At face value, this sounds like an easy question and you’re thinking what most of us think when we talk about doing church online…live of course!
Well, there is more to it than you might think. The difference between live and ‘taped’ effects equipment needs, manpower needs, bandwidth (read: Money), feel of the event and quality.
You may not realize it, but there is a good chance most of the internet church experiences you have checked out were not live…or completely live anyhow, and this may be for a number of reasons.
Events that are not live are operating off video that has previously been uploaded to a server and is scheduled to play at the predetermined start time or it may be manually fired off instead of streaming live video to a server that viewers tune into.
Here are a few things you may need to consider when thinking about going live or not:
Equipment
If you are planning on going online with your service, we can assume you have an arsenal of cameras in your auditorium, that goes without saying. Then you need to go from your switcher to the web and usually via a device that will encode the video to the right specs for your Streaming Media Service Provider.
This gets your service to the web, but what about content specific to the ‘internet campus’? You may need another switcher and at least one camera dedicated to the web.
We run out of our auditorium switcher into a NewTek Tricaster Studio, it handles switching and encoding in one box. We also plug in cameras dedicated to the web and this happens in the studio near the auditorium.
Manpower
If you run live, then you will have to consider how many people you need to run switchers, cameras, audio and other gear. This is going to limit how many experiences you can execute and when you can execute them. If you run a pre-recorded setup then once the initial work of putting together the video is done your volunteer needs drop off quick. Your chat mods and prayer people can sit on their couch and do their thing from home.
Bandwidth
There is generally a higher cost for bandwidth to stream a live event through a Streaming Media Service Provider (SMSP) like Limelight or Akamai. Whereas pre-uploaded content is cheaper to stream. This has to do with the demand on the SMSP network to handle the load of content that is being uploaded and subsequently downloaded by a few thousand people at the same time.
Feel
A live event just has a good feel to it and it is a necessity of you intend to interact with viewers on camera.
Quality
For me quality is the biggest drawback to going live. If you are working with pre-uploaded video, then you will generally get better video quality than with live.
Even for the high end SMSPs, the quality of live stream video isn’t going to match pre-uploaded video. This is looking like it is on the way to improving and we’re probably only a few years away from seeing some HD live streams.
There are advantages to either method of delivery and, like us, you may find that using live for some situations and recorded for others, is the way to go.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the issue…or your questions.
[Image from Wonderlane]
benrwoodard says
We have been doing live broadcasts for a year and a half now. Our "broadcast" budget is very small but our goal was a little different as well. We had several people who could not make it to church and this was a way to include them. We purchased a $300 camera, used my computer, and tapped into SermonStudio.net ($45/month). Our connection speed is on a simple DSL line so the quality of our video is not great but it serves our purpose. We are currently working for a more interactive experience by using social media. The answer to your question….For us 'Live' fits into our purpose and goals.
human3rror says
very cool. thanks for sharing ben!
it'll be great to meet up this jan… π
vince says
heck yeah…roll with whatcha got and make it happen!
AussieSim says
We do a mix of both.
We've pushed our 5pm service 1 week ahead, and then tape that whole service – it is then edited and combined with taped spots from our Church Online Pastor on Monday's. This has allowed us to offer 4 services online each week, and we'll be moving to 6-7 in 2010.
However we also broadcast many of our larger events live- baptism's (each campus is streamed LIVE so you can choose which campus to watch), outreach events, one off services such as Easter/Christmas, and we also have a very basic bi-weekly 'Coffee' with the Church Online pastor.
We've found the mix to work really well. Live events definitely have a fun feel, but the pre-recorded allows the flexibility.
stephenbateman says
Sort of echoing Aussie, I think regular joe sunday can be just as well recorded as live. I mean it's live to them isn't it? I don't think anyone will be offended when they discover that the pixels they were just watching weren't reflecting an actual human 2.6 seconds before.
But for bigger events, especially scattered across the same city, it might be valuable to produce something live. But for big events, quality is key. Augh!
Ryan says
Hey there…
At MBC we currently stream 4 services on Sundays live, but are looking into what it would look like to do rebroadcasts throughout the week, but up until now (with a few exceptions) we've only done live streaming.
We use Limelight for the streaming (and Adobe Media Encoder) and have two IC staff members in the broadcast room running the admin console of the IC as well as the video switcher, in addition to monitoring the chat room. We also have a sound technician in an adjacent room mixing sound specifically for the Internet Campus.
It's definitely an exciting/hectic time on Sundays, but we think that the "live experience" is worth offering, and we'll likely always do the services live. But one of the main reasons we want to add a few rebroadcasts is to hit other time zones. In particular, we have a large number of troops overseas who we'd like to be able to offer services at a time that works better for them.
Anyhow, just thought I'd weigh in π Definitely think it just depends on your church and what you think works best for you.
human3rror says
thanks for sharing! how you liking limelight?
vince says
I like Limelight a lot….i have had good experience with them and their customer service is lights out!
live is definitely a hectic endeavor.
human3rror says
π but it's so yummy.