Quick takeaways from this interview

• A separate mix for online viewers drastically improves the quality of live streaming church services.
• Show appreciation and offer reasonable service schedules to retain a volunteer tech team.
• Regularly evaluate and upgrade your audio setup to ensure the best possible experience for both in-person and online attendees.

How did you get your start with at Life Stream Church?

I’m Ben Bird, and I’ve been serving as the interim production engineer at Life Stream Church in Allendale, Michigan. It’s the church I grew up in, and after some other ventures, I found myself back here. One of my main responsibilities is ensuring high-quality audio for both our in-person services and those who join us online. This involves overseeing all audio, video, and lighting systems, and managing volunteers. I actually got my start in tech in high school and I’ve been learning through hands-on experience and mentorship.

What’s your setup to balance front of house and broadcast mixing?

We use a DLive C3500 console for our front of house mix. A key aspect of our setup is the one-to-one input configuration. This means if a kick-in mic is input one at front of house, it’s also input one in broadcast. This simplifies troubleshooting for our volunteers, especially when optimizing audio for live streaming church services.

We run Logic Pro X on a Mac and use Dante to send audio from front of house over the network. This allows us to create a separate, optimized mix specifically for our online audience. Our broadcast engineer operates from a dedicated room behind the worship center, separate from the video control room. It’s equipped with studio speakers and acoustic paneling for mixing audio specifically for the live stream.

What challenges did you face with live streaming church services?

For about three months, we didn’t have a dedicated broadcast engineer, so we sent our front of house mix directly to the live stream. This resulted in inconsistencies in the audio quality for those watching online, particularly with vocal balances.

To address this, we invested in a Mac mini, Dante licensing, and did a system reset, maintaining the one-to-one input configuration.

Once we had a dedicated broadcast engineer again, the quality of our online experience improved significantly, and we received a lot of positive feedback from our online viewers.

What future improvements are you hoping to implement?

We have a vision to add two new positions in the video control room to further enhance our online ministry. One would be a producer calling camera shots, and the other would manage a separate soundboard to balance groups and speaking mics. This would allow the broadcast engineer to focus solely on mixing inputs, leading to a more polished live stream.

Any hardware/software solutions you wish existed?

A more accurate way to measure in-house decibel levels with an iPad would be a significant asset. Our current setup isn’t always reliable, and we aim to maintain specific levels for both in-person attendees and those watching online.

How did you recruit and retain volunteers to support live streaming church services?

We also hold a ministry fair once a year that helps to bring in new volunteers interested in supporting various aspects of the church, including our online ministry. [read here for more about recruiting volunteers]

Honestly, showing appreciation is crucial. We make sure our volunteers know their work is valued and essential to delivering a quality experience for those attending in person and online. We try to limit their service to twice a month to prevent burnout.