Many Churches are “live streaming” their worship services these days during the pandemic. This is the next best thing to the congregation actually being there. The variety of methodologies and web services supporting this is encouraging to see. Some make it easy. Others provide all of the bells and whistles for the Technical Ministry team to use.

The goal of Streaming Live worship is to make it as close to “being there” as possible. The Service should start and stop on time, although the ending is flexible. You can go over 15 minutes and probably not incur any additional charge. But if you drag on for an hour, you will likely lose your audience. So keep the length of the service within the bounds of what people in the congregation normally expect.

What technology is your Church using to stream live worship services?

Streaming the video of a worship service has always fascinated me. My background in TV Ministry combined with Web Technology makes me aware that the technology is there. The trouble is in the end points. How can we ensure that people have the bandwidth to receive a streaming video webcast of the service? Do you set minimum standards for their hardware? Or do you come up with complicated methods for downgrading the video quality until something works? What has been your experience in this area?