We want to start streaming our services on the web...how do I start??

[ritz38]

We are wanting to begin streaming our services on the web and don't know exactly where to start.

We have a HP laptop, but it doesn't have firewire, so I'm pretty sure we'll need another computer.

We also have a Panasonic (the model escapes me right now) camcorder.

My question is, what are the requirements for what we need in order to begin streaming. I also think they're wanting to televise the service in the overflow room of the church.

Could someone just point me in the general direction of what we need, minimum requirements for computer/camera?

Is it better to have a laptop so it's portable, or a dedicated desktop?

Thanks in advance,
Maritza

[[Admin] osborn4]

If you are going to web stream the entire service and that service includes copyrighted songs, you will need somthing like a Worshipcast license to cover those.

I'll leave the equipment needs up to the experts.

[dmerchen]

I make no claim at being an expert, however, the point of the Worshipcast license is a great one. Unfortunately we made the mistake of not including that upfront, and not are facing resistance to purchase one because of it's price. It's defiantly a good thing to get into the bill, note they're yearly.

My personal preference would be a dedicated tower, or server chassis, as it provides more space, and in the bang for your buck category, they surpass the laptop option (to a threshold).

While this hasn't been tested using HD media, it will more than suffice for a standard definition stream, limited only by the amount of upload bandwidth available. Depending on your budget, we can provide a more accurate spec of what you'll need.

Are you considering more than one camera? It's also helpful to layout some goals and expectations for the system so we're not flying blind. If all you want to do is get your video, and audio to the other room and stream online with limited regard for quality, it will be cheaper. Needless to say, with quality, comes price (generally).

[tommytreul]

I also like more info on how to start streaming. I was thinking on DVR CCTV with high resolution recording h264 (720x480). DVR has ethernet connection, how would I connect to the DVR live feed on our home page. I just any recommendation would be fine. Recommend bandwidth, budget 3k.

[dmerchen]

tommytreul, the question becomes what you also would like to accomplish. If you're satisfied with the video equipment you have in place, streaming may not be difficult to achieve. However, using the integrated ethernet may only complicate things, you'll need to consider a 3rd party provider for your video streaming. Because of the way most web streaming solutions work, you'll likely need another computer, and potentially only some wiring, however it sounds like you might need more than that.

So, ask yourself, are you satisfied with one of the CCTV cameras, or are you looking for something more?

[jeremyb503]

For a quick and easy SD setup try:

1) Set up a free account with Ustream.com and install the flash media encoder that they direct you to (you could try livestream.com as an alternative)
2) Get a PC with a video capture card (we used this one for the last setup http://enuinc.com/vg-tv-hap-1800.html) and an internet connection
3) run a composite input from your camera or switcher to the card
4) run audio feed from the audio board to your card
5) embed the video player from ustream on the front page of your website
6) open the Ustream application and click broadcast
7) enjoy.

You can take a look at the church we help with this: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/AgapeBibleChurch

[pms]

Great advice from Jeremyb503 ... we recently did exactly that and it works perfectly well, we use 4 camera's with a vision mixer and get some great results. To improve upload speeds we are installing another adsl line and are going to use a dual wan router ... so the cost for high quality is still quite reasonable ...

[dmerchen]

When using a dual wan router, my conception of the idea is that it splits requests across both connections, however since the split occurs, it also means two separate IP addresses. When used in conventional practice where each http request can be served to a unique IP address, I doubt that the FMS server or WMS servers will communicate with two IP addresses in this way. I do wish you luck and am excited to hear of your results, just understand that it may not necessarily double your upload speed in the way you're thinking.

[jeremyb503]

Be aware that all the second pipe will do for you is give you a second thread. Since the stream between your pc and the internet needs to be continuous a dual wan router may help someone else that needs to get internet access by routing their request through the second pipe, you are just balancing the load.

A web browser may make multiple connections to grab a web page and your router might load balance that and send one connection through wan1 and the next through wan2, this might be faster, but your stream should only connect once.

You would be better to just get 1 fast internet connection.

See this article: http://www.netlife.co.za/index.php?o...ask=view&id=47

"Simply put, if you have 2 Internet connections, for arguments sake we will assume you have 2 adsl links, one is 1mbit (link a) and the other is 2mbit (link b), in a dual wan setup connections will alternate between links, so if you had the system routing in a ratio of 2:1 (in favor of the 2mbit link) 2 connections would go over link b for every 1 connection over link a. So the question then is, do you get 3mbit? well, yes and no. As you read further you will begin to understand the limitations of this setup as well as how to get the most out of your dual wan setup."

[adessmith]

Something else you might want to (should) think about:

Use a couple of condensor mics, or hanging choir mics, positioned close to the stage facing the congragation to pick up some of the room, and feed them into a little sub mixer... Run the recording output of your main mixer into this sub mixer also... If you broadcast or record in stereo, pan the condensors hard left and hard right... use the output of this sub mixer for any recordings/broadcasts/overflow feeds you might do.

Without picking up some of the "room", you'll usually find that the vocals are overbearing in the mix, and everything sounds very dry. You'll also be able to pick up the normal ambient noises in the congragation such as applause.

Trust me on this, it makes all the difference in the world. You could even work it out where you could place this sub mixer in the overflow room and give someone a job of "mixing" for the overflow room (basically keeping a good balance between the room noise and the mix from the board)

Even better, (but way more expensive) would be to invest in a splitter snake and a seperate mixer for the overflow room/broadcast. You would plug all the mics/instruments, etc...into this splitter snake which would feed the main mixer, and the 2nd trunk would feed into a mixer in the overflow room. Have someone dedicated to making a custom mix for the overflow room and internet broadcast. This way you have someone completely isolated from the live sound, and they can hear and adjust their mix to sound good as it will be heard at the remote location(s). You would want to add some ambient room mics with this method also, just make sure you never send these ambient mics to the main mix (guaranteed feedback)
This is truly the proper way to do this. In the live location you should be using the mix to "reinforce" the sound. The mix for the remote locations should be used to "re-create" the sound. If you use the sound reinforcement mix for recording, the recording is always going to sound bad. However, this method can get rather expensive. And if you are going to do something like this it would make sense to "future proof" this setup and go ahead and get a splitter snake with 3 outputs for every input instead of 2, because one day you may want to do a dedicated monitor mixer.

We use the cheaper submixer and ambient mic method at our church for our recordings and we get good results.

[TheMediaHelper]

Our Church uses Attain response. Their site is attainresponse.com/myministrylive

All you need is a camera, basic computer, an internet connection, and the service listed above. The price is very good I think from 9.95 a month up to 99 per month. The best part is that it is yours and it has no ads. You can embed this on your website directly. I have some free trials with our account if your interested, just send me a message or give me a call 9182690591. We have used this service for more than 2 years without problems.

U stream is ok but you have a lot of ads on your media, you never know what they are promoting on your message. Free is not really "free" the ads pay for your service.

We use our live streaming account to stream, send video emails, send video newsletters ( it includes a service comp to constant contact), and do IVBI classes (free and paid).

So In response to your question, you have everything you need already except this service.

[TheMediaHelper]

One more thing -- with this your audio simply goes into your audio input on your computer -- no need for anything else.