It seems almost every church is streaming these days, and manufacturers are rolling out the products to make the process less daunting. Blackmagic Design is one example, offering a handful of streaming solutions among their high-end camera systems, switchers and recorders. Their newest streaming product is Web Presenter 4K.
As its name implies, Web Presenter 4K is a hardware streaming solution that offers resolutions up to 2160p Ultra HD. Connect Web Presenter 4K between your video system and your internet connection, and it handles the tricky stuff to get your video online. Web Presenter 4K will currently stream to YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, Twitter and other services. The product also allows you to go deep into its technical setup, which means it can be used for other applications beyond online streaming.
I appreciated Web Presenter 4K's front-panel display. Being able to check bitrate, stream status, internet connection and audio levels at a glance is fantastic.
Web Presenter 4K's front panel is simple, with just six buttons, a small video display and control knob. It's quite easy to drop into setup mode from the front panel, using the buttons and knob to navigate the menus and change parameters. Much quicker is using the setup app available for Windows and Mac computers. The software isn't fancy, but it gets the job done.
Web Presenter 4K's back panel is where most connections are made, including SDI video input, loop-through and monitor out. The monitor output is also available on an HDMI jack. A USB-C connector allows Web Presenter 4K to act as a computer webcam, and an ethernet connector carries the stream output. Finally, in a nod to Blackmagic's broadcast roots, Web Presenter 4K has redundant power inputs for both AC and 12-volt battery. The latter also allows Web Presenter 4K to work "in the field".
Streaming from a location without an ethernet connection only works if you have wireless data, and this is where Web Presenter 4K's front-panel USB-C connector comes in. Connect this to a cell phone, and the device will tether and use your phone's data connection for streaming. Back indoors, Web Presenter 4K will switch between cell connection and ethernet should either drop. The show must go on!
It offers a stable connection to the internet, lots of flexibility for different applications and excellent streaming quality.
I appreciated Web Presenter 4K's front-panel display. Being able to check bitrate, stream status, internet connection and audio levels at a glance is fantastic. On top of that, Blackmagic threw in a bright, colorful "thumbnail" video monitor. It gets better. Plug in an HDMI monitor, and Web Presenter 4K backs up the truck to show stream connection status, video history, audio level with history, data rate with history, cache status, plus a large video display. Techie folks can nerd out with bit-level luminance and chroma status, while everyone else can just enjoy the video pane, huge audio meters and large "ON AIR" display. The display isn't perfect, however, as it neglects to show info on the internet connection (ethernet, cell, IP address, etc.).
Web Presenter 4K will function as a webcam, should you prefer to use a computer-based streaming solution. This seems redundant at first, but it does offer a benefit. Connected as a webcam, you can stream from both Web Presenter 4K and the computer. This means fail-safe streaming to a primary and secondary connection at one service (i.e. YouTube), or streaming to two services at once.
Web Presenter 4K will encode at ridiculously high quality settings (over 200 Mbps), but not for social media streaming. Instead, you can use Web Presenter 4K to send your video over your local computer network (or the internet) with near lossless quality for remote applications. Convert back to SDI on the receiving end, and you have a video link across the campus or across the world. It's like you installed a 10,000 foot (or 10,000 mile) video cable.
For all it does, Web Presenter 4K has a few notable omissions. First is the lack of an HDMI input to accommodate smaller churches with more modest video systems (i.e. a single consumer camera). You can convert from HDMI to SDI with a $50 gadget, but why is that necessary? Second, I was surprised that Web Presenter 4K offers no wi-fi capabilities. We live in a wi-fi world, and having the ability to use wi-fi as a primary (or backup) connection would be helpful.
A few omissions aside, I found Web Presenter 4K to be a solid and well-thought out piece of hardware. It offers a stable connection to the internet, lots of flexibility for different applications and excellent streaming quality. The front-panel display is a nice touch, and the monitor output is packed with info.
At $695, Web Presenter 4K offers a lot of value for churches. If you don't need the higher resolutions, Web Presenter HD (1080p, $495) may be worth a closer look.
