streaming setup for church.

Wilnel

New Member
I want to know if this would be a pretty good setup for streaming a church service, streaming to facebook and youtube
Acer nitro 5 ( intel version)
Panasonic hc-v770
mypin video capture

currently we are using a lenovo ideapad 330 and some off brand webcam called DVC. we have to have the setup right at the front pew because the camera doesn't do well at a distance.

We would like to put the setup in the back of church, its 50ft away. If you guys think another camera would be better suited please give me a suggestion.
 

Lawrence_SoCal

Active Member
At 50ft, you are looking at something around 20X optical zoom (or slightly less, but definitely more than 10X). (so you can do a portrait close-up for lectern/pulpit/altar/etc)
I'd recommend being attentive to low-light capture capability depending on liturgical style (if you have full theater lighting setup, then not to worry) otherwise a typical Sanctuary lighting isn't that bright for cameras, so beware cheap lenses

Biggest issue for remote attendees is audio quality, so be sure to consider how you plan to capture that? Do you have a sanctuary sound system? then plugging into it, with adjustments for livestreaming as audio requirements are different than live in-person)

What you don't state is how long you want this system to last. When I bought in Oct of 2020, I wanted a system that would at least 4 years.
And Acer nitro 5 is like asking if a Toyota is a good car to go racing in. Sorry, this stuff gets technical and it matters, and there aren't easy answers (other than those that are complete overkill to be safe, and those cost lots of extra $$). That Acer has a wide variety of CPU and GPUs, and exact which combo makes a difference. Real-time video compositing is computationally demanding. And laptops are thermally throttled, so almost always less capable than an equivalent desktop. whether that matters in your situation is hard for any of us to tell you ahead of time.
But in my situation, it was better to get a tower PC and put it in closet with sound mixer, and run a single 50ft fiber optic DP MST cable to run 2 monitors, and an active USB cable for keyboard and mouse, placed up in the Pipe Organ/Choir loft

for a laptop, and assuming budget wasn't so tight as to forsake long-term value, I personally wouldn't go for any new laptop that was less than an Intel 11th gen mobile CPU. And for desktop, I'd absolutely want an Intel 12th gen CPU (I bought over a year ago and ended up stuck with a 10th gen i7-10700K which works fine). Getting something with nVidia GPU for NVENC encode offload support (reduce work on CPU) is a nice to have

As for simultaneous streaming to YouTube and Facebook, I don't recommend it. That segments community. I recommend picking one and sticking with it. As much as I hate FB, with most of our parish already FB users, it was easy to select that platform. By using FB's Scheduled Video event, there is an open URL for viewers so NO need to be FB user/logged in (and URL remains the same for every service). And one no longer has to be part of FB's gaming program to stream in 1080p. food for thought - consider community engagement model you are targeting. IF service videos are to be 'consumptive' vs participatory, that has one set of implications. If going for participatory, splitting viewership across FB & YT may be self-defeating.
 
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