Live-streaming isn't a "one size fits all" proposition. While church services should meet a minimum standard for production quality (because quality is seen as importance in our culture), that doesn't mean that on occasion your pastor and staff can't just hold up a smart phone to go live on Facebook and quickly send special messages to the congregation.
Join Author, Paul Richards, January 24, 2020 at Worship Summit Live, a free online event for church production folks like you.
Likewise, multisite churches with enough resources shouldn't depend on the cheapest gear possible and output video that doesn't match the level of production of their services.
In the middle, you have a spot where most churches find themselves. Perhaps live-streaming is a hard sell because your leadership can't envision a place to put cameras, or you don't have enough staff and volunteers to run each of them. Perhaps you want better than "hold a cell phone in the back of the room," but can't go all the way to a $100k system, either.
If that's you, Helping Your Church Live Stream by Paul William Richards is the live-streaming book for you.
The chapters on what a newbie should know about live streaming, tuning your AV equipment, and the basics of networking are really the technical heart of this book.
Who this book is for
Filled with useful tidbits, this book leans heavily on the author's experience learning to live-stream--and then sharing that knowledge with others in his work as chief streaming officer for StreamGeeks and as director of business development at PTZOptics. Given that, the book may best serve churches that struggle with streaming due to lack of either money or people—or both.That said, it's a fine collection of anecdotes and simple how-to's that churches can use when they're stepping into the world of live streaming with PTZs, including those made by PTZ Optics.
One book with multiple perspectives
One of the book’s strengths is that the advice is varied, not only in what it teaches, but also in its sources of information. Not only is there an entire chapter on power over Ethernet (PoE), written by Tyler Andrews of PoE Texas, there's also a chapter that contains advice from others in the industry. This serves to add to the breadth of knowledge covered.
Author, Paul Richards describes what's planned for the upcoming Worship Summit Live event (January 24, 2020) in this podcast from Church Production.
The chapter with advice from other experts covers such topics as “Buffering and Skipping,” “Pixilation,” and other problems church techs might encounter, as well as defining the vision for what you want and how many cameras it will take to realistically accomplish that.
The technical heart of the matter
The chapters on what a newbie should know about live streaming, tuning your AV equipment, and the basics of networking are really the technical heart of this book. If you're approaching this book for technical advice, read those chapters first--and together.
Without adequate attention paid to [audio and lighting], no camera and no encoder will ever be able to create a good live stream.
Some of the most useful information in these sections are geared toward helping churches learn more about networking and the limits of NDI. For example, churches that are trying to get NDI to work with a dated 10/100 network will benefit from the knowledge that a gigabit network is the bare minimum you should try to use.
Adding PoE into the mix means that you can connect a PTZOptics camera to a single Cat6 and have full control, power and video. That's especially convenient for putting in a new video system, but even more so for portable churches that might need to set up every week.
Some of the best advice Richards delivers might not seem like it's about video at all, but in fact, it's integral to the process. Here, we're talking about lighting and audio. Without adequate attention paid to those two things, no camera and no encoder will ever be able to create a good live stream.
The human side of live-streaming
In addition to the technical chapters, there are other aspects covered that are very helpful for effective digital ministry like live-streaming. These include information on starting a digital ministry, tips for working with volunteers, a discussion of the pastor's role in the digital side of things, and even talk of online tithing.
Other chapters that add to the whole
Finally, Richards adds a section about podcasting at the end of the book. Its inclusion might seem strange, since podcasting is a totally different media form, but he makes the case that it is a way for churches to repurpose content from a live-stream in a way that people who didn't watch the stream can listen.
Perhaps you'd upload the video recording to a media host that supports doing so and make a video podcast. Since audio is much easier to consume, especially while doing other tasks that require your eyes, like driving or running, you could also take the audio from your live-stream recording and make that available as a podcast. In addition, the chapter points out that you can cut down a longer sermon into smaller pieces for an audio podcast, and perhaps even encourage sharing by doing so.
Finally, at the end of "Helping Your Church Live Stream," you'll find one additional resource to guide the newly live-streaming congregation: a glossary. One of the knocks against tech people is that we speak what is tantamount to a different language. While that helps get ideas across to other professionals, it's sometimes a barrier to entry for new people. This glossary helps define some of the terms you might come across in your quest to start a live-streaming ministry.
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