and most important investment, let's discuss what to look for in your live stream camera.

There are several types of cameras to choose from , including webcams, camcorders, DSLRs and action cameras. There are also cameras explicitly marketed as live streaming cameras, which are also a good choice.

To use a webcam, you'll need to attach it to a laptop. This isn't ideal, as the computer may get in the way of the person speaking or members watching the sermon in-person. However, a webcam is one of your cheapest options. Most professional photographers prefer DSLR cameras, as they're designed for high-quality photo and video. Camcorders are usually reserved for shooting video, so they're an obvious contender. Unless you're planning on shooting active live streams, you probably don't need an action camera.

However, if you or whoever is speaking moves around often, you'll benefit from an action camera because they provide the most stability. Don't make the mistake of going with the most expensive because you think it has to be the best.

Talk to someone who knows their stuff and get only what you need for your church. Even if you have a top-of-the-line camera, your video won't look nearly as good without adequate lighting. If it's too bright or too dark, your viewers may lose interest or get distracted. You want them engaged, so they listen to the message of the sermon.

If you're new to shooting video, it's sometimes hard to determine the difference between what you're seeing and what's displayed on the camera. You might see the pastor in perfect light with small lamps to either side, but the camera only picks up the dim shape of a person. Instead of placing a light on either side of the speaker, try three-point lighting instead.

This lighting technique uses three lights called the key light, the fill light and the backlight. A backlight with the key and fill lights placed in front of the speaker at degree angles drastically improves what the camera picks up.

However, don't forget to play around with the brightness to make sure the lighting is just right. If more than one person is present on your broadcast, install adjustable lighting or add multiple areas of mobile lighting that you can control from your computer or tablet.

If you want a more elaborate live stream setup, you may choose to invest in audio equipment as well. If you only plan to stream one speaker and a choir in the background, you can get away with the single microphone on your camera. If not, you will want to invest in special microphones that feed back into your camera. You'll likely need multiple wireless microphones for more complex setups. These mics will connect back to your camera through the main audio and video controller.

This controller can be a laptop or tablet with audio software installed. You'll also need software and a host of other tools to create, edit and promote your live stream.

If you're looking to know what free or inexpensive tools and resources are available to you, check out this guide. There are more expensive cameras that include built-in video encoders. Suppose you buy one of those, great. If not, you'll need to purchase one. Encoders can be software or a physical piece of equipment. There are a few reasons to opt for a hardware version, such as they use less bandwidth, are easier to configure and are usually cheaper than the alternative.

However, software video encoders are just as effective. If you use the software provided by the live streaming platform you're subscribing to, you may be charged based on the number and length of services you stream. Some charge a flat rate. If your church has its own website, you can dedicate an area of your website to host your live streams. Streaming tends to use more bandwidth than a typical non-profit website would.

Keep in mind that you may have to pay your hosting provider more. However, it's ideal to have your live stream in the same place as your other content. If you don't have or want to use your church's website, you can use a service dedicated to live streaming.

In this case, it's essential to carefully compare services to determine which features and pricing structure works with your church's budget. Many streaming services have their own equipment for purchase to make live streaming easier for churches. The kit from these providers may cost less than purchasing everything separately on your own.

Some even offer free trials to make it easier to compare services. The features mentioned above are standard in premium options, but what about free platforms? There are tons of free options available, but the two most popular are Facebook Live and YouTube Live. With Facebook Live, you can set up live streaming events in advance. This is entirely free and advantageous if your church already has a large following on Facebook. You can easily live stream on Facebook using a camera or your smartphone.

If you're considering Facebook Live for your live stream, check out our list of helpful ideas to make your virtual service shine. YouTube Live is a lot like the regular YouTube platform, except the videos are live. Before you can get started live streaming on YouTube, your account must be in good standing. When considering platforms, keep in mind that you'll get better support through paid services.

However, if you're just testing out live streaming for your church, free services work well enough to start with, so they're worth a shot.

Now that you're ready to set up a church live stream, it's time to increase engagement. One of the most efficient ways to do this is to tell your congregation to engage.

Most people use social media platforms that provide various engagement methods to maximize your organization's reach. For example, Facebook adds engagement buttons to live streams so that viewers can click on them to engage with comments and posts during the broadcast. While you likely won't want to stop the sermon to encourage viewers at home to engage, you can prompt them to at the beginning or end of your service.

It can be a simple statement such as, "To those watching from home, please take a moment to like our page and subscribe, so you never miss a sermon in the future.

Many organizations also use a call to action that asks at-home viewers to fill out contact cards so that someone from the church leadership can follow up and invite the viewers to join in person.

Little acts of kindness like this encourage those who have never attended in-person to show up. You can also add text to your live stream broadcasts or include graphics that ask viewers to "Subscribe to keep in touch" or "Comment and let us know where you're from! If a significant portion of your congregation is older, it's essential to make everyone feel connected.

Take the time to ensure that you are effectively reaching all generations in your church. Some older individuals may be leery of new technology, so be proactive and teach them how to use it before implementing live streams. You can record a tutorial that shows how to join your digital service and how to give online. Email a link for your digital service to your church members in advance to make it as easy as possible to join the sermon.

If you have the resources and volunteers, consider creating a team of church members who offer to help people get set up to watch live-streamed services. This initiative goes a long way in showing your congregation that you care. Vanco has created a detailed resource that covers every aspect of setting up a virtual ministry. Click on the resource below to get your own copy!

Vanco has helped churches through more than 20 years of holiday giving seasons by providing electronic giving solutions that have boosted donations for tens of thousands of churches. To see how your church can use eGiving to increase donations, give us a call at Demo Sign Up. Posted by Vanco on Jan 8, AM. What To Keep in Mind Before You Start What many people fail to consider is how church leaders, choir singers, band members and church members, in general, feel about being filmed and broadcasted online.

You should only invest in a live stream set up if: You want to extend your reach. While this might seem like the cheaper option at first, keep in mind that you need a very robust machine that is capable of processing large video files in real time. At the time of this writing, we recommend a computer with an Intel Core i7 processor and an Intensity Pro 4K capture card. Both are free. With a hardware encoder, you remove the need to purchase a high-end machine, you get faster video processing and you simplify your church video system.

Using the EzeCaster Pro , for example, you can start live streaming with the push of a single button—there is nothing to install, connect or configure. The device will automatically be connected to our live streaming platform which means that you can also record your church service straight to the cloud.

Quick comparison. Take a closer look at the resources you have. Next, do you need flexibility? If you want to play with the video quality settings, go with a software encoder. The last piece of the puzzle that you will need is a church live streaming platform. We hope the above diagram of a live streaming setup will help you. Now, let us walk you through this setup:. It might seem like a quick and easy solution at first but keep in mind that your live stream content will be at the mercy of their platform.

We already covered the steps to connect your church live streaming equipment. Before you get started, note that you need a Facebook Page. Then, start the live stream from the Facebook page. You can also schedule a Facebook Live but this will not work for recurring events, i.

Broadcasting from your desktop to YouTube is much similar to doing it with Facebook. If you decided to live stream to YouTube with a software encoder, see this tutorial. Like Facebook, YouTube also allows you to pre-schedule an event but, again, there is no ability to run a recurring live stream. Note the limitations. Facebook and YouTube limit your live stream to their platform, i. On both platforms, your live stream will be cut off after running for 4 hours.

Most churches also get their Facebook and YouTube live streams interrupted due to copyrights issues. If you want to broadcast without limitations and censorship, you might want to consider a online video platform.

A live streaming platform gives your worship team full control over the live streaming video as well as extra tools to engage your online audience. You can publish sermon videos and testimony videos. Oftentimes, these platforms offer video hosting together with live video broadcasting.

You can incorporate passages and other media. Depending on your specific style of worship, this can be anything from Bible quotes and illustrations to a pre-recorded video about The Passion of Christ. You can engage online worshippers. If you choose a streaming video platform that offers live chat , you can make your online audience feel like they are in the same room. This is a great opportunity for church leaders to connect with their parishioners after the sermon, to answer questions and to get input.

If post-sermon discussions are not yet a thing in your church, here are a few reasons to consider them. There are certainly a lot of compelling reasons to be on social media right now but which social media website should your church choose?

There is no right answer to this question. Take the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica case for example. While it did not put an end to the largest social network, the next such scandal could do it.

What if, when that happens, you have hundreds of videos on Facebook? It belongs to the social platform. If the algorithm decides that your live band is playing copyrighted music which might indeed be the case , it will take your live stream down immediately. You might also need the Christian Copyright Solutions license. In this case, your live stream and the recording will be taken down until the claim is resolved.

It is possible to embed a Facebook live stream or a YouTube live stream on your website. The trouble is that both of these platforms create a new link for each live streaming event. This means that you have to update the link every time you broadcast. Live streaming platforms do. So, if you want to allow your congregation to give to your church digitally, a video streaming service is the way to go.

The biggest challenge here is in finding the silver lining between being too cheap and going overboard with your video and audio gear. You can reduce this number by making use of existing resources e. IP cameras that have been previously installed and purchasing second-hand church equipment.

Want to dive deeper? We handpicked the best resources on the web to help you become an expert on church live streaming. Live Streaming For Churches. Reading the Bible online is becoming more and more popular. Ready to start streaming your church services?