Live broadcast of service

[JereNet]

My church recently had a very generous offer from a local community member who would like to pay for our church's website (we currently use free google sites). That is not a problem. Then, he asked if we would like to broadcast our church services live because he runs the local radio station online (we're in Hartford, SD, so not a lot of choices) and pays the same whether he uses the software 24/7 or 1 hour/month, all we need to do is pay for internet. Overall everybody loves this idea. The part where we run into problems, is paying for internet, and privacy. While we are about the most technologically advanced church in the area, we don't have internet, just due to the fact that it is a recurring cost. I think everybody is ok with getting internet. The other problem, privacy is the huge problem. We do prayer requests during church, and names are always mentioned. Do you have any experience with that being a problem? Should we redo our service so that we can cut broadcasting after a certain point and do prayers, announcements, etc. after that point? Any ideas will help!!!

[[Admin] osborn4]

When you say "the local radio station online" is this an internet radio station?

If so, the other thing to think about is distribution rights for any copyrighted songs that you sing.

Check out WorshipCast and you may decide to only broadcast the sermon.

That may be an option, anyway. Record the sermon and hand deliver it to the radio for an afternoon broadcast, or if you want Sunday morning, do it a week later.

If it's just a broadcast station, then the station will have to consider the distribution royalties.

[Paris MkVI]

With broadcast, you have several things to think about. Take just music, for example. Your CCLI license covers music in your sanctuary, but not broadcast. That will require separate licenses and permissions.

But, on another level, if you are led to serve your community in this fashion, then what is the vision and mission of this broadcast within the parameters of the vision and mission of your church?

If the message (sermon) is the primary focus, it might be much better to plan on post-producing the program and airing something where you have total control over the content.

Does it really matter whether it is live or not? Live will make considerable demands on you that post-production and broadcasting later will relieve you from.

[petereit]

It sounds like you have a solution in search of a problem. Personally, I would decline the offer. If your church had a need for online streaming, you'd be doing it already.

[BrianAltenhofel]

Originally Posted by petereit

If your church had a need for online streaming, you'd be doing it already.

Unless, of course, that need hadn't been recognized previously. Sometimes, people don't go directly to leadership when they see a need, but to someone who they think can make it happen.

[bpalermini]

Solution looking for a problem or opportunity, you be the judge.

[waynehoskins]

Regardless of the copyrighted content problem (which is most likely solvable), the technical aspects sure are simplified if you can do tape-delay. Many churches simply post the sermon to the web for on-demand download or viewing/listening; that's what mine does. That means your on and off times don't have to be nearly as precise, and you do have the possibility for post-production editing if you like (I prefer not to have to do that). Also, if the capture or upload breaks, if you have a backup recording device running as well, you can recapture from the 'aircheck'; I've had to do that on a small number of occasions.

If you're doing a live broadcast or stream, your outbound speed on the network line can become an issue. My church has a symmetrical full T1 circuit, and when shipping compressed video to our hosting provider, if I can fully saturate the line it takes about real-time. If the WAN out there isn't nearly as established as it is here in the Dallas area, it may be hard to get a high-speed line that's either symmetrical or even asymmetrical but with a fast enough upload speed. Or it might be easy, who knows?, but it might cost money.

If you're doing live TV, virtually nothing beats a dedicated microwave uplink -- but also, that takes money. If you're doing tape-delay broadcast TV, you can drive a tape pack to the station or maybe even ship a file over the internet much easier.

If it's just audio, it gets easier simply because the required bandwidth (and file sizes) for a given duration and quality are lighter. But if the network goes down, well, for live you're off the air.

[WI Consultant]

I would decline on answering the technical aspects of this question, but would recommend giving the privacy aspect of this question priority. Whenever we have recorded ministry time, we fade out anything personal before any reproduction is done.

[JereNet]

Thanks for all the answers! I should have mentioned that on the technical side of things, are easily accomplished, I've done shows with the software on a dial-up connection before - not the best, but it was doable. The way it's looking, we're going to change the order of our service around, so that the prayers and announcements and everything are at the end. Meaning that we will mainly just broadcast everything until that point, and then stop. Thanks again!