Live streaming can be done in a lot of ways with several different configurations. For simplicity, I’m going to provide the most common setup below.
What do I need?
- A camera
- A video capture card
- Your EasyWorship software
- A streaming software
- Somewhere to stream to
Let’s break down that set-up a bit further:
- A camera or webcam, if needed
You can use almost any camera that you desire for a live stream. The only requirement is that the camera must connect to your video capture card. Currently, I am using a PTZ Optics NDI HX 20 in the office for all my testing and troubleshooting needs. But if you’re really in a bind, you can always use a webcam from home to do the job.
2. A video capture card (optional depending on if you go with the webcam option)
Many video capture cards will work with EasyWorship; however, we can only recommend the cards that we have tested and verified as working with EasyWorship. You can find our recommendations on the System Requirements page for the models we currently recommend. The recommended cards with (USB 3.0) at the end of the name are external cards that plug into the computer via USB port and the (PCI…) cards are plugged into the computer on your motherboard. I currently have the Elgato Camlink 4k (USB 3.0) plugged in. You can try just about any video capture card but sticking with our list will give you the best results for EasyWorship.
3. Your EasyWorship software
You need to make sure that you have your camera feed added into EasyWorship before you can send it to your streaming software. For help with this setup, check out the excellent article from Dan about adding feeds. You may also need to do some screen setup for NDI and I highly recommend our NDI Setup article for this. Note: Not everyone will use NDI. Please contact our help desk by emailing us at support@easyworship.com if you have any questions.
If you are new to EasyWorship software, you can demo the software here.
4. A streaming software
There are quite a few different streaming software available to choose from, but two options really stand out in our market- OBS and VMix. Personally, I’m an OBS guy. I think its easier to set up and use for the average person. Now, if you’ve got everything else set correctly you can add a new source in OBS to bring in your service from EasyWorship either using the Display Capture feature or by using NDI. (OBS requires a patch be installed to support NDI in.)
5. Somewhere to stream to
Many options come to mind when thinking of what websites to stream your service to. Probably the most common would be either Facebook Live or YouTube Live. You must have an account on either website to use the live streaming feature, but it is free to sign up. You can obtain a Stream Key from Facebook when you select the Live Video option from a new post to add to OBS or VMix. You can add your stream key in OBS through the Stream Settings and then you’re ready to start streaming!
A few things that you may want to keep in mind:
~ If you are using USB to add your camera to EasyWorship, make sure that you are using USB 3.0 otherwise your feed will lose a lot of frames and have about a 15-second lag when live.
~ You can use either a video capture card or NDI to add your camera feed to EasyWorship but keep in mind that you may have to do things slightly different depending on which method you use.
~ If you are using NDI, you are limited by your network speeds. At times you might lose frames or see lag if your network runs into any issues.
~ If you are going to use a webcam, it needs to be either a built-in webcam like you would find in a laptop or have a USB connection to plug into your computer.
