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Stream Your Service with Faithlife Live Stream

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With Faithlife Live Stream, you can livestream your church service and share it on your website, in your Faithlife Group, and on Faithlife TV. You can configure your stream to show your sermon slides from Proclaim, a video of your pastor, or both simultaneously.

You can check for service outages at status.faithlife.com. To learn more about using Faithlife Status, click here.

Note: For help with hardware, click here. Troubleshooting or looking for an answer to a specific question? Use the search box above, or see all Faithlife Live Stream articles.

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Prerequisites to Streaming

  1. Audio: Connect a microphone to your computer. If you are presenting from home, you can use the mic on your computer.
  2. Video: Connect an external camera to your computer and point it at the stage. If you want to stream your sermon from home, you can use your computer’s webcam.
  3. Two monitors (recommended): To live stream your slides, you will need to capture Proclaim’s output. It’s easiest to manage if you can set one display to show your Proclaim slides and the other to show OBS. It is possible with one Monitor on Mac, but you’ll need to be familiar with full-screen windows and Spaces.

Note: We recommend at least 5 mbps upload speed to live stream. Here’s the quickest way to find your speed.

 

1. Configure Faithlife Live Stream

  1. Navigate to your Faithlife group on Faithlife.com.
  2. In the admin panel, expand Settings and select Live Stream.
  3. In the Live Stream section, click New Live Stream.

  1. Add details to your stream.
  • Provide a title and description for your live stream and select whether you want it to be publicly available or limited to members of your group.
  • To provide a customized featured image, click the Camera icon .
  • In the Provider dropdown menu, select Faithlife Live Stream.
  • Click Done.

Note: Faithlife auto-generates both an RTMP URL and a Stream Key (if this doesn’t appear right away, refresh the page). Keep this page open as you’ll copy and paste these into OBS (your encoder).

 

2. Configure Proclaim and go On Air

Launch Proclaim and sign in if prompted.

Note: If you don’t have Proclaim, you can download it here then learn the basics to help you get started with Proclaim.

  1. Expand File and open your presentation (or create a new one).

  1. Configure your monitors

Expand the Settings menu and select Display. Set your second monitor to Slides.

Note: Learn more about configuring display outputs in Proclaim.

  1. Go On Air

Click On Air button to start presenting.

 

3. Configure Open Broadcaster Software (OBS)

OBS is a free video encoding software that enables live streaming. You will use it to capture Proclaim, your audio, and your video and send it to Faithlife TV.

Note: We recommend OBS because it’s free and easy to use, but Faithlife Live Stream will work with other software and hardware encoders as well. (We've written a full tutorial for Streamlabs OBS as well: help for streaming with Streamlabs.)

  1. Download Open Broadcaster Software.

Go to obsproject.com, select your operating system, and click Download Installer. Follow the instructions to install the software.

Note: For more information and troubleshooting help for OBS, visit the OBS Wiki.

  1. Add your stream details and video settings in OBS.

With OBS installed and open, click Settings.

Click Stream in the left panel and make these adjustments:

  • Change the Service dropdown to Custom…
  • Copy and paste the RTMP URL from your Faithlife Live Stream configuration page and paste it into the Server field.
  • Copy the Stream Key from your Faithlife Live Stream configuration page and paste it into the Stream Key field.

Click Video in the left panel and make the following adjustments:

  • Recommended Video Settings

    • Resolution: 1280x720 or 1920x1080
    • Frame rate: 30 fps
    • Keyframe interval: 2 seconds (60 GOP)
    • Codec: H.264
    • Bitrate: 2640 Kbps or 4400 Kbps

    Recommended Audio Settings

    • Codec: AAC
    • Bitrate: 128 Kbps

    Note: If you stream to multiple streaming services, e.g. Faithlife Live Stream, Facebook, YouTube, use the lower resolution and bitrate settings indicated above to avoid dropped frames. Learn more.

Click OK to secure your settings.

  1. Configure your audio source.

Along the bottom of OBS, in the Sources area click the plus button and select Audio Capture Device.

If your audio input shows in the Add Existing list, select it and click OK. If it doesn’t appear, create a new audio input with your desired name and click OK.

Select your input and click OK.

Note: You can change the mic in Settings > Audio if needed. 

  1. Add your Proclaim slides.

Note: You can capture slides from any presentation software with OBS. If you’re using something other than Proclaim, you can still follow these steps below. Instead of selecting Proclaim as your window capture source, select your presentation software program.

Along the bottom of OBS, in the Sources area click the plus button and select Window Capture.

In the dialog that appears, give your window capture the name Proclaim. Click OK. Check the box, “Show Windows with empty names” and then select Faithlife Proclaim from the Window dropdown. Click OK.

Note: If the Proclaim window title says "(null)", check your security settings to make sure OBS has screen recording privileges.

Note: If you see multiple Faithlife Proclaim windows in the dropdown, click through them until you find your Slides output.

Your slides might be too large or too small. In OBS, you can click and drag their corners to resize and position them.

  1. Add a live video source (optional).

Along the bottom of OBS, in the Sources area click the plus button and select Video Capture Device.

Follow the prompts to name your video capture device, click OK and select your desired camera from the Devices dropdown. Click OK.

Did you know? You can add lower thirds and other overlays from Proclaim over your live video feed. Learn more. 

 

4. Start Your Stream

In OBS, click Start Streaming. 

Note: As soon as you start streaming, Faithlife Live Stream begins recording in the background. You can also configure OBS to record your video locally to your computer at the same time.

You can create multiple scenes in the bottom-left Scenes panel to easily switch between different configurations. For instance, add one scene showing only your video output, another one for only slides, and a third showing your slides and the video in the lower right (picture-in-picture). While streaming, select a scene to smoothly transition between one scene and the next. Learn more about using Scenes in OBS.

Note: It can take up to several minutes between the time you start streaming and the time it becomes available to viewers. You can check the stream status on the Live Stream section of your group's settings on Faithlife.com. When your stream is up and running, you will see the word Streaming beneath the stream's status.

 

5. Share Your Live Stream

Make your live stream available to your viewers in several places:

Note: Remember, in order to share the link to those outside your group, you need to set your live stream feed settings to Publicly Available. Learn more about sharing your live stream.

On Faithlife TV

  • The Live Stream section in your Faithlife group settings contains a link directly to your live stream on FaithlifeTV.com (Expand Settings in the admin panel, click Live Stream, click Copy next to the Share link). Anyone can visit this link to watch your live stream.

  • Members of your Faithlife group can use their preferred TV device to navigate to your church’s Faithlife TV channel and watch your live stream. Learn more. 

On Your Website

  • If you have a Faithlife Site, your live stream will automatically appear in your live stream widget. Learn more.

  • You can embed your live stream on any website using the embed code provided in the Live Stream section just below the Share link mentioned above. Copy the embed code, then paste it into your website. Learn more.

In Your Church Group on Faithlife.com

Your live stream also has a dedicated page in your Faithlife group. This is accessible to anyone who is a member of your Faithlife group. To access it:

  1. Navigate to your church group on Faithlife.com
  2. Expand the Content section in the left sidebar.
  3. Click Live Stream.

Note: You can view basic viewing stats while streaming or more detailed stats after your stream finishes. Learn more.

On Another Streaming Platform

You can also share your livestream on YouTube(learn more), Facebook(learn more), and Vimeo(learn more). You can also stream simultaneously to YouTube and Facebook with Faithlife Live Stream.

 

6. Stop your Live Stream

To stop the live stream, click Stop Streaming in OBS.

 

7. Share Your Recorded Live Stream

Once your recording processes (this may take several hours), it will show in your group's files. Go to Faithlife.com and select your church group in the sidebar. Expand Content and select Videos. Once you find the recording, hover your cursor over the preview and click the View asset details icon.

While viewing the video file, click Share.

Choose a sharing platform from the icons on the left or copy the URL to share a direct link. 

Note: Learn more about sharing your recorded sermon, including posting publicly-accessible videos on your website and on Faithlife TV.

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