In the Spring of 2001 North Valley Baptist Church began it’s live streaming video ministry.  We started the ministry for one young man who had cancer and was unable to attend church but desperately wanted to.  We had some brilliant volunteers in our church who set up the whole system.  It has come a long way since then and the video quality of the services are incredible now.  We have spent thousands of dollars on the setup. (read about our live streaming set up) Many churches, however, do not have the technical expertise or the equipment to live stream their services.  What if a small church has sick members who are unable to attend, but has no money to spend on setting up live streaming?  Is there a solution for them?  There is now!

Technology has come a long way since 2001 and there are now free services to live stream your church service. Of course, with any free service, there are drawbacks (like advertisements).  But if you have a situation like we did in 2001 and don’t have the money or technical know how, here are some great solution.

1.  LiveStream.com

LiveStream.com

In literally 5 minutes, I was set up and broadcasting live from livestream.com.  It is very straight forward and simple to broadcast live.  I simply attached my Firewire camera (you can use USB as well) to my computer, clicked “broadcast now”, and clicked “go live”.  I found the interface to be attractive and simple to use.  Below is the live streaming interface.

LiveStream.com Live Streaming Interface

Here is a short clip I recorded while preparing for a session at the National Pastors’ and Workers’ Conference. Notice, the quality is very good. The noise at the beginning is because I was watching live from my other computer and it caused feedback. Because it’s free, there is an ad at the beginning.

10GB of storage is available with the free account, This would be helpful if you want to make past church services available online.

Free Live Streaming from livestream.com

2. Ustream.tv

Ustream.tv

Another free option is Ustream.tv. It took a few more minutes to set up a Ustream.tv account. It wasn’t as simple and straight forward as livestream.com, but there seems to more features available. For instance, it is very easy to set up a poll, add text, and add video to your live stream broadcast. Broadcasting live is very simple, click “broadcast now” and then “start broadcast” and you are up and running.

Ustream's Broadcasting Interface

The advertisements seem to be a bit different than livestream.com. The advertisements are mostly ads overlaying the video (like youtube) as opposed to one commercial at the beginning.

Both livestream.com and Ustream.tv seem to have great quality and are free. I would love to hear what you think. If you have used either company or have any other suggestions, let me know in the comments.

Michael Moyer

Additional resources:

North Valley Baptist Church Live Streaming Video and Archived

How to Set Up Live Streaming for your Church (not free)

Also, see article, “How to Live Stream Your Church Service for Free.”

North Valley Baptist Church was started in Santa Clara, California 34 years ago. The church is located in the center of the Silicon Valley. If you were to tell Pastor Trieber 34 years ago, he would be able to preach to people around the world LIVE, he would not have believed you. Yet now, 34 years later, he preaches to people around the globe – both live and throughout the week via archived video. The sun never sets on the ministry of North Valley Baptist Church. There are people watching the services, almost 24/7 and 365 days a year. We receive emails on a daily basis from people who watch our church services – To God be the Glory!

We have people regularly ask us how to set up a live streaming video ministry for their church. I hope to give you the basics of how to live stream your church service.

Equipment Needed to Live Stream and/or Record Your Church Services

In order to set up your auditorium, you will need some equipment. Here are the items you will need. I will list what equipment we use, you may use different types of equipment. This is just to give you an idea of what you need. There are much cheaper solutions for smaller churches. There is a PDF at the end of the article describing our old (cheaper) set up.

A Decent Computer

• We use: an Intel Core 2 Quad 3.2 GHz Processor with 2 GB of RAM running Windows XP

Windows Media Encoder

• This is free software for encoding the church service live. Window Media Video can be watched on both Mac and PC.

A Video Capture Card

• We use: the Aja Xena LHi (We use this because we work with an HD signal)

Video Cameras

• We use 3: (2) Panasonic HVX200 HD Cameras and (1) Sony HDR-FX1 Camera
• We use HD Cameras because we have HD LCDs in the auditorium we use as well.

Audio Input

• We mix our audio separately from the auditorium mix. We have a separate sound board for the internet video.

Streaming Server (if you are going to live stream your services)

• There are many different companies that would like your business. We have a man in our church that has set up a streaming server. He does a very good job for a very good price. He also does this for other churches. I can get you his contact info if you would like.

Video Mixing Board (if you have more than one camera)

• We use: the Edirol V-440HD (once again, we use this because of the HD signal)

(3) LCD Screens

• We use: (3) Samsung SyncMaster 215TW (one for the live streaming computer and two for the video mixer)

Setting Up Your Equipment to Live Stream Your Church Service

Below is a diagram of how to set up your auditorium for live streaming. Once again, you can change out the pieces. It doesn’t have to be exactly like our set up. If you want, you can have one camera and audio source and go directly to your encoding computer.

Church Live Streaming Diagram

Encode the Church Service Using Windows Media Player

Once you have the video and the audio hooked up to your encoding computer. Use Windows Media Player to encode your church services. We’ve found that around 300kbs is a good bit rate. This allows decent quality and also enables many different users to watch the services. If your bit rate is too high, many will not be able to watch your services. Windows Media Player pushes the video stream to our streaming server and saves the file automatically to add to our archived services.

Send the Video Stream to a Streaming Server

Your streaming service provider will supply details on how to do this. The streaming server allows multiple people to watch your service simultaneously.

Create a Link on Your Web Site

Once you are done, create a link so others can watch online. If you are unable to do live streaming video, you can still follow the above steps and then post your church services online for others to view later.

I hope this is a help to you. Please let me know if you have additional questions, I don’t have all the answers, but I will do my best to help.

Additional Resources:
Check out North Valley Baptist Church’s Live and Archived Video!
Download a PDF of our old (cheaper) live streaming configuration
How to Live Stream Your Church Service for Free

Michael Moyer