I have a project to get ready for as Easter rolls around this year. We joined the great group of believers at River Valley Community Church in Yuba City a few months ago. River Valley is on top of using tech in the every day workings of the church, and are on fire for the Lord. What a great mix.
Easter services will be held outside in our parking lot. The biggest concern for us in Northern California revolves around the weather. On many years in the past rain, or even snow, has made an outdoor service uncomfortable to say the least. In preparation for this years possible deluge we are preparing a way to stream the service into an overfill room. Our Easter service is also a great excuse for us to launch our live service streaming project.
I will be posting some updates and links to software and resources as the project moves forward. Please feel free to post in the comments and tips or suggestions as well as questions. This is a living, breathing project.
Software
VidBlaster We will be using VidBlaster for our multi camera switching software. You are able to use it in demo mode before you decide to purchase it. I like this option. Many churches/ministries never get a chance to try a software or hardware package before making purchase. This can lead to paying way to much for way to little or in some cases WAY TO MUCH.
Flash Media Live Encoder 3.2 Live Encoder is the behind the scenes bread and butter app. It takes the feed from VidBlaster and encodes it on the fly for streaming out to a Video sharing site or other serving solution.
The Video Editing Computer
I am installing both of these apps on a dual core HP Pavilion laptop. Not the strongest computer but has plenty of guts to get the job done.
We will be hooking up 2 cameras to the laptop. A consumer grade camcorder and a MS Webcam both capable of shooting 720 video.
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Right now I am going to use the same setup I used for streaming Redeemed Point. Everything was self contained on the laptop. I streamed the video to UStream. The issue I am trying to get away from at the moment is the advertisements that cover full screen during streaming with sites like Ustream or Livestream. Trying to do this on a shoestring budget prohibits the pro account upgrades on these accounts. The possibility of using a second computer to act as a live server is another option I am working on. Still up in the air on which way to go. I am trying to get this done quickly and do it right.
The next installment will go over the configuration of the software as well as tips on how to connect everything. Subscribe to the RSS feed or my twitter account for updates.
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