It wasn't long ago that most churches were asking the question, "Do we need a website?" Now we agree that virtually every church must have a website - even a pretty sophisticated one.
The next question was, "Do we need an audio podcast?" As podcasting caught on, many churches then asked, "Should we upgrade from an audio to a video podcast?" Now that we have thousands of church podcasts, more advanced production, and multi-campus churches, the next question is how churches will stream audio and video in real-time over the Internet.
The vast majority of churches aren't quite there yet, but many are beginning to think about the technology and process that will be necessary to make these things happen. Online media is a very welcome development for churches. "For us, online media for the church is great," says Jeff Allen, video director and assistant worship director for Christ Church in Fairview Heights, Ill. which is located near Scott Air Force Base. "So many of our members are military folks and some are deployed all overseas. What an amazing way to stay connected to your church family,"
As more churches leverage the Internet, the technology continues to advance, raising the bar constantly. Churches that wish to provide the most up-to-date online worship experience must dig in and research the technology and develop the practices to make it happen.
I gathered input from several churches and technology providers to get a handle on the state of church podcasting and streaming going in to 2010. I found it is common for a church to dip a big toe in the water before jumping into new technology completely, and the initial step for most churches is an audio podcast. Audio podcasting is comprised of two key tasks, production and hosting. Production is the creation of the podcast usually with the recording being transferred to a computer where basic editing is accomplished. Editing can be simple, with everything before and after the sermon is removed. Software, even freeware, can then convert and encode to an MP3 file.
The second task is publication or upload to the Internet---typically done in one of three ways. One is to upload podcasts directly to the church's website. The second is to upload to a free podcast hosting service -typically with some advertising on the landing page. A third option is a paid podcast host - with no ads on the landing page. Depending on your church's ISP (internet service provider) church members may find downloading from the church website to be a tedious task. If downloads are slow, they're less likely to stick around, and most likely won't be back next week. Podcast hosting services are designed with additional bandwidth to alleviate the bottle-neck slow down from multple, simultaneous downlads.
Some churches enhance podcast production with music and professionally voiced intros, but the vast majority simply upload the message itself. The principal reason is money and time. Unpaid volunteers usually do this work, and getting the podcast online in a timely fashion is a higher priority for most churches than an elaborate production. Production values will improve the longer churches are producing podcasts, and this raises the bar for other churches.
Will audio podcasting survive as video becomes more common? "The costs associated with podcasting are so low that it just makes sense to make the content available in as many forms as possible," says Peter Fitton, pastor, global production director at Flamingo Road Church in Cooper City, Fla. The Flamingo Road podcast is a great example of a podcast with great production values (http://www.flamingoroadchurch.com/podcast).
Once a church has established an audio podcast, the next question is "Do we start streaming audio live or do we move on to video." For most churches, the upgrade to video is a quantum leap, requiring a moderate to substantial investment in hardware and a new team of volunteers or even professionals. An intermediate step is to stream audio live, and there are inexpensive ways to facilitate this with an in-church computer (and moderately high-bandwidth Internet connection.) The audio is fed from the mixer to the computer or encoder which converts the audio to a compressed stream and broadcasts it over the Internet. Among popular applications to accomplish this are SHOUTcast (http://www.shoutcast.com/download), BroadWave (http://www.nch.com.au/streaming/index.html), and NiceCast (for Macintosh - http://rogueamoeba.com/nicecast/). These solutions require having someone conversant with IT available to help configure them, plus, a host of some kind is also likely necessary - for instance uStream (http://www.ustream.tv) or PrimCast (http://www.primcast.com/). These economical solutions can easily accommodate audio-only streaming with an audience in the hundreds or even thousands.
It's not uncommon for a church to skip right past live audio streaming and proceed directly on to video, particularly if they're already producing video for services. In the case of video, production quality is the more important center of focus. A church may upload a very bare-bones audio podcast, but the same is not likely true with video. Audiences that tolerate bare-bones audio, may not be as tolerant of poorly produced video, as our visual sense is more well-developed than our aural sense. Still, inexpensive high-definition cameras and switchers, as well as lighting packages, are now available. A simple, one-camera feed can be podcast or even streamed for a very modest investment. Most podcast hosting organizations offer hosting for video in addition to audio, helping to keep the hosting part of the process relatively inexpensive and scalable.
Due to the greater complexity and cost of live streaming, podcasting is the more likely path for a church that is just starting to explore video. The video of the pastor's message can be book-ended with a pre-produced intro and outro, yielding a finished product that is virtually ready to go. Among popular video editing applications are Apple's Final Cut (Pro and Express,) Sony's Vegas and Adobe Premiere. These are used to edit, render, and compress video in preparation for upload to a podcasting host.
Once good quality video production is well underway, it's then a matter of moving beyond podcasting to streaming. A hardware device called an encoder or a streaming media appliance is used to convert the output of the video switcher (along with audio) into a stream that is delivered over IP usually via H.264 video compression format, which has emerged as a current standard. Digital Rapids' TouchStream, HaiVision's Barracuda encoder and ViewCast's Niagara Series, are just a few of the many products that can encode and deliver multiple streams in different resolutions, accommodating viewers who may not all have broadband connections. The combination of such hardware devices with a Content Delivery Network (CDN) can deliver some attractive possibilities, such as Video On Demand (VOD) and even more sophisticated offerings like store-and-forward.
Store-and-forward puts control of content (transmission and playout) in the originator's hands. The originator may ‘push' file-based content out to satellite or remote sites to control who has what content, and also may directly control the dedicated receive device (media player) itself. A result of store-and-forward technology is the capacity for a church to retain control of its IP video content, which can be an important requirement for some churches. VOD, on the other hand, simply facilitates the download of files for future playback by the user.
Going forward, it's a virtual certainty that the bar will be raised again and again. "Our plans for online media include further development of the online church experience, interactive online community groups, live Internet distribution to our satellite campuses, and more advanced store-and-forward content distribution," adds Peter Fitton of Flamingo Road Church. The expectation is that advancing technology and falling prices will eventually facilitate streaming video production for even small churches. Fitton also says, "The online community is the next mission field. People are ‘doing life' and finding community online now more than ever. God commands us to go to where the people are and tell them about Him. In today's day and age, that's online."
