Help for a small church with no A/V experience and older volunteers - OBS/Blackmagic/Facebook

[StJohnsSealy]

We are a small church and at 61, I am one of the 'youngsters!" We had a good system installed - 2 PTZ cameras, a laptop, black magic mini pro, OBS software, integrated into our soundboard.

Our live-streaming has been hit or miss with Facebook changes and learning curve. The week that the Bishop was there, we added scenes to the mix. Bad idea, the livestream would stop when we clicked to a scene. Missed the whole of the Bishop's sermon and of course, he asked for a copy of the recording!

We deleted the scenes and basically live stream the service without any slides or much movement other than switching the cameras, when we have a volunteer who can get it to work. We spent a lot of money for this system not to get the full benefit of it.

Where do I start to learn more? Most of what I am reading is beyond my technical expertise.

What we want to do -

• livestream on Facebook (or anything that is easily accessible and low-cost)
• train volunteers to do so with minimal error
• Add scenes (welcome, thank you for worshiping, slides of our stained glass windows during music, possibly the readings, prayers or song lyrics).
• in addition, we would like to set up an overflow area in our hall to show the livestream (I know there will be a lag, but that is ok)

Questions:

• Are there online sources for training?
• Should we hire a consultant?
• If hiring a consultant, how do we find one?

Thank you!

 

[iTouch44]

its weird that the stream stop when change scenes
What are the specifications from the laptop mister ?

Can you upload a LOG from obs?

Please post a log with your issue! Here's how...

OBS Studio creates a log file each time you run it which contains very useful diagnostic information. Without a log file, it's much harder for any support volunteers to figure out problems and your post may be ignored. To upload a log file, go to the Help menu > Log Files > Upload Last Log...

obsproject.com

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

I'm happy to help out. Please direct message me with your contact info, and I'll advise you as I've done for a number of other churches (and mine as I learned OBS and streaming from the basics starting 15 months ago)

One issue I ran into early on was a fresh OS install on circa Fall 2015 decent gaming laptop was not powerful enough for my lack of OBS optimization knowledge. My work engineering class workstation laptop and a new tower PC are overkill, but allowed us to focus on content vs OBS and other optimizations. What will work best for you depends on your budget, and available technical skills

See some of my other church posts in this forum for a description of our OBS setup (we have 30 scenes at one point mixing pre-recorded and live video following liturgical service format) livestreaming to Facebook. I setup a PowerPoint windows capture for our Service Bulletin. Last Fall we upgraded from a webcam to a NDI PTZ camera, using Sanctuary audio system, and a new PC (stop using my work computer)
Yea, unannounced changes to Facebook live streaming has been annoying

I've documented our setup and pre-post livestream operations. I have a Service Order document I created with OBS operator instructions (created for myself initially to avoid forgetting important steps, and to improve polish of livestream, that doc now used as training material as well. We have intro slide (becomes thumbnail), copyright slide, countdown, intro slides, then entire service bulletin, with closing scenes (with a fadeout/Go in Peace). I used a fair amount of automation with pre-recorded video using Advanced Scene Switcher. Now that we are back in person (this month), OBS setup is much simpler, and we only have a single an intro / walk-up pre-recorded video (though setup has scene/room for announcement video for livestream audience if we so choose, though our environment does NOT have/allow for large screen/monitors in the Sanctuary)

What I've done before is volunteer to do a remote video conference and walk a church through some basics of OBS setup, and share my setup if that helps. Whether you need a paid consultant or not depends on how much hand-holding you think you need. Being 'frugal', I'd hold off hiring a consultant until to further clarify scope of what you want done, vs what you can do for yourself (with a little help from this community)

And I can advise on tech options for viewership in overflow area (be sure to know distances involved and cable routing options... may involve construction, depending on environment)

I'm feeling pleased as after having the church hire someone to do handyman/construction work, which the contractor completely screwed up and the vast majority we had to pull out, last Sunday after services a group of volunteers helped out and livestream control station now setup in choir loft (vs Sanctuary main floor and highly visible to all), with OBS PC in sound system closet, wiring all cleaned up, etc. This upcoming weekend will be the first time I won't have to setup/tear down all the equipment before/after service! small victories.
Next steps include switching from analog audio input to a digital connection from sound mixer (complicates livestream operation but gives us individual control of audio channels to mute/adjust mics as needed, which is required with certain mics not amplified ex pipe organ, piano, choir, etc but needed for livestream). it has been a long road, but our community sure appreciates it

 

[London Jr]

I'm happy to help out. Please direct message me with your contact info, and I'll advise you as I've done for a number of other churches (and mine as I learned OBS and streaming from the basics starting 15 months ago)

One issue I ran into early on was a fresh OS install on circa Fall 2015 decent gaming laptop was not powerful enough for my lack of OBS optimization knowledge. My work engineering class workstation laptop and a new tower PC are overkill, but allowed us to focus on content vs OBS and other optimizations. What will work best for you depends on your budget, and available technical skills

See some of my other church posts in this forum for a description of our OBS setup (we have 30 scenes at one point mixing pre-recorded and live video following liturgical service format) livestreaming to Facebook. I setup a PowerPoint windows capture for our Service Bulletin. Last Fall we upgraded from a webcam to a NDI PTZ camera, using Sanctuary audio system, and a new PC (stop using my work computer)
Yea, unannounced changes to Facebook live streaming has been annoying

I've documented our setup and pre-post livestream operations. I have a Service Order document I created with OBS operator instructions (created for myself initially to avoid forgetting important steps, and to improve polish of livestream, that doc now used as training material as well. We have intro slide (becomes thumbnail), copyright slide, countdown, intro slides, then entire service bulletin, with closing scenes (with a fadeout/Go in Peace). I used a fair amount of automation with pre-recorded video using Advanced Scene Switcher. Now that we are back in person (this month), OBS setup is much simpler, and we only have a single an intro / walk-up pre-recorded video (though setup has scene/room for announcement video for livestream audience if we so choose, though our environment does NOT have/allow for large screen/monitors in the Sanctuary)

What I've done before is volunteer to do a remote video conference and walk a church through some basics of OBS setup, and share my setup if that helps. Whether you need a paid consultant or not depends on how much hand-holding you think you need. Being 'frugal', I'd hold off hiring a consultant until to further clarify scope of what you want done, vs what you can do for yourself (with a little help from this community)

And I can advise on tech options for viewership in overflow area (be sure to know distances involved and cable routing options... may involve construction, depending on environment)

I'm feeling pleased as after having the church hire someone to do handyman/construction work, which the contractor completely screwed up and the vast majority we had to pull out, last Sunday after services a group of volunteers helped out and livestream control station now setup in choir loft (vs Sanctuary main floor and highly visible to all), with OBS PC in sound system closet, wiring all cleaned up, etc. This upcoming weekend will be the first time I won't have to setup/tear down all the equipment before/after service! small victories.
Next steps include switching from analog audio input to a digital connection from sound mixer (complicates livestream operation but gives us individual control of audio channels to mute/adjust mics as needed, which is required with certain mics not amplified ex pipe organ, piano, choir, etc but needed for livestream). it has been a long road, but our community sure appreciates it

I need help with my setup. I am using a behringer X32 to capture the audio in house and import into my laptop for live streaming. Last week I had audio and now I just have static. I am also a volunteer and I need someone to really help me get this setup correctly

 

[konsolenritter]

How is your way from the behringer into the laptop (hardware, cabling)? We have to guess... ;)

 

[konsolenritter]

Crossposting.
Read on here:

Audio Issues

I am having some audio setup issues. Last week, I had audio coming in through 4 separate microphones (I had another operator monitoring the system). It was discovered during service and I muted three of them. I have attempted to mute the microphones and import audio to my laptop via a Zoom...

obsproject.com