Church Audio Broadcast Features You Need

Whether you prefer the term broadcast or livestream, we can all agree that church broadcast has changed so much in the last several years. Living through a worldwide pandemic really taught us the importance of putting our best foot forward with broadcast. I’ve mentioned before in past articles that many church-seekers that are 30 and below are going to use your churches broadcast studio. I’ve compiled a list of the things that I feel are important for creating the best broadcast studio for your church.

1: Communication Systems

This is very important and often overlooked. At HoneySonic we always recommend sticking a mic and something like a “hotspot” monitor in your churches broadcast studio. This will allow the mix engineer to communicate to the FOH engineer, tech director, and even the MD. Just make sure you have a switch or a sensor so that it’s not always on and in everyone’s ears.

2: Multi-View Television

This one isn’t quite as overlooked, but still equally important to get right. We always add a television that is at least 55” to our broadcast studios to ensure the mix engineer can see all of the camera angles, audio meter for what they send the video crew, and any videos that are being played. You have to know what’s going on.

3: Quality Furniture and Design

This sounds petty and unimportant, but you're asking someone to literally hide from everyone from week to week. The least we can do is ensure that the room is aesthetically pleasing, clean, and cohesive for creating a solid workflow. One thing I recently saw in a church broadcast studio that I was visiting is a designated computer that’s only job was to have PCO pulled up at all times. Obviously, you could do this with a tablet, I really liked the fact that this screen was big enough to see from a good distance though. Bravo!

4: Acoustic Treatment

Acoustic treatment is so very important to getting it right for broadcast. A bad room is never going to translate very well by the time it goes from the broadcast room, hits video, and eventually the living room of someone watching on a given Sunday.

5: Monitor Quality Matters

Please don’t skimp on monitors. Grab some quality monitors that don’t color the sound too much. A matching sub would also be great to have, as the low end from broadcast can get tricky. Keep in mind that certain speakers are design to sound absolutely terrible. This is for good reason. These speakers expose the weak areas in your mix, leading you to correct them and make your mix that much better. Hi-fi sounding monitors aren’t my recommendation by any means. Bonus-Tip: don’t mix with headphones or even allow your team to mix with them. Mixing too loud can also cause issues, but we can get into that on a different articles.

6: Archival Systems

Granted, this is something that should be centralized between audio AND video. Regardless of where you place an archival server, you gain so many benefits from having one. There’s nothing worse than a leader wanting to turn a moment into a video snippet. This is going to give you the ability to recall any service, mix down the audio, re-edit the video and with full control. Just make sure you backup the servers in case of emergency.

It’s a Dream Boat

These are just a few of my favorite things to put in a broadcast studio. Some of these you can ultimately live without but every bit makes the team happier and more cohesive. This will result in a stronger end-product.

Did You Know That We Set All of This UP FOR YOU?

That’s right, we can design and install your studio. We factor in everything from the desk and chair to the console and speakers. The possibilities are endless. Schedule your site visit today!