To all my friends who identify themselves as being homosexual—we need to clarify a few things. I think we can come to something resembling a true understanding of each other. Let’s start with some foundational truths about my beliefs:
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Live Stream Worship Service Audio for FREE with Mixlr [T3]
Several years ago, when I was working with the Sweetwater church of Christ, we began experimenting with live video streams of our worship services. It was great to be able to make our worship services accessible to those who weren't able to be with us, whether because of their health, the weather, or some other issue.
However, we did run into problems at times. Ustream was becoming more popular, but it was still a bit young. Likewise, we didn't always have the most robust internet connection. Video also brings a certain complexity to broadcasting, in that you have a visual component and an audio component, and both have to be in sync with each other.
When I moved to Kentucky, I began thinking about how much easier and accessible it might be to just broadcast audio over the internet. I tried several streaming server options, but nothing really seemed to suit me. So I gave up.
Until last week—when I found Mixlr.
You may have heard of it before, but somehow this one had slipped past me (which doesn't happen often). Mixlr is a self described "platform for social live audio. You can create an account with them for the best price ever—FREE—and then take advantage of their live audio streaming possibilities.
Features
- Live audio streaming from a computer, iPhone, and even (with a little work) an iPad.
- The ability to embed an audio player on your own website.
- Social interactivity—listeners can chat (which is useful, but could be a problem... more on that in a minute).
- Social media connection—when you "schedule" a broadcast, you can post to Facebook and Twitter about your upcoming broadcast.
- Audio archiving—The "Showreel" is an archive of past "shows." You can download or share your broadcast from this page.
- Connects to Dropbox, Soundcloud, Mixcloud, and other third party sites. I can actually send a broadcast archive mp3 directly to Dropbox from Mixlr.
- Paid accounts are only $9.99, and give you a higher quality audio stream, as well as a few other features.
- NO ADS on the free accounts (yet).
In Practice
This last week was a pretty icy one for us in Southern Illinois. We didn't cancel our worship services, but we had many who were unable to come. Likewise, there were many people from other congregations in our area who stayed home. It was the kind of situation that live streaming audio is perfect for.
To prepare, I embedded the audio player on our own website (just to keep people from wandering away to other audio streams), and shared the information on Facebook.
I used the iPhone app (loaded on my iPad) for our broadcast. The app is straightforward enough—simply sign in, select a genre, enter a title, then hit the big green start button to broadcast. I set the iPad on the lectern and used its internal microphone. It seemed to work well.
When I stopped the broadcast the app prompted me to save it, or wait until later. I'm not sure, but it seems as though the broadcast is simultaneously streamed and recorded on the device. When you save a broadcast to your "Showreel," it actually uploads a file from the iPhone/iPad to Mixlr. That's great, because it means that if your internet connection was fidgety and cutting out those dropouts won't be on your recording.
We actually had listeners the first time we streamed! I couple I knew, but we even had one random person from the Mixlr universe who listened for a little while. They posted a comment that I had to delete, but hey, at least they had a chance to hear the truth for a little while!
Impressions
To this point I've been thrilled with using Mixlr. It's SO much easier than video streaming ever was. I do plan on connecting a computer (or my iPad) to our sound system this week instead of using the iPad microphone. Other than that, there's not really much I would change.
The social media connections make Mixlr a useful tool, too. What good is it to have a live stream, yet not have anyone listening? I think that scheduling broadcasts, and "advertising" them on Facebook/Twitter will help boost the size of our listening audience.
For right now, I plan on sending my broadcasts to Dropbox, then editing them down to just the sermons, and using the edited file for our iTunes feed. In the future, though, I'm thinking about the possibility connecting Mixlr to Mixcloud, a service which will not only allow me to archive files, but has a beta program for spoken word podcasts which connects to iTunes. Basically, I could send my archive file there, and have my iTunes feed automatically update. That's cool.
Why Just Audio?
The ease with which someone can broadcast (from a mobile device sitting on the pulpit), as well as the relatively low internet bandwidth required for streaming makes audio streaming a much more viable option for many churches.
Our DSL internet service is really not sufficient for video streaming. But it is more than adequate to stream audio. Many congregations who are in more rural areas have the same problem, and I think that just streaming audio is a great alternative for them. Even if your congregation has sufficient internet bandwidth for video, some in your audience might not have a fast enough connection to watch it. Audio streaming solves that problem, too.
Likewise, I'm personally more likely to listen to a sermon than to watch one—and that's coming from a "video guy." The reality is that I don't really have 30 minutes to sit down at a computer and watch a guy preach. On the other hand, I can find time to listen to a lesson while driving, walking, or working on tasks that require less concentration. Besides, if your video stream is just one stationary camera pointed at a pulpit, then you aren't really justifying using video anyway. Just stream audio!
One other thing—Mixlr will load on a mobile device's browser. Yes, people can listen to your live stream on their smartphone! That is much more difficult to do with video.
More to Come
Over the coming weeks I intend to do more experimenting with Mixlr. I'm excited about the possibilities of this service for the work of the church. Check it out on your own at:
View our live streaming page at:
www.metropoliscofc.com/live-audio-stream/
View my Mixlr profile at:
- Daniel
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)