Church Webcasts using OBS

[bphilli7]

I have been playing around with closed captions in OBS (captions which are embedded into the stream and can be toggled by the user in the video player client/YouTube).

It looks like the video player client the church uses on their webcast platform does not have this option to display captions. So I assume that the captions from OBS can only be seen by streamers on YouTube live.

Anyone able to get closed captions working on the churches streaming platform?

[russellhltn]

Anyone able to get closed captions working on the churches streaming platform?

Considering that there is no control on the player end to switch it on or off, I can't see how that would work. It would have to be Open Captioned (part of the video).

We're doing a stake conference this weekend. We have a deaf group in our stake, so there's been a request for closed captioning. I was told by the folks coordinating this on Salt Lake's end that we'd have to setup a second Church Webcast for the captioned program.

[brad_p]

Anyone able to get closed captions working on the churches streaming platform?

We have a deaf group in our stake, so there's been a request for closed captioning.

Just a thought, is it possible you could have a second camera trained on someone who does live ASL interpretation? Then feed that through a second webcast?

OBS makes it very easy to "tile" a second video camera source, I do it all the time for my work. If you want to go the extra mile, you can put the ASL interpreter in front of a mono colored wall/screen, then use an OBS chroma key filter to make the wall/screen transparent.

[russellhltn]

Just a thought, is it possible you could have a second camera trained on someone who does live ASL interpretation? Then feed that through a second webcast?

I'm sure a number of things are possible. But that would have to be another setup and you'd need the equipment and staffing to do it. If you have a visiting authority, the primary setup will be zoom.

As it is, it seems SL wants the local stake to co-host the meeting and run the hymns. To do it right would be two machines and two people.

[kreeve]

Did a Stake Conference broadcast on Sunday using OBS. 33 people in the chapel, the rest all online.

I solicited the help of two other people for this to get everything right. One on camera, one on audio and one on OBS switching, and doing the text overlays (lower 3rd) on speakers and songs.
We had two special musical numbers not at the pulpit. A vocal soloist with piano accompanying and a piano solo. Put a mic on the grand piano and one for soloist. Piano mic was only sent to broadcast and not house sound. Piano was plenty loud with lid lifted up for in the chapel.


While I was looking up how to do something in OBS I discovered you can connect a Stream Deck button controller to OBS. I had one sitting around collecting dust so I hooked it up and made buttons for speaker overlays. Worked like a charm.

We set up at the back of the chapel as to not be a distraction to those in the meeting.

Appreciate all the good advice and experience on these forums from those of you who have done this many times.

[lajackson]

We use OBS to feed the Church webcast system for sacrament meeting each Sunday. Traditionalists (nothing wrong with that), our bishopric runs with the sacrament at its normal place in the meeting. We put up a slide that the sacrament ordinance is in progress and cut the sound.

Almost every week, near the end of the sacrament portion of the meeting or within a minute of the resumption of the meeting with the first talk, the webcast drops. The operator watches for it and immediately restarts OBS. The rest of the meeting usually proceeds without incident.

Is there some reason OBS might be doing this to us? Does something about the feed change during the quiet part that causes the online servers to drop the webcast?

We are befuddled and welcome any sugestions that may help alleviate this challenge.

[brad_p]

lajackson,

I've run now about 50 OBS meetings, I've never had drops like what you mention. Every time I have issues connecting it has been the fault of the servers. But it's never dropped mid meeting.

The only reason I could see a drop is due to 1) you are broadcasting through wireless and not ethernet, or 2) the laptop is weak and slow, and it drops because it can't keep up with the encoding.

[jkarras]

Recent recommendation was to move sacrament to the end of the meeting allowing for those watching on stream to have a unbroken experience. We've been doing it this way and it works well.

[lajackson]

Recent recommendation was to move sacrament to the end of the meeting allowing for those watching on stream to have a unbroken experience. We've been doing it this way and it works well.

Or to start the webcast after the sacrament ordinance. We are aware of those guidelines. The bishop still has the keys, though, and the stake president agrees with him.

Still, this should not affect the webcast.

[russellhltn]

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