Church live streaming: three setups, the equipment for each and where to send the stream

A church can stream its service with a phone, with one camera and a computer, or with several cameras and a switcher. Every setup takes its sound from the sound board, the desk that mixes the church’s microphones. Start with the simplest one, and get the sound right before you spend money on the picture.

Three setups

A capture device is a small box that brings the camera’s picture into the computer through a USB cable. A video switcher is a box that chooses which camera is live. For streaming software, OBS Studio is free, its makers describe it as software “for video recording and live streaming,” and it runs on Windows, Mac and Linux. The audio adapter has to suit both your phone and your sound board, so ask the person who runs sound which one fits before you buy it.

Choose a camera that plugs into wall power, zooms with its lens, and can send its picture out through HDMI, the video cable televisions use, with no menus or symbols on it. Camera prices change often, so price the whole list at a dealer before you ask the church for the money.

Getting the sound right

1. Take the sound from the sound board through a cable. The microphone built into a phone or a camera picks up the echo of the room.
2. Ask the person who runs sound for a separate output for the stream, with its own volume for each microphone. On many sound boards this is called an aux output.
3. Add one microphone that points at the congregation, so the people at home hear the singing. Send it to the stream only, and keep it out of the room’s speakers, where it would cause the loud squeal called feedback.
4. Listen to the stream itself through headphones during the rehearsal, and fix what you hear before the service starts.

The internet speed you need

A stream uses upload speed, which is how fast your connection sends. Internet speed is measured in megabits per second, written Mbps. YouTube publishes the rate it wants for the stream itself at each picture size, and these are its figures for H.264, a common video format.

The names 720p and 1080p are picture sizes, and 1080p is the sharper of the two. Your connection needs more upload speed than the stream uses, because everything else in the building shares it. We advise an upload speed of at least twice the stream’s rate, which is 16 Mbps for a 720p stream at the recommended rate and 28 Mbps for 1080p.

Test the upload speed at the spot where the streaming computer sits, on a Sunday morning, with the computer plugged into the network by a cable. If the test shows less than 16 Mbps, stream at 720p at a lower rate, and keep that rate under half of what the test showed. A connection under 6 Mbps cannot carry 720p at YouTube’s minimum with that margin, so ask your internet company for a faster upload speed before you stream.

Where to send the stream

Each price below was read on the company’s own page on October 13, 2026.

YouTube’s help page says, “To live stream, you need to have no live streaming restrictions in the past 90 days and you need to verify your channel.” Verify the church’s channel during the week, and run a private test stream before the first Sunday. YouTube sets separate requirements for a stream sent from a phone, so read them on that page before you choose the first setup.

The song license

A church that streams songs under copyright needs a license for it. CCLI, a company that licenses worship songs to churches, sells a Streaming License for a church that wants to stream its services live or “upload recordings of your worship services to your church website or social media channels.” It sells a second license, Streaming Plus, “if you stream song recordings and multitracks,” which are recorded backing parts. Ask CCLI whether each song and each recording you plan to stream is covered before you use it. Our guide to presentation and lyrics software explains which hymns are free to use.

What to keep off the stream

Point the cameras at the platform and away from the children’s seats. Ask parents before a child appears on the stream, and ask each person before a baptism or a testimony is shown. Mute the stream while people share prayer requests aloud, because a request can name a person’s illness, money troubles or family. Turn down the microphone that points at the congregation when the singing ends, so that it does not carry private talk. Put a sign at the door that says the service is streamed.

When the volunteer is away

Write the steps on one page, from turning on the camera to ending the stream, and tape the page to the desk. Train a second person, and have that person run the stream once a month.

Sunday stream, 9:00 AM start

1. Camera on, lens cap off, plugged into the wall
2. Computer on the network cable, and the upload test shows at least 16 Mbps
3. Sound board stream output up, congregation microphone on
4. Headphones on, and the sound is clear
5. YouTube open and the private test stream is live
6. At 10:25 press Go Live. At the benediction press End Stream.
7. Mute the stream during prayer requests

The words on the screen come from a presenter program, and that program also carries the song lyrics people read at home. Church Posting has a free presenter in its church slides tool that runs the slides from one window and shows the volunteer what comes next. Press Next to see how it moves.

Free tool you can try here

Run the slides from one screen

This is how the free presenter works. Press Next and the song moves one slide at a time while you see what comes after.

This free tool is made by Hamilton Holdings LLC, the company behind Covenant OS, and published on Church Posting.

Holy, Holy, Holy, verse 1 and 2

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