Church broadcasts using MEVO

[WattsCE]

Given the problems our ward had been having using our Mevo Start camera with the Church's webcast system, we decided recently to switch to an alternative provider. This was before the Church's Zoom license announcement, but now is even more relevant. We used Zoom for our webcast (using a regular business license, not the new webinar one yet) for the first time yesterday and so have a few notes that may help others.

Currently the Mevo cameras don't support directly streaming to Zoom, so an external device (e.g. laptop) is necessary. No drivers are required for Mac, Windows, or Linux (we verified both Windows and Linux this past weekend) when using wired mode (requires a USB-C to USB-A adapter if your device doesn't support USB-C). It might also work on Android or iOS (just has to support UVC - the USB Video Class protocol), although from Googling around it seems Android 10+ might no longer support this feature.

Using Mevo as a webcam disables regular direct streaming from the camera, and so it is not enabled by default. Follow these instructions to enable "Wired webcam mode (beta)" from your Mevo mobile app: https://help.mevo.com/hc/en-us/articles ... Mode-Beta- . This is also important to note in case different units are sharing a camera -- If so and you're having trouble starting a direct stream from the camera, make sure to check that this toggle is disabled.

Then all you have to do is select "mevo-xxxxx" from the (^) dropdown next to the "Start video" or "Stop video" button in Zoom to use the Mevo just like an external webcam. You might need to do the same to get audio from the camera as well.

The Zoom host doesn't have to be the same person running the camera. They can be someone at home or elsewhere in the building watching via Zoom to make sure there are no problems.

The only way to stop the stream from the Mevo mobile app going this route is to turn off Wired webcam mode in the app. We didn't test whether Zoom would fall back to the laptop's built-in camera when doing this, though, so it's probably best to first have the Zoom host end the event altogether when it's time for the Sacrament.

Given all that, our broadcast went very smoothly, with double the viewers over when we used the Church's system.

[Wattsuk]

I used a Mevo camera to stream a funeral last week and it worked perfectly. Super easy. We setup a live stream through YouTube live. For Sunday I'm planning on streaming our meeting with it and on YouTube put the settings to not make the stream available when it was over and not enable DVR and also remember to mark auto start stream when it receives the signal. If you use YouTube, another thing you can do is put your channel id in the URL as follows: https://www.youtube.com/embed/live_stre ... RCHANNELID and that link should work every week for your meetings. You can find your channel id by going to studio.youtube.com and it's the number at the end of that URL after you are signed into your account. You will need to make the live stream public for that link to work each week, but I think it's a great solution to not having to send a new link to the members each week. I bought a cheap $17 ethernet to USB C adapter and plugged into our Ethernet and it worked great. Don't buy the $150 adapter Mevo has on their site. I've typed up detailed instructions for using a Mevo camera for this purpose if anyone would like it.

Any tips for getting the mevo to reliably connect to ethernet before I purchase the official mevo adapter?

Is there a specific order of connecting the device that needs to be followed?

I have a Dell USB C Ethernet dongle which does work with the mevo but last Sunday it just wasn't connecting.

We've been using the mevo since August last year for streaming sacrament meeting and it has been awesome but FM replaced our AP with a new Meraki MR33 and now the chapel seems to be a bit of a dead-zone for wi-fi.

Last Sunday I had to use my 4G LTE from my phone hotspot as a last minute fix.

[bido101]

A reboot has fixed every time when USB Ethernet isn't recognized. It has happened a few times to us in our stake. Even using the Mevo Ethernet adapter.

[Wattsuk]

A reboot has fixed every time when USB Ethernet isn't recognized. It has happened a few times to us in our stake. Even using the Mevo Ethernet adapter.

Thanks. Will try that if I have an issue this coming Sunday.

I.T support 101 huh? Turn it off and on!