5 Ways To Improve Your Churches Livestream

2020 was a weird year. Lockdowns propelled churches in a, forceful manner, to embrace live-streaming to it’s fullest. It was full chaos. Blackmagic & Nvidia products were either impossible to get or price gouged to heaven and back.

I heard a quote that said something to the extent of “ give pastor’s a break, most of them are trying to broadcast their service in a way that doesn’t resemble an Osama Bin Laden ransom video”. My first reaction was belly laughter. My second reaction? Empathy and frustration all at once.

On one hand it’s embarrassing that it took a worldwide pandemic for us to take this seriously (as whole at least). On the other hand, I get it, progress takes time. Frankly, some churches didn’t want to stream until everything was “pitch perfect”. I also understand that mindset. Either side of the fence you’re on, I think we all finally agree that our churches livestream are important.

All of that being said, a church livestream can be a daunting situation if you’re not completely familiar with how that works. So in this post I want to de-mystify some of that by giving you five ways to improve your churches livestream.

So with no further delay, let’s jump right into it.

1: Separate Mixes

The first, and in my opinion, most important step to a stronger church livestream involves audio. There’s obviously a myriad of routes that you can take when it comes to livestream audio, so that can get pretty overwhelming. There’s three schools of thought on this. A house matrix, a tie-line (second mixer), or DAW. In my personal opinion, too many things have to be “perfect” for the first method mentioned, so we’ll skip to the second two.

So what is a Tie-Line? This system seems to be the most volunteer friendly, and it opens up opportunities for more in-ear mixes. The process is simple in theory. You buy a second console, typically identical as your FOH unit. This is then ran from a splitter, usually referred to as a tie-line.  Everything is then received by both consoles and mixed in a separate room, typically mixed through a pair of solid studio monitors. Gain get’s controlled separately.

The DAW Approach is another super popular, and useful approach. Here’s the thought process. You connect via Dante or USB to your console and mix the files directly through Logic Pro, Pro Tools, or Ableton. Note that this can be a little confusing at first but is a method that can actually be used in conjunction to having a tie line if you wanted to do so. A mixing template is highly recommended if your not super experienced in this area.

This whole concept is something I could talk about for two hours straight, so I’ll skip to the next of the five ways to improve your churches livestream.

2: Lose The Sticks

Coming from my background as a full-time wedding videographer for roughly ten years, this one gave me a massive culture shock and may have shown my age a tad. So what does this actually mean anyway? Losing the sticks is simply a term for getting rid of tripods and going handheld. This is a great method that adds so much flexibility and aesthetic to your video. There’s a few things to keep in mind however.

Things like your lens choice is something to consider. Lenses with some form of built in image stabilization are highly recommended but not necessarily a kill-all. Some camera movement is good for the natural look of things. The only thing that is prevented with IS lenses is something called micro-jitter.

The other thing to keep in mind is connectivity, if you run cables, just make sure its done safely and in a matter that is easy to work around. You also may need some SDI to HDMI converters, as HDMI isn’t recommended to run past 10ft. You can make your own SDI cables for super cheap if your in a bind.

One other thing to bare in mind is that you still want 1-2 tripods in the center of the church at the height of the speakers head. A 3/4 angle and a wide safe shot.

3: Ditch The Handycam

Why does my churches livestream suck? How can I make it better? I get this question so often. Upon the site-visit, I almost immediately discover their using what is marketed as a camcorder. Something like a cinema camera or even a DSLR is recommended, everything will look so much better, and honestly as far as price goes, it’s negligible at best but completely upgradable as time goes on and budget opens up more. My recommendations for cameras are typically cameras like the EOS c70, EOS c200, or BlackMagic 6k EF Mount Series. Just do your homework on lens mounts before you purchase combinations of lenses. I’d usually say 70-200mm lenses are ideal across the board for any cameras off-stage. Don’t be afraid to buy duplicate lenses sense their zooms. Wide can quickly get “too wide” unless your on the actual stage or doing a drum camera.

4: Work On Your Lighting

One of the most important steps to make your churches livestream better is to get your lighting right. Make sure your singers have white light on their face rather than making them look like their straight from the Smurf village that anyone over 30 remembers. Band can have a wash over them, but I’d still proceed with caution on that. Your white lighting is your absolute most important light source. You could also use what we refer to as “practicals” in the video world. This simply means that you use a light that is mostly in the background, not necessarily “lighting” anything, it just looks good behind the subject your shooting.

5: Fix Your Internet Connection

This one sounds super elementary but a bad upstream can cause poorly uploaded footage looking jumpy and blocky. The faster your internet connection, the easier it will be for your audience to view your services. Ease of access is of the upmost importance. Sometimes it’s the simple things in life.

Your Churches Livestream is Often Your First Impression

Many church-seekers 30 and below will watch a livestream of a church before ever entering the doors. This is scary if you don’t have your ducks in a row. Every person that watches online or walks through the doors of your church matters. Make your first impression count.

Schedule Your Site Visit

Here at HoneySonic, we specialize in the installation and training of all things AVL. Our years of experience as either church staff members or integrators has given us the foresight to help any church take their production value up to the next level. Schedule your site-visit today by filling out this form and one of our specialists can come out to your church and build a custom tailored quote to take your churches livestream to the next level.