Livestreaming

Welcome to the livestreaming! Your job is to provide the church service to viewers online while not messing up.

The Complete Guide To Livestreaming

Updated 4/26/23

Setting Up

Getting to the Apps

1. To set up the livestream for Sunday morning, turn on the livestreaming computer and sign in using the standard credentials.
2. Open up OBS Studio, Universal Control, and Chrome.
3. When Universal Control Opens, click on the large soundboard icon. This is will open up a new window that will be used to control the livestream's sound.

Chrome

1. When Chrome opens, it should immediately load in 3 tabs. The first tab, YouTube Studio, can be skipped for now.
2. Navigate to the Pixlr Photo Editor tab. Click on the correct thumbnail template on the bottom row (probably the first one).
3. Note: normal services use the standard brown background, while special services (like guest speakers, holiday services, etc.) use the white background template.
4. Double-click on the main text, and type in the sermon name or title. Make sure this is in all capital letters.
5. Click off of the text to see a preview of its size. If it is not a good size, you may need to correct it:
6. To change the size, click on the "T" icon on the left menu. From here, click on the dropdown next to the "Size" label, and adjust the size using the slider until it looks good.
7. Once the thumbnail image is all complete, download it. Click on "File" in the top left, and go to "Save."
8. Using a JPG image, set the quality to 100% and click on "Save As."
9. Change the file name to this format: TITLE IN CAPIAL LETTERS MM-DD-YY.jpg
10. Click "Save" to save the image in the thumbnails folder.

OBS

1. After going through the first steps for Chrome, take a look at OBS Studio after it boots up.
2. To set up a service livestream here, first click on the "Manage Broadcast" button in the controls.
3. Change the title to this format (use correct spacing!): Sermon Title | Name of Pastor | MM/DD/YY
4. In the description, delete the Bible verses and type in the verses that will be used in the day's sermon in this format: Book # : #-#, Book # : #-#, etc.
5. Make sure that the spacing is correct in the verses (there should especially be a space before each colon and after each comma and colon).
6. Make sure the privacy is set to public if it is a normal livestream (use unlisted for a test livestream).
7. Make sure the next option is set to "No, it's not made for kids."
8. Clear the thumbnail by click on "Clear." Then click "Select File" to choose the new thumbnail. Go to the "Thumbnail" folder to find the image you just made and open it (not the "Thumbnails Archive" folder!)
9. Leave the next settings the same, except make sure the time and date are correctly set to when the livestream is starting.
10. Click "Schedule and select broadcast" to finish the OBS setup.

Back to Chrome

1. After scheduling a broadcast in OBS, navigate back to Chrome.
2. Go to the first tab, which should be YouTube Studio.
3. Reload the page.
4. Click on the livestream that you just set up.
5. From here, in the top right corner, there should be an arrow that you can click on. Click on it.
6. Copy the URL that shows up by clicking on the copy icon.
7. Go to the second tab in Chrome, which should be Facebook.
8. In Facebook, click on "What's on Your Mind?" to start creating a new post.
9. Type in a nice introduction for the livestream. If you don't know what to write, look at the file on the Desktop called "Facebook Livestream Post Ideas.txt"
10. At the end of the text you wrote, you should paste the link you copied earlier, and make sure the thumbnail you created comes up.
11. Click on "Post" to post this post, but do not post the post on the "Care and Share" post page or any other post page.
12. You can now safely close the Facebook and Pixlr Photo Editor tabs.

About 15 Minutes Before the Livestream Starts

General

1. If you are using an NDI camera, set that up in a good place.
2. Unplug the blue Cat6 cable behind the livestream computer, then plug it back in. You will probably have to restart OBS Studio to reload the camera. After you restart it, make sure you select your livestream again by click on "Manage Broadcast" > "Select Existing Broadcast" > Your Broadcast > "Select Broadcast."
3. In OBS, set the scene to "Announcements" by pressing the "1" key. Press the "F3" key to transition to this scene.
4. In the PTZ Camera Controller in the bottom right, click on "Podium Zoom" to get to the right camera zoom level.

Sound

1. In Universal Control, everything should be muted except the people microphone and the effects you want to use.
2. Set the faders. Initially, you should set the fader to an approximately decent level for each channel that is being used. The only channels that should be set are channels producing music, the people mic, the two wireless mics, and the effects you want to use. All other channels should have the fader set to the lowest setting.
3. Check the pans. Every channel that will be used should have a correct pan. In general, a channel should be panned in the direction and distance the microphone or instrument is from the center of the stage. For example, a guitar on the mid-right side of the stage should be panned to the mid-right. As exceptions, the drums, bass, and wireless speaking microphones should always be panned to the center.

Finally

1. In OBS Studio, click on "Start Streaming," but don't go live yet.
2. When 3 minutes are left until the livestream starts, make sure you're at your station waiting and watching for the service to start.

Starting the Livestream

First

1. After a pastor walks up on stage to give announcements, but several seconds before he starts talking, unmute the microphone he will use and quickly click "Go Live" in OBS.

Switching Scenes

As the livestreams runs, you will want to change scenes. A scene is a template on OBS Studio that can show live video, images, lyrics, recorded videos, and more. In OBS, it shows two scenes at a time, one on the left and one on the right. The right scene is live while the left scene is just a preview. Once you set the preview to the correct scene you want to use next, you can transition it to the right side to become live by pressing the "F3" key. Following is a list of the scenes, next to its number hotkey you can press to get to it:

1. Announcements - This scene shows a large ProPresenter input with a small main camera input in the corner. Use this scene at the beginning of the service for announcements.
2. NDI 1 - This scene shows an NDI camera from a phone or other device. If you have this input set up, you can use it sometimes during songs in worship time.
3. Center - This scene shows the main center camera input. Use this camera sometimes in songs and for speakers and the entire sermon.
4. Full ProPresenter - This scene shows only ProPresenter with no camera input or audio. During greeting time, the person running visuals should display the announcements again; use this scene during that time.
5. Video - This scene will shows full ProPresenter again, but it has audio. This is used when videos are played through ProPresenter.
6. End Card - This scene shows a closing message that you can use after the service is over.
7. Logo - This scene has the College Heights logo. If for some reason you cannot use any other scene or show camera input, you can use this scene if necessary. For example, if you are not running an NDI camera, you can use this scene during the closing song rather than showing people praying on the livestream (although it is recommended to just use an NDI camera).

Zooming the Center Camera

Coming soon!

Troubleshooting

No sound

• Make sure the master volume and individual faders are turned up on the sound board.
• Make sure you have transitioned to a scene that includes the sound source. For example, if you are on the end card page, it will not show any audio input.
• In OBS, go to Settings > Audio > Advanced and Set the monitoring device to "Main Out 1/2 (Studio 24c)" and check "Disable Windows audio ducking."
• In Windows, click on the audio button on the taskbar and change the output device to "Main Out 1/2 (Studio 24c)."
• Just unplug the 24c device from the back of the computer and plug it back in. This is known to often work.

The Camera Is Slow

The main stage camera has some delay, but if it seems like more than normal, than it will help to unplug the blue Cat6 cable behind the livestreaming computer, and the plug it back in. You will probably have to close and restart OBS, so don't do this during the middle of a livestream!

Can't Boot Into BIOS

The livestream computer is finicky when trying to boot into BIOS. While the computer is starting up, press the DEL key until BIOS comes up. However, the Razer keyboard that is connected to it doesn't work for some reason. The best workaround we've found so far is to plug in a different keyboard and try using that.

How to...

Customize the OBS PTZ Camera Controller

Warning: this is somewhat technical and requires a knowledge of computer programming!

If you need to change or customize the PTZ Camera Controller, you can find the source code at /Documents/Dockable OBS Window Controllers/Broadcast Example.html. If this location changes or something else similar happens, you can connect a new html page to the OBS dock by clicking on Docks > Custom Browser Docks on the top bar of OBS.

Lock or Unlock the Camera Focus

Sometimes the main PTZ camera will keep going out and in to focus, and it may be necessary to lock the focus or manually focus. To do this, go to the "Tools" tab in OBS and click on "PTZOptics Camera Controller." Then, select "Camera1" near the top. From here, you can set the focus using the plus and minus signs, and you can use the "Lock Focus" and "Auto Focus" options to lock or unlock the camera focus.