Since I wrote this post we have been through some major transitions with the way we do NewSpring’s service’s online. We are still refining the way that we use the internet as a ministry tool. This has all the meat the previous post did, plus the changes that we have made.
This post is for you fellow geeks out there that regularly speak in acronyms like DSK & H.264. We still encode the 9:15 service, but instead of switching Nick in live on the fly, we now pre-produce his three pieces- ‘Before’, ‘Welcome’ and ‘End’. Preproduction is possible due to the addition of a Sony DSR-DR1000A DDR and an iMac into the loop. This DDR allows us to start capturing the service when it starts, but delay when we start playing it back. We go with a standard 5 minute delay in order to allow us to trim down the Anderson auditorium welcome to whatever length Nick’s prerecorded welcome is.
If the concept of time-shifting is new, here is a break down of what we are doing:
In addition to the encode for the Web Campus, I also capture each service to a Mac Pro using Final Cut Pro. The service is edited and transcoded on Monday using Episode Engine for our various outputs:
For those of you wondering what production equipment we use at NewSpring here is a list of all the basics. If you have questions feel free to leave a comment.
I’ve gotten several question regarding how I broadcast the Unleash conference via Mogulus, so here you go:
We used a free Mogulus’ account to stream from. Using a free account meant we were able to save $350 and put that towards something else in our ministry.
Make sure that if you are planning on having more than 50 people that you have your channel verified. It seems to help if you have used your channel some for either live webcasting or at least have some YouTube videos as an on-demand loop.
In our main auditorium we have 4 cameras, 2 Thompson Grass Valley Turbo iDDRs and an iMac running ProPresenter fed into a Ross Synergy 100 switcher, the output of this is our program feed. It is used for IMAG in the Anderson and Greenville auditoriums and in-house broadcast to TVs along with the Web Campus. This program feed is input into the Panasonic MX70 switcher in our Web Campus A-control. I could have bypassed the MX70 since I was not using it to switch between Nick and the actual conference, but in order to eliminate having to rewire everything and worry about audio input levels I left the feed running through the MX70.
The program feed then ran into our 2 Dell XPS machines both running Flash Media Encoder (FME). FME can enocde the video on the fly to an .flv, stream it to a Flash Media Server or do both at the same time. One of these machines was connected to the internet via our Direct Internet Access (DIA) connection while the other was connected via a backup T1 connection. I streamed both feeds to Mogulus, using the T1 as the primary because I was the only one using that connection, whereas we had 3000 people on campus pulling data through the DIA. If we had a problem for any reason with the T1 connection I was ready to switch to the DIA feed.
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I can’t emphasize enough the importancy of redundancy especially when it comes to live production! You have one chance to get it right, if you screw it up your sunk. If you are working for a church, that will leave a bad taste in a non-believer’s mouth and confirm the suspicion that the church is behind the times. If you don’t have tons of gear or money, do the best with what you have, and do it with excellence.
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Mogulus has a streaming limit of 500 kbps when using a free account, so you have to find the right balance between your audio and video bitrates. For us we an amazing band and try to sell them short by using a lower audio bandwidth would cripple the viewer experience. Most viewers tend to put up with lower quality video (at least for now) in today’s “YouTube world”, but will quickly stop watching a video if the audio quality is horrible. This could be because they are not actually watching the video- just listening to the audio while working on something else in the foreground. So hence I ran the audio at, a fairly high in terms of streaming bitrates, 128 kbps with the video at a bitrate of 370 kbps. This enabled me to have a total bitrate of 498 coming in just under the 500 kbps limit. See the screenshot here for the Mogulus live streaming FME settings. Mogulus has a good write up here about how to setup your connection to the Flash Media Server here.
Warnings about Mogulus: It is available as a free streaming provider so despite the fact that it is packed with features they don’t always work perfectly. Here are a few of the various problems I’ve found:
Click the photo to see the notes on Flickr.
The past 3 months of work have been an exciting time of transition, growing and execution for me. I have been working on the video side of our launch of the NewSpring Web Campus which currently has services at 11:15AM and 6:00PM EST. Joshua Blankenship designed our great Web Campus site and has details about his endeavors here. Nick Charalambous is the pastor/does everything else you can think of related to running a campus.
This post is for you fellow geeks out there that regularly speak in acronyms like DSK & H.264. We encode the 9:15 service, switching Nick in live on the fly and upload it as soon as the service is over to Lightcast.
The following is a simplified version of how we make things happen. Download the wiring schematic here (PDF) for more details along with a complete gear list here (PDF).
We are taking an SDI program feed out of A-Control along with 2 analog audio lines that are fed into a Panasonic MX70 switcher. Nick is in a separate room being shot with a Panasonic HPX170 camera, his audio is via a wired Countryman mic. I am able to communicate with Nick via PortaCom to his IFB.
The MX70 switcher SDI & XLR outputs are then split in order to feed both PCs running Flash Media Encoder (FME). FME enocdes the video on the fly to an .flv, meaning as soon as the service is done we have the file to upload to Lightcast. See the screenshot here for the FME settings. We then cue up the video to playback at 11:15AM and 6:00PM using Lightcast’s simulated live option.
In addition to the encode for the Web Campus, I also capture each service to a Mac Pro using Final Cut Pro. The service is edited and transcoded on Monday using Episode Engine for our various outputs:
The Christmas card was thrown together in about an hour and a half.
Step 1- Set up a cheap green screen in the living room and light it.
Step 2- Have Kelly make Tio jump for a treat. The trick is getting him to stretch out some and have his ears and tail in the right position. Here is the one that I used:
Step 3- Unbend a coat hangar in order to make Kelly’s scarf stick out at the right angle. Set the self timer on the camera and go jump on the bench:
Step 4- Grab a photo I took on our trip to Hawaii of Chinaman’s Hat, do a super quick Photoshop job with some tweaks in Lightroom and there you have it:
Ifyou haven’t heard much from me lately, it is because I am transitioning into my new role at NewSpring. My new role in a very small nutshell is producing and directing web media. Currently this means preparing for the launch of our Web Campus (WC or DubC for all you hipsters).
I promise that once we get the WC boat up and sailing, the number of posts and other social networking goodies around here will increase.
Until then, here is a shot of how my office looks now with the WC A-Control in it.
DJ started a blog for NewSpring’s volunteer production team to be able to plan for services before the Sunday service and then review afterwards. It is an evolving tool that we are experimenting with, so go check it out and leave some comments or feedback below.
Nick Charlambous is our new internet campus pastor, who I have had the pleasure of working with as we get things ready for the launch of NewSpring’s internet campus. Check out his blog as he details our team’s process of launching the internet campus. Also, check out Tony’s interview with him here.
Personally, I think he should just do a podcast so that all of you could experience his amazing British accent.
In case you didn’t see the first “Man Moment” video go to this post and watch the 3rd video. DO NOT try anything like this at home or anywhere else! I am not responsible for your stupidity.
Loaded up with all the necessary supplies:
After doing a single pumpkin test run I realized that the burning fuse would produce so much smoke that you couldn’t see the pumpkin explode. So I came up with the idea of running the fuse through a piece of pipe to minimize fuse smoke.
Macro shot of the fuse running into the pumpkin:
Shot of our setup with the locked down HVX200 ready to go:
The locked down HVX200 with a recycled piece of plexiglass to protect it from pumpkin splatter:
The final display of all the pumpkins before the lighting:
The aftermath with Lloyd, DJ and my shadows surveying the damage:
How many of you were astute enough to catch that the music was Smashing Pumpkins- “Pissant”?
