Producing Sunday: 3 Tips To Help Enhance Your Livestream

Let’s be clear, Sunday mornings are about creating a worship experience that connects parishioners to God and creates an environment conducive for the spirit of God. Without God’s presence, Sundays don’t work. However, in this hybrid environment (in-person and online worship), you need media to help translate the worship experience for the online audience with as little distraction as possible. Below are 3 tips that I believe can enhance your livestream.

Invest In A Great Streaming Provider

YouTube and Facebook are great for streaming, but if you want to take your stream to the next level AND have more control over your stream, it’s best to invest a streaming provider. A streaming provider will provide you with an encoder and that encoder takes your raw audio and video files and converts them to digital for your online audience. Having an encoder will also means that you can control more of your output settings; ensuring that you are sending out the highest quality product for the end-user.

You can have an encoder and still stream to YouTube and Facebook; almost everyone does. However, you should also be streaming to your website or a more controlled source that is not bound to the rules of the aforementioned social media platforms. (especially Facebook; their streaming rules change a lot…I mean a lot!)

If you’re looking for a streaming provider, Resi is a great option. They provide streaming packages that fit most budgets and most importantly, they offering RSP (Resilient Streaming Protocol). Basically, they guarantee against audio and video freezing that you might encounter from packet loss due to poor internet connections. (More on that here.) Of course there are other streaming providers that you can find by researching on Google, but choose wisely, not all streaming providers are created equal.

Create Run of Show

In the world of production, nothing happens without a run of show. While Sunday morning is not a “production”, and is ABSOLUTELY a worship experience, our worship experiences often have an element of production to them. A run of show, or as we call it at my church, a worship/production grid, is essential to producing a worship experience that is done in excellence.

Here’s what you can include on a run of show or worship grid: The list the songs the praise team or choir will sing, the videos and graphics that need to be included in the service and displayed on the screens, and most importantly, how much time will be allotted for each component of the service.

Having a run of show will help to keep everyone who assist with leading worship (e.g. Pastors, Musicians, Singers, Media Staff, etc.), on the same page. Here’s a helpful example of a run of show or production grid. Hopefully, it can serve as a guide for you as you create one for your ministry or organization.

Provide Quality Livestream Audio

I believe that people will watch a blurry video (to a certain extent), before they tolerate bad or spotty audio. Rest assured, if people cannot hear your content without disruption or distortion, they will click off! Quality audio IS A MUST! An audio feed that is free of buzz or distortions is much more enjoyable to listen to.

One of the best ways to enhance your audio and to ensure that you are providing the best experience for those listening, is to have two different audio engineers. If you are streaming to an online audience, you need a broadcast audio engineer. This person functions in a different role than your in-house audio engineer. While your in-house audio engineer handles audio in the sanctuary, a broadcast audio engineer’s primary purpose is to mix the service (using a separate audio console) specifically for the online audience. They are also responsible for troubleshooting and removing any barriers that may cause disruption in the audio feed that the online audience receives.

While having two audio engineers means purchasing two audio consoles and possibly paying two people, in this hybrid environment, having two audio engineers that can serve the specific needs of both audiences, is well worth the investment.

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As always, the lists and tips I share are always suggestive and not exhaustive. I would love to hear what tips you’ve found helpful in your context.

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