Church Webcasts using OBS

[jkarras]

Our Bishop was undecided when the guidance came out. I just explained that the difference between what we were doing and the sacrament program that is shown on BYU-TV every Sunday was that the BYU-TV program was produced and not live streamed. So they can manipulate it in post and you get a nice continuous feel and keep it to 45min. For us, it would require a blank space of unknown time each week. This would give those at home a nicer program and less fiddling on our part plus less use of technology we didn't have (cameras and laptops).

Once he thought about the flow for those at home he went with the modified format with sacrament at the end. The side benefit is people stay to the end and don't duck out early

[lajackson]

I'm wondering about how the webcast is being paused.

In OBS? Put up the graphic and turn off the sound input. When the ordinance is completed, put up the camera again and turn the sound input back on. Am I missing something, or was that not the question?

[russellhltn]

I'm wondering about how the webcast is being paused.

In OBS? Put up the graphic and turn off the sound input. When the ordinance is completed, put up the camera again and turn the sound input back on. Am I missing something, or was that not the question?

That's the question. And that's the general idea of what should be done. I don't know OBS to know if there's some common error coming into play. The main thing is to make sure the outgoing data stream is still going and not paused at all.

Muting the audio is something I hadn't considered, but I wonder if the combination of a static screen and no audio is causing something to think the stream has been cut off.

Again, I don't know OBS well enough, but I'd give thought to some soft music and/or animated graphic so the servers see "activity".

Another suggestion is to watch the status page during the sacrament to see if it gives any clues before the link dies.

[lajackson]

The main thing is to make sure the outgoing data stream is still going and not paused at all.

Got it. We did not have a problem this week. I also shut off the meetinghouse WiFi just in case a shortage of bandwidth was causing the problem. Should not have been an issue, but you never know, and I was not there to take a speed test reading.

During the quiet time (slide and no sound), OBS and the servers say they still are trading 74 kbps. Of course, that is a lot lower than 1,800 kbps when the meeting is actually running.

We will keep watching it.

[chrismiltimore]

We are experiencing a 1min 30 second delay between when the meeting starts and when it shows up in OBS making everything offset by 1 min 30 seconds. Is this normal and can it be changed/eliminated?

[russellhltn]

We are experiencing a 1min 30 second delay between when the meeting starts and when it shows up in OBS making everything offset by 1 min 30 seconds. Is this normal and can it be changed/eliminated?

If you're talking about the church webcast, the default for the viewer seems to be a 120 second delay. You can see the settings at the bottom of each individual's viewer screen.

[icecapc]

jeremywillden wrote:
Not sure if there is enough interest to justify the effort to document what I've built, but I've created a Python script that queries the XML configuration file (normally used by a Teradek encoder to get its settings), update the configuration files for OBS studio, and then when a new URL becomes available, it auto-launches OBS with the new settings. When run as a Cron job on a linux machine (or presumably with modifications it could work on Windows as a scheduled task) it begins and ends the event automatically. I've found that pretty old computers (I'm using 2009 iMacs with Core 2 Duo processors at 2.6 GHz, purchased for about $35 surplus from a school district a few years back plus $15 for a RAM upgrade to 2 GB) work wonderfully with Ubuntu and OBS studio for streaming meetings. Furthermore, I've even automated the setup of the iMacs with SaltStack so you install the base OS, configure the Salt Minion, and apply the state from the Master and it sets up virtually everything in one (long) step. I've also got a manual setup guide for doing audio-only streaming with Raspberry Pi computers (<$75 each with SD card, power adapter and USB audio interface) and a DigitalOcean ($5/mo) droplet server running IceCast in the cloud. If there's enough interest, I'd be happy to share what I've built and learned in the process.
They work great sitting in the second row of pews facing the pulpit, only sticking up an inch or two above the back of the pew, directly using the built-in webcam, or with an $8 HDMI input USB dongle if you prefer a better camera, or just a USB webcam. You can take audio from the built-in mic or run a cable from the "record out" port from the sound system.
I'll check in on this thread occasionally, but feel free to direct message me if you like.

I'd be interested in the Python Script as well.