Recently, our support team has been asking for more detailed recommendations and breakdowns of live streaming setups that they can provide to customers. So I’ve decided to provide a breakdown of four different setups that I think would be the most helpful for someone looking to live stream with EasyWorship. The setups I’ll be outlining here won’t be comprehensive but will include a few of the more common setups that I assist customers with from week to week.
Live Stream Setups for Small Budgets
Option #1: Smartphone Setup
The first thing we need to put together is a low-cost setup for folks who may not have the budget to buy a ton of extra equipment and software to make this happen. For this build, there is potentially no cost if you already have the first two components. You’ll need:
- EasyWorship 7
- A smartphone (either Android or iOS and an NDI camera app (for example, DroidCam or the NDI | HX Camera App from Newtek))
- OBS (Open Broadcast Software)
Option #2: NDI Camera Setup
The next thing we’ll put together is the small budget build where I’ll assume that we don’t have access to someone’s smartphone to use as our camera. This one will be almost exactly like the previous setup but instead of your smartphone and an NDI application, you’ll use an NDI-capable camera. You’ll need:
- EasyWorship 7
- An NDI camera (such as the MEVO Start)
- OBS
In both of these setups, I recommend setting up EasyWorship for your in-house projection with our Dual Monitor Setup instructions. Once this is done, you can bring in your smartphone camera feed over an application like DroidCam or the NDI | HX Camera App from Newtek or you can bring the camera feed into EasyWorship with some help from our Feeds training video. From here, you’ll want to set up EasyWorship and OBS for your live stream with our Live Stream EasyWorship to Social Media w/ OBS training video.
Note: You do not need the iOS or Android smartphone apps if you have an NDI camera.
Live Stream Setups on a Medium Budget
Option #1: ATEM Setup
OK, now we’ll get into two of the more advanced builds that are possible. The first one will add in more cameras and a video switcher/mixer. The cameras can either be set up through EasyWorship, OBS, or the Blackmagic Design ATEM in this kind of setup but not all three simultaneously. You’ll need:
- EasyWorship 7
- A BlackMagic Design ATEM device
- One or more cameras to connect to the ATEM
- OBS
In this setup, you will set up your EasyWorship to project to your ATEM device with both your main Output and your Alpha Channel output. You’ll also bring in all of your cameras to the ATEM device directly and control them exclusively from your ATEM Software Control. Check out our ATEM Television Studio Setup for step-by-step instructions and additional helpful information. For a quick walkthrough of connecting your ATEM device and OBS, I highly recommend watching the ATEM Mini | OBS | Live Streaming YouTube video from Camixel Technologies out of India. Camixel Tech is often my first resource when learning about new hardware for live streaming and production because of the straightforward, easy to understand approach they take with their videos. For more information on the ATEM side of things, check out the Getting Started page from our friends at BlackMagic Design about the ATEM Mini setup.
Option #2: Two Computers with MIDI Setup
And finally, I’ll outline a multi-computer setup. The benefit to the two computer setup over a single computer is that you can send something over your live stream while projecting something different in-house. You’ll use NDI output from one copy of EasyWorship to send to OBS as well as the other copy of EasyWorship or you’ll use the MIDI feature so that both copies of EasyWorship receive the same commands simultaneously from a single controller. You’ll need:
- EasyWorship 7 on your in-house projection computer
- OBS on your live stream computer
- EasyWorship on your live stream computer
In this setup, you’ll have EasyWorship 7 on computer B (your live streaming computer) and computer A (your in-house projection computer) simultaneously. On computer B, you will be outputting your lyrics from EasyWorship as an NDI stream. You can set EasyWorship to project NDI by going into Edit and then Options and adjusting your Output Monitor. Now, you can go ahead and set up this copy of EasyWorship and OBS to work together for your live stream as shown above in our Live Stream EasyWorship to Social Media w/ OBS training video link. Now on computer A, you’ll need to bring in the NDI stream from computer B as a camera feed under the Media tab. You will find instructions on this setup in our Feeds article linked above. You will also need to create a blank song, presentation, or theme within this copy of EasyWorship to use as your pass-through slide. I call it a pass-through slide because you will be passing the lyrics from computer B through computer A to the projector passively during the service. Finally, you will set up computer A for in-house projection as outlined in our Dual Monitor setup article listed above.
Note: For anyone trying the last setup, please contact our support desk beforehand and ask to speak with me as this process is the hardest to explain on paper and the easiest to mess up during setup.
While this list may not cover every church or situation, this should give you some ideas as to how you can set up a live stream if you’re just not sure where to start. Please feel free to contact us at support@easyworship.com with any questions or feedback you may have.
