People today want to see your church online before they experience it in person. That's what a number of experts have concluded. An online stream of your church's service can be an introduction for some, but can also be a great way to reach beyond the walls of your church, your neighborhood and even beyond the country. If you are hesitating because streaming seems complicated, Livestream has an inexpensive, easy-to-use solution called the Mevo.
Mevo is a 2.5 inch (63mm) high, two inch (50mm) diameter cylindrical camera that comes in white or black. It doesn't simply deliver a static live shot, however. The camera switches between wide and tight shots with or without an operator or additional equipment. The camera wirelessly connects to your iPhone and can use your 4G network to stream.
We reviewed the Mevo and its main accessory, the Mevo Boost, in a few weekend services to see if this might be the answer for the house of worship. We were able to stream with only a few issues, and record to the included micro SD card with no problem. It can be set up in minutes and seems like a great solution, especially for smaller churches.
Simplicity is the key
The Mevo unit is simple, even in its design, with only a single button, one USB port and a micro SD slot. It has a magnetic connector on the bottom that connects to the Boost, an extra battery pack. The Boost also gives the Mevo an Ethernet port so the system can stream connected to a house system. When they are connected, the device stands about eight inches (200mm) high. The Boost also covers the connections and ports on the Mevo and makes the camera weatherproof. Both the Mevo and Boost can be screwed into a standard tripod or, by removing the center with a coin, can be mounted on a standard mic stand. When it's on a mic stand it can appear just like another piece of musical gear and blends right in to the stage.
Coming of of the box, there is very little instruction save for a four-picture Quick Start Guide and directions to the website, getmevo.com. There you will find a bunch of short, simple videos that will walk you step by step through the process, including how to get the Mevo out of the box.
The camera operation is dependent on having an iPhone. There is no Android app and a recent post on the Mevo support page indicated that they are “focused this year on optimizing the iPhone experience.” That sounds like Android support won't be coming any time soon.
Once you download and open the app, the instructions will pop up on the screen to walk you through the next steps. The camera has a 150-degree fixed f2.8 glass lens. This is a wide view and needs to be pretty close to the action. The unit has a Sony 4K sensor but does not record in 4K. It records and streams in 720p. The 4K image is sampled to create higher quality tight shots.
The app gives you a lot of additional controls like white balance, exposure, sharpness and anti- flicker. The app also has volume control, and the ability to connect sound into the iPhone. If you needed to plug audio into the sound board, for example, that could be accomplished with a cable connected to the phone not the Mevo.
To direct or not to direct
As we mentioned, Mevo's real value is its ability to switch between shots. The wide 4K image is broken into smaller boxes that can be selected and locked, giving an operator the ability to direct by tapping on the individual shots. For example, you could choose an image of the worship leader, the lead guitar and each background singer. You would start your stream and just tap on each shot to cut between images.
You can also zoom and pan with the touch screen. From the wide, pinch your fingers to adjust the end of the zoom and release, the shoot will zoom into the shot you selected. The longer you hold your fingers on the screen, the slower the zoom. To pan, you simply drag a tight shot box to where you need the pan to end. Again, the longer you keep your finger on the screen, the slower the pan. A single button at the bottom of the screen returns you to the wide shot.
Mevo will also direct for you. In the controls, there's a button for the “Camera Assistant” that will switch shots for you. It has just three controls: find faces, follow, and a speed control. When it's in the “find faces” mode, it senses who is on stage and creates tight shots and two shots that it will take. In the “follow” mode, it will pan so your subject doesn't walk out of frame. The speed control adjusts how quickly it switches between the shots.
It is possible to use Mevo as just a static shot if you would like, but switching between the shots is much more dynamic. The Mevo can also connect with other Livestream equipment to be used as another camera source while still using the Camera Assistant.
So how did we use it?
I am on staff at a small church that meets in a local middle school theatre. Mevo seems like a great solution in this kind of setting. We set it up on a mic stand and put it right in the seats. The first week, we put it in the second row, but found that the first row was still in view and it looked like no one was there. We moved to the first row the following week, and it still covered the entire stage.
The first week, we just wanted to see how the unit would operate, so we didn't try to stream, we simply recorded to the SD card. We started the camera in the Assistant mode and let it run. The unit wasn't connected to the sound board, but the internal microphones did a fine job of capturing the audio.
We did notice that, because the lighting is not the best in the theater, the Assistant would cut to certain faces more frequently. For example, our worship leader plays keyboard and is a bit farther out of the light than our bass player. The Mevo took the bass player's shot more often. Additionally, when I got up to preach, I was lit well enough and got plenty of tight shots. Occasionally, though, it would go back to a tight shot of the keyboard where no one was standing. We repositioned the camera the next week and it seemed to work better, although the Assistant goes more frequently to whomever is lit best.
By week three, we were ready to go live. You can use Livestream's website, but we wanted to try Facebook live. It easily began to live stream but, there are some notes about speed. Livestream recommends that you stream from a separate Wifi network that will output at 5Ghz for the highest quality stream. You can choose lower quality setting for slower networks.
If you choose to stream using your iPhone, as we did, it's recommended to use the medium setting. It's also important to note that streaming video will eat up a bunch of data, if you don't have an unlimited data plan. We checked it before and after streaming, the entire one-hour service cost about 3.5 Gb from our plan. It you want to use this solution, keep an eye on your plan.
Conclusion
The Mevo is a great way to get your church up and streaming right away. It can be done by someone with little technical knowledge with an iPhone and a Mevo. It's best to get the Mevo Boost to extend the battery life. Livestream says that it will go for about an hour. The Boost will get you about five hours.
If you already have cameras in operation, the Mevo will not be able to use them, nor can you connect a computer for any visuals. The Camera Assistant will not recognize the screen. The Assistant is not perfect, so having an operator to manually direct will give you the best look.
For the price and ease of use, Mevo is a great solution for churches that are ready to start streaming. Give yourself a couple of weeks of testing so you can really get to know the controls. Getting your church live online has never been easier and, with Mevo, even small churches can digitally “go into all the world.”
