Pexels.com
A hundred years ago, the latest technology was the motion picture. One of the elements missing in early movies was sound. While sound recording predated films, getting synchronization between the two media proved difficult.
What does this have to do with live-streaming? Simple. Then, as now, sound is very important to spreading the message you intent to spread. Dismissing it, or saying it’s “good enough” might be the biggest mistake you can make in your live-streaming ministry.
The first step to fixing any problem is to figure out what the problem is. The solution for music that isn’t mixed correctly for the live-stream has a very different solution from when your online congregation can’t hear at all.
That’s the first problem you might run into—no sound.
Detective work
Just like troubleshooting when there’s no sound in the house, start by trying to figure out where the sound stops. If it’s the pastor’s mic, but you hear it in the house, the mic, cables to the mixing desk, and the desk itself are all fine. You’d then want to check to make sure that audio from that mic is routed to the sub mix or channel that is sending sound to the capture device or encoder.
It could be as simple as not having the audio assigned to the sub mix that you think it’s assigned to. It could also be a loose connection or a bad cable.
Now, make sure the encoder is getting the signal. If not, check any software settings. OBS and Wirecast both enable you to select which audio source you want to use with which video source, so it’s possible to have audio with one camera and not another. Hardware encoders might have various audio sources as well, so if you’re using a Boxcaster that’s set to get audio from HDMI, but not the analog ports, it won’t work if you are sending audio only into those ports.
If you’re sending a stereo signal to your live-streaming host, but some people complain that the audio is too quiet or not there at all, it could be that they’re listening to a single ear bud and the audio is panned into the other side of the mix. For spoken word, it’s probably a best-practice to pan the sound to the middle if you are sending a stereo mix.
For spoken word, it’s probably a best-practice to pan the sound to the middle if you are sending a stereo mix.
Another problem you might run into is too little sound. The simple solution is to turn it up, but it could be that there’s something else that’s gone awry, especially if, from the sound engineer’s perspective, everything is as it should be.
If you’re encoding with a computer, you might have to check audio in system preferences (or control panel) and in the encoding software itself.
Other considerations
Another possibility is that your system expects a line-level signal, but is getting a much weaker mic-level signal.
The opposite problem is peaking. Analog and digital signals can both suffer from this problem, although the result could sound radically different (with digital signals cutting out completely above the absolute max).
Again, check every point in the signal chain to insure that nothing is turned up too high. Also make sure that, unlike the problem of too little sound, your system isn’t expecting mic level, but getting line level.
Generally, dynamic range is a good thing, but too much dynamic range might make it difficult to listen to the service. Unlike a live environment, you don’t have control of how loud your online congregation will listen to music at. One person might be watching in their home theatre through a Roku, AppleTV, or similar and like the music at the same 90db that the congregation hears it at. The next might be listening in a car or with earbuds and turn it down significantly. That’s fine, but if the announcement or preaching portions of the service are quieter, you might be sending them running for the volume control to turn it up.
A good solution is to compress the final mix so that there’s still some range, but so that it’s less drastic. You want to avoid the feeling of “the commercials are a lot louder than the show” that you get with television (although, in this case it’s the music and the speaking).
It’s also possible to have listenable audio during most of the service, but have annoying background noise during more quiet moments. This could be a couple of things. First, if you have an ambient mic to pick up some of the audio that’s lost for those not in the room, placement matters. If the ambient mic happens to be close to someone with a cold, you might hear random coughs or sneezes during times when there isn’t louder audio that you do want.
A good solution for this is to make sure the ambient mic is mixed into music, but not prayers or other more quiet times.
Also make sure that the audio you’re using for your live-stream is coming from the sound desk, and not the camera or your encoding computer’s built-in microphone.
Also make sure that the audio you’re using for your live-stream is coming from the sound desk, and not the camera or your encoding computer’s built-in microphone. Depending on your system, a loose cable, or a setting might cause that problem, even if no one knows how it happened.
Finally, there are two problems that come about as a result of the fact that people watching online cannot hear natural sounds in the room.
Acoustic instruments like brass and drums can be so loud that they don’t need to be mic’ed…in person. That doesn’t mean that they don’t need mics for the live-stream, though. Remember that people online can only hear through a microphone. So, if it’s not captured somehow, it can’t be mixed into the sound that people hear at the other end of their internet connection.
Ideally, you’d want an engineer, in an acoustically separate space, to remix music. Barring that, your main audio engineer could mix using an aux send, adding in what’s missing from the room mix, just like you would for a monitor mix. Even adding in an ambient mic, to capture some of the missing sound will be better than nothing (as long as that guy with the cold isn’t near it).
The other thing that might cause trouble is if your sound system isn’t tuned for the room. Each room is unique by virtue of size, shape, furnishings, etc. This means that some frequencies will naturally be more pronounced than others.
Ideally, you’d want your system to put out a signal that takes this into account so that you’re not shaping the EQ of individual instruments in a way that might sound good in person, but might not elsewhere. You can’t know the acoustic properties of all the rooms each member of your online congregation is listening in, but you can provide a mix that doesn’t have frequencies removed or augmented that would draw attention to that fact in more neutral settings.
Like it or not, audio is a huge part of every video production. If it’s bad, no amount of other production value will make up for it.
Like it or not, audio is a huge part of every video production. If it’s bad, no amount of other production value will make up for it. If it’s listenable, it’s easier to forgive average video. So keep an ear to the mix for your online congregation and make sure you remove distractions so that they can year what’s actually said, so they can be affected by it, in a good way.
