The leadership has asked you to tell them how much it will cost to get a live stream of the service out to the Internet…now what?!?!?
Ok, first off, you’ll need to figure out your signal flow. Let’s assume that you’ve got a couple video cameras, some kind of recorder (hard drive-based, flash- or solid-state-based, or DVD), and a switcher. These are the basics of any video ministry system.
Outlining the Basics
First, your signal flow follows a logical path regardless of the equipment that you have. Your cameras are your sources, your switcher switches between these sources, and your signal terminates at your recorder, projector(s), and/or your live stream. It’s entirely up to you whether or not you bring the audio from the cameras into your recorder, but I would highly recommend you get a signal sent to your recorder from the audio mixer to have the highest quality.
These systems get a little more complex when you add more cameras, a media player to play back videos, a dedicated audio mixer to control your own audio mix, a number of displays throughout the church that you feed your video and audio mix to, a live signal for the Internet, capturing live into a computer for post-production later, and to DVD as a backup. Remember, the more points of connection you have in any system, the more potential points of failure you will have to deal with eventually.
So, draw it out, from camera to end destination, even if that is just a cloud signifying the Internet. This will go a LONG way in helping you establish what cabling and equipment you need!
[Image via quacktaculous via Compfight cc]
Exequiel Ossandon says
this is very insightful. a good addition to this article would be some hardware and software suggestions for those of us that are on a budget. great work btw
Tim Adams says
Exequiel, I tend to shy away from recommending particular products because every church has needs that don’t lend themselves to a “stock system.” And every church is on a budget nowadays, so what I usually recommend is to build the system in stages, each stage building on the foundation of the stage before it.
Getting into video and live streaming IS an investment, though, and church leadership needs to understand that this is not something that can be done with excellence for $1000. I would say a $3000 investment is minimum and that does not include the monthly costs of a streaming host.
I’d be happy to talk about your specific situation and what options would be best for you, if you would like…
Nic says
Great post Tim! As a Church we are installing a new parents room with a TV that will have the service streamed to it. We have audio sorted from the sound desk but all the video work we do is producing content on DSLR, not live streaming.
We have a good fluid head tripod but we’re not sure where to start with what kind of camera we can get away with for this kind of thing, whether we should be sending video over HDMI or SDI or some other kind of feed (cat5?). Initially we just want to send signal straight from a camera to the TV, but long term it would be great to feed it into a PC through a capture card of some sort (blackmagic decklink?) to livestream our services.
Do you have any specific advice on what kind of camera and feed would be most affordable for us to get started?
Cheers 🙂
Nic
Tim Adams says
Nic,
I would advise away from a direct feed from camera to TV as the raw video could just be distracting when the camera is being adjusted, etc.
A good tripod is definitely key, but I would recommend away from DSLR for a live production system, as well. While it does provide a nice image, the drawbacks are no servo/power zoom for nice push ins and pull outs, connectivity can be tricky, and the weight on the tripod head doesn’t match what the tripod is necessarily built for and thus your balance will be off, forcing the operator to compensate with their arms (never a good thing).
I could make several recommendations, I would build a live production system on an HD-SDI backbone as it’s the best connection out there currently. HDMI is great, but the cost of the converters will only add to the overall cost. The Blackmagic Design Television Studio is a nice piece of equipment, and there’s a $10 app for the iPad to control it remotely, which is awesome. There’s also a new product out (like, BRAND NEW) called the Paladin (www.yourpaladin.com) that will allow you to use Wirecast to the camera switching, has 4 inputs and sets you up to do live streaming, as well, all in one box. There are discounts for non-profits, so don’t get sticker shock at the price.
Bottom line, you could get started for under $1700 with a Television Studio and a consumer-grade camera running HDMI. As budget allows, you can grow that to multiple cameras and change to SDI. You’ll need the switcher, the camera, and an HDMI balun (Intelix UHR-2 series works well). I would also strongly recommend incorporating sermon slides, if your pastor uses them, to help break up the monotony of looking at the same person for an hour.
Final word is that if you plan on live streaming, you will want to pick up an appropriate license if you want to stream your worship music in order to be in compliance with copyright law. Hope that helps!
Nic says
Thank you very much Tim! Great reply, lots of good and valuable points in there, i’m learning a lot 🙂
One more question, and recommendations on actual camera models at different budget points? I’ve heard the Canon XF100 is popular, wondering if you can recommend any cheaper or more expensive options next to this?
Tim Adams says
Nic,
That’s certainly a nice and versatile camera; however, for that kind of money, you could get two Canon XA10 cameras.
Depending on how much distance you have between your stage and camera, you may be able to get by with the 10x zoom on the XA10; however, if you need more telephoto, than I would go with the XA20 with a 20x lens.
You get a lot of nice features with the 100, but with only an HDMI output, I think you could do better for your money, as I indicated above. Will you be using the camera just inside the Sanctuary or for field (mobile) production, as well?
Nic says
Thanks for your advice Tim, the XA10 looks like a very good option for us! We are used to the AVCHD codec, and will pipe audio from the sound desk so some of the major drawbacks don’t matter for us. Looks like it has the same sensor and lens that the XF100 does too, so the image quality should still be good.
I think we will continue to produce video content with DSLR – despite the many disadvantages the filmic image it provides is too attractive to pass up! It’s likely the camera we buy will remain fixed to a tripod in Church and used mainly for steaming services.
If we invested in a camera that could take DSLR lenses we could ditch the DSLRs and use it for both streaming and field work, I have seen some cameras around like the Sony F3, Panasonic AF100 and the Canon C100 – do you have any recommendations for cameras in this class if we decide to stretch the budget for such an investment?
Thanks again!
Tim Adams says
I’ve used the C100 and the ergonomics are amazing! However, if you need something that can do servo zoom shots, you would need a different lens setup than what you have on your DSLR.
If, however, you are just doing a “lock-off” static shot with no zooms, the C100 would work very well for you while still retaining a good field production capability.