Church Webcasts using YouTube Live Streams

[russellhltn]

Because the test using audacity resulted in near perfect reproduction of the sound (organ), a mixer wouldn't help.

I suspect the issue is that during the musical portion, the audio is much weaker and YouTube live is reacting to that. You can test that in audacity by comparing the volume while speaking at the mic with the music.

I think you'll find that you'll want to bring the volume up during the musical portions of the program so the music isn't too soft. Fix that and YouTube live will likely fix itself.

A mixer would give you more control over the signal level that goes into the laptop.

[evancpugh]

Read my text a little closer. Because of the poor results from our last two sacrament meetings, I've gone over to the church with my wife, who plays the organ, and run several tests. I first recorded with audacity and it was perfect, no fluxtuations at all. Then I would do a youtube live using Chrome, the results were fluctuations continually - very poor. Today, I went over and checked the internet speed (CenturyLink - wow an amazing down load speed of 10-12 Mb and upload speed of about 5 mb) I'm running at home 120 Mb and upload of 5.7 Mb - comcast. Maybe the church ought to switch to comcast or pay a little more and get a faster speed. But aside from the gripes, I ran a test with Edge, Firefox and another test with Chrome. Consistantly, Edge and Chrome were pretty much horrible but Firefox was actually fair - better than the other two. I found this interesting. My conclusion so far is it may be internet speed related and not an issue with youtube live. As mentioned, when someone is at the pulpit speaking, the sound is flawless. But of the sacrament experience, to enjoy the prelude music and singing, it would be nice to fix this out.

[russellhltn]

Unless your chapel is one of those that run the organ though the sound system, any music is just ambient pickup by the podium mic which is intended for close speaking. There's going to be a significant difference in audio levels. That could mess with any YouTube logic trying to determine if this is a weak sound that needs to be boosted, or just background noise that should be suppressed.

The upload speed (which is what counts here) is a little on the low side. The low bandwidth of the download leaves me concerned that members' phones are taking up some bandwidth and interfering with the webcast. If you can wire the laptop and turn off the WiFi, that would be something to consider. However, I'd think bandwidth issues would sound like "music on hold as experienced by a cell phone user" (a burble sound), not the in/out that I think you're describing.

What control do you have over YouTube's settings? You may want to reduce the resolution of the video so there's more bandwidth for the audio or see what audio settings you have.

You may need to switch to something like OBS to get better control over the situation.

[CalS201]

Our ward has been using youtube live (webcam) for a couple of weeks. Everything has gone smoothly with one exception. Our setup is a laptop (internal camera) and line-in audio from the pulpit microphone (RCA jacks). When someone is at the pulpit, the audio is perfect. However, when the organ is playing prelude and/or we're singing a song, the audio (as it is received by a viewer at home) fluctuates up and down. To isolate the problem (see it was the sound system or something else), I recorded my wife playing the organ. I first recreated the problem with youtube live and webcam option. Then, I used "audicity" and I recorded her playing. The play back was perfect, no fluctuation. Conclusion, youtube live is not handling the audio very well. I've sent a comment to youtube about the issue and have not yet gotten any feed back. ..........

It may seem like youtube is the culprit because you get a clean signal in audacity, but it's also possible audacity is controlling/changing some audio setting of your laptop.

It's worth verifying the ControlPanel/Sound settings (PC), or SystemPreferences (Apple), to make sure the audio signal level is approaching 75-100% when someone is speaking at the pulpit. If you have low signal level, and the input have AGC=On, you might get some strange results.

Also, it is possible your laptop is still using it's built-in mic (while you webcast to youtube) even though you connect to the external mic jack? You could check this by doing a short youtube webcast, tap the pulpit mic and then tap the laptop mic.

It would also be helpful if you could tell us the make and model of laptop, and if you have a single TRRS audio connector or if you have 2 audio connectors (mic & headphone), as well as the cable type and any attentuator in use.

[russellhltn]

A question for those using YouTube live. I have a ward that is having problems with it.

From what I'm told:

• The equipment being used is barrowed, owned by someone other than the operator. Each week it arrives in a unknown state.
• There is no preview with YouTube live so you can be sure the external webcam is selected. (as opposed to the webcam built-into the laptop).
• You can't switch webcams once the stream starts.
• Stopping the stream cancels it, forcing a last-second email to the membership about the new link

I personally haven't tried YouTube live. Is there something my operator is overlooking to make sure the webcast uses the right camera from the get-go?

[engjake]

I personally haven't tried YouTube live. Is there something my operator is overlooking to make sure the webcast uses the right camera from the get-go?

we had this same problem in our stake this last Sunday. We were going to test it this week to make sure... but it appears that you should schedule the live stream from the computer with the camera attached that you plan to use for the broadcast. When you set up the livestream it locates the external camera on the machine and expects to find that when the broadcast starts. At least from what I can tell that was the issue.

[russellhltn]

but it appears that you should schedule the live stream from the computer with the camera attached that you plan to use for the broadcast.

Ouch. Since the equipment is borrowed, I don't know as the machine is available when the event is scheduled. Trying to do the scheduling and sending of the link 10-15 minutes before hand could be a problem.

[torriem]

Just a quick note on sound quality with Youtube streaming. If the left and right channels are out of phase (polarity swapped on one of them maybe?), the Youtube audio algorithms will have issues as it does some kind of linked encoding between the left and right channels. With one of our wards we didn't yet have an audio feed out of the amp rack, so I patched into the monitor from the hearing impaired system. That worked fine with the church webcaster, and I could easily record the sound on a laptop as was mentioned above, but in youtube it sounded awful, completely corrupted. I finally took the Teradek up by the pulpit where there's a line-out feed and that worked just fine. I can't find the document online where I first read about this problem. Hope this kind of helps.

[CalS201]

A question for those using YouTube live. I have a ward that is having problems with it.

From what I'm told:

• The equipment being used is barrowed, owned by someone other than the operator. Each week it arrives in a unknown state.
• There is no preview with YouTube live so you can be sure the external webcam is selected. (as opposed to the webcam built-into the laptop).
• You can't switch webcams once the stream starts.
• Stopping the stream cancels it, forcing a last-second email to the membership about the new link

I personally haven't tried YouTube live. Is there something my operator is overlooking to make sure the webcast uses the right camera from the get-go?

You can use VLC https://www.videolan.org/index.html to preview the webcam video before you "GoLive" with youtube. This would be useful to get the exposure and framing of the pulpit area.

You can use the free program "Orban Loudness Meter" https://www.orban.com/freeorbanloudnessmeter to check and adjust your audio levels (use the peak meter and adjust audio level to be close to-yet stay out of the red overload area)

Once your video looks good and the audio level is good you can "Go Live". When you Go Live look for the "More Options" button. Press the button and select which webcam and microphone you want to use. See attachments for Go Live screen captures showing the webcam and mic selection.

[mashcraft]

If you are using the Chrome browser for the live stream, when you start it the selection for both camera and audio are now on the same screen. You can see the video in the background behind the dialog box to verify you have the right camera.