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[Chris Schaal]

I've been streaming my church service for over a year now. We know there's a better way to go about streaming but are in the dark about how and I'd like to understand it all since I'm the one going to be keeping up with it. Right now I have a laptop hooked to a video and audio capture boxes, and those are hooked to the main sound board in the front of the church and a PTZ camera connected to the wall behind my sound booth. The audio I get from the main sound system I can do very little with besides volume. So there are times dialogue is very soft and low while music is loud, kind of like watching television and the audio of a show you're watching isn't on the same level of a commercial.

I'd love to be able to control each audio input specifically for streaming but my setup now doesn't allow it. Would we need a separate sound board just for streaming? I don't want to mess with the main sound system that the music director and his band work through but I would like to give the people watching our stream a better quality audio experience. Would there be a way for me to control the audio for each input with it only changing what the stream is hearing and not the church itself? If there is a way how would we go about doing that and would it require cables from all lines to be laid out to the sound booth? I ask about the cables because the sound booth is about 75-100 feet from the main sound system and I don't know the limit to how far an audio cable can go distance-wise, or if that can cause a lag of some sort.

Thank you for your time and I greatly appreciate any help given.

[Thomas Le]

We can't help you until your display name shows your real name.

[Mac Kerr]

I've been streaming my church service for over a year now. We know there's a better way to go about streaming but are in the dark about how and I'd like to understand it all since I'm the one going to be keeping up with it.

Please go to your profile and change your name to your real full name as required by the posting rules.

Mac
admin

[brian maddox]

...
 So there are times dialogue is very soft and low while music is loud, kind of like watching television and the audio of a show you're watching isn't on the same level of a commercial.

...

This is a very common problem caused by the fundamental differences between how we mix for a live space vs a "broadcast".

..
I'd love to be able to control each audio input specifically for streaming but my setup now doesn't allow it. Would we need a separate sound board just for streaming? I don't want to mess with the main sound system that the music director and his band work through but I would like to give the people watching our stream a better quality audio experience. Would there be a way for me to control the audio for each input with it only changing what the stream is hearing and not the church itself? If there is a way how would we go about doing that and would it require cables from all lines to be laid out to the sound booth? I ask about the cables because the sound booth is about 75-100 feet from the main sound system and I don't know the limit to how far an audio cable can go distance-wise, or if that can cause a lag of some sort.

Thank you for your time and I greatly appreciate any help given.

To answer these questions we need to know what mixing console you are using currently and what output from that console you are feeding to your live stream. It would also be helpful to know what else that mixing console is feeding. For instance do you have an AVIOM system or something similar or are you feed monitor speakers on stage.

[Mike Caldwell]

Could you post a link to one of your more recent live streams?

How many people are on your AV team?

[Brian Jojade]

It MAY be possible with a single board if you have enough channels and outputs available to do a split internally.

Otherwise, a simple analog split of each input and run to a 2nd mixer is more common.

Remember that a live mix does work with the sound of the actual sources which may not be miced appropriately for broadcast use. ie, you may find you need either a room mic or additional mics added to devices to get the sound you want.

You will need a separate operator for the broadcast mix.  It's possible for you to do it along with switching video but if the show gets complex that can result in missed cues.

Balanced analog audio can be run quite a long distance without issue.  Under 1000 feet doesn't need any real considerations.

[Chris Schaal]

I'll take a picture of the sound system we're using tomorrow when I'm at church. I do know the mixer portion is on an ipad, though I assume that's probably pretty normal nowadays.

Here is our latest stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXU36pdLrBM&t=692s

I'm the only one managing the stream and will likely be the only one dealing with the audio of the stream as well regardless of the setup. The live service has two people and we hire a freelance person a couple of times a year to sort of reset the system.

My church is still very small and asking for a dedicated room to handle the stream is a no go. I'm hoping I can find some very good noise cancelling headphones that will be good enough without having to be in another room.

[Mike Caldwell]

If there mixing on an iPad the simple fast way to get you up and mixing the live stream would be for you to get an Ipad, set up and PRE FADE aux mix, send that mix output to the live stream audio input.

You will need a way to monitor that aux so you mix, a head phone amp connected to the mix feed line would and use good sealing over the ear headphones if you must mix in the same room.
With the iPad you could control the mix just for the live stream. Depending on the type of mixer it more than likely has a monitor mix app available you use and not worry about getting into the main mix functions.

The downside to that set up is you would not really have control of channel EQ and processing, there would be over all mix EQ and processing.
The upside is you don't need a lot to get started!

[Matthias McCready]

I'll take a picture of the sound system we're using tomorrow when I'm at church. I do know the mixer portion is on an ipad, though I assume that's probably pretty normal nowadays.

Here is our latest stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXU36pdLrBM&t=692s

I'm the only one managing the stream and will likely be the only one dealing with the audio of the stream as well regardless of the setup. The live service has two people and we hire a freelance person a couple of times a year to sort of reset the system.

My church is still very small and asking for a dedicated room to handle the stream is a no go. I'm hoping I can find some very good noise cancelling headphones that will be good enough without having to be in another room.

Since it sounds like you have a digital mixer, if you have an extra stereo matrix, and either a stereo aux/group you can probably accomplish this with almost no extra channels/cabling.

You can accomplish this by either using groups/matrixes or matrix into an input channel/auxes feeding another matrix.

Roughly, depending on your in room levels, you will probably want to send -20dB of your band compared to live, ie your speech and band/vocals should be hitting roughly the same volume for your stream. Additionally, you may want a separate group/aux that has inputs that might not be hitting your room mix (crowd mics, sources you want louder etc).

After this you will want to compress and limit your streaming output.

If you plan this carefully and take your time you can probably create a decent-sounding online experience without having a separate mix you have to pay attention to.

Will it sound incredible? No, but it might sound better than having a layperson attempting to mix for broadcast.

---

Also for what it is worth I would avoid the noise-canceling headphones; most models that offer that feature are not what you want to be making mixing decisions with: I would recommend a pair of ATH M50X's or if you really want to get something nice perhaps a pair of custom in-ears, most brands make stuff oriented for audio engineers.

[Mike Caldwell]

I just watched the video in your provided link...
The audio is only on the left channel, the acoustic guitar sounds distorted, piano needs to come up, drums are a little to loud.

That being said as mentioned in the previous post with some proper set up you may not need to "actively" need to mix the live stream.
Using a POST FADE mix to feed the live stream the send levels could be adjusted for broadcast and the level changes would follow
the main mix then, maybe tweak some of the mix send levels a little till you find the sweet spot.
A starting point would be having all the input channels live stream mix send levels set at maybe 50% and the channels used for
spoken word inputs set up higher maybe 75%, on the mix output processing add some compression.

You need to get the interface between the mixer to you live stream input, what is the model of the live stream audio interface?

[ProSoundWeb Community]