How to livestream a church service: what you actually need

A church livestream can be simple and still look and sound good. Most streams that disappoint have the same few problems, and almost none of them are about the camera.

The four parts of a livestream

1. Cameras to capture the stage.
2. Audio, fed from your sound system.
3. A computer or hardware encoder that puts the picture and sound together and sends them out.
4. An internet connection that can keep up.

Audio is what people notice

People will watch a slightly soft picture, but they turn off a stream they can't hear. The most common mistake is using a microphone in the room, or the camera's own mic, which picks up echo, the room and the people near it.

The fix is a separate stream mix from your sound board. The mix that sounds right in the sanctuary usually doesn't sound right on a phone: in the room, the band is loud on its own and the board mostly adds vocals, so a straight copy of that mix sounds thin and vocal-heavy online. A dedicated stream mix, set up once and saved on a digital board, fixes that.

Cameras

One good fixed camera is a fine place to start. When you're ready for more, remote-controlled (PTZ) cameras let one volunteer switch between a wide shot and a close-up from the booth without anyone standing behind a tripod.

Lighting matters as much as the camera. If the stage is lit for the room but not for the camera, faces come out dark or washed out. Small changes to stage lighting often help a stream more than a more expensive camera.

The computer or encoder

Something has to combine the cameras, the audio and any lyrics or slides, and send them to YouTube, Facebook or your website. That's either a computer running streaming software, or a dedicated hardware encoder. A computer is more flexible; a hardware encoder is simpler for volunteers and has fewer things to go wrong on a Sunday morning.

Internet

Use a wired connection for the streaming computer, not Wi-Fi. Test your upload speed at the time you'll be streaming, since it can drop when the building is full of phones. You want comfortably more upload than the stream needs, so a busy moment doesn't freeze the picture.

Music licensing

If you stream worship songs, you'll likely need a streaming license on top of the copyright license you use for the songs in the room. CCLI and other providers offer them. Check with your licensing provider before you go live.

Keep it simple for volunteers

The best stream is the one your volunteers can run every week. Saved settings, a short checklist and one button to start are worth more than features nobody uses.

Single camera or several

A single-camera setup is one fixed camera, a feed from your sound board, an encoder or computer, and a wired connection. It's the right start for most churches. A multi-camera setup adds remote-controlled cameras and a way to switch between shots, which suits a room where one wide shot can't show the stage and the speaker. Either one only works if the audio feed and the stage lighting are sorted first. What it costs depends on your room and what you already own, so we look at it on a site visit.

If you want help planning a stream that fits your church, tell us about your room.