Is anyone hybridizing church services?

[JWS2021]

I've been hosting remote church services for well over a year, and have been generally happy wit the outcome.  I've now been asked if I can duplicate the experience inside a church that seats 150+ with a 2 story vaulted ceiling, organ and soloist.  The room is previously mic'd and speaker-ed with a 20+ year old Radio shack amp.  I tested using multiple PC's, and the video isn't a problem, but I have no idea what to do about the sound.  Does anyone have any suggestions?

[Rupert]

@JWS2021 

I am involved in another group that helps all kinds of houses of worship.

There are all kinds of ways to get hybrid working successfully.

Feel free to stop by https://www.facebook.com/HMTForum/

There is a weekly Zoom session to answer questions and share ideas:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0lc-ivqD4pHtYWHjriAUCgE0aE9TbVAObz

Past sessions can be seen here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWmmN_Iv7UPuNJXZJLyivhA

You are right though - audio is always the biggest challenge.

We also have some audio experts in another external group called "Office Hours". There is a daily Q&A session on Zoom also - and situations like yours are often discussed. Feel free to stop by there also - you'll get some very good answers. You can follow instructions in the Chat during the meeting there. Register at https://zoom.us/j/844989302 

Rupert

[johncampbell]

I run the technology for chapel services at a small seminary.

We have half of our students in our chapel space for worship. The other half join via zoom remotely.
We have it set up so that I can show our slides on the front screen normally.
We have a secondary display on a side wall where the online participants can be seen during worship.
I also have it setup so that people on zoom can be placed on a front panel (using our Blackmagic video Switcher) so they can be seen and heard..we do this because we want remote worshipers to be able to lead parts of the service (Prayer/scripture/preaching..etc). 
Many churches (my own included) use the term 'hybrid' to mean 'turn a camera on'...Worship should be participatory and I believe that we should be intentionally engaging the online worshipers, not just letting them be oberservers...this impacts our tech, how we organize our services and even having volunteers who are 'digital hosts'..who sit on a camera welcoming people when they join and engaging in conversation.

We even setup a screen so people can walk up to it and talk to the online people before and after our service.

We run microphones / music instruments into and old mixer. Also, we take the audio feed from the computer running zoom and put it into a channel on the board to control the audio int the room for when zoom participants speak.
I then run the main channel out to the speaker into the room.
I run an auxiliary channel into our black magic web presenter that is sent into the zoom meeting. This gives me the ability to mix the sound for the online people which is different to what the room needs. For example, or space is small so we don't really need a microphone on the pulpit for people to hear..so I don't put that audio through our house speakers...I do however send it through the aux1 channel to our zoom meeting so they have a good, clear audio source.
Alternativly, when someone on zoom is speaking I only want it to be heard in the room...not looping back into zoom..so I put it in the main mix, and remove it from the aux1/zoom feed.

So, my advice is to use your amp if you can to handle all the audio...as long as you have the ability to use a montior/aux channel to create a separate mix...do not feed your main house mix into your live feed as it will sound terrible...At my home church we don't mic the organ for obvious reasons...but that means that in our recordings you don't really hear the instrument...just the vocalists..and it sounds terrible.

Hope that helps.

John Campbell
Acadia Divinity College
Wolfville, Nova Scotia



The audio part can be tricky

[PastorJLWard]

Praise the Lord Brother Campbell. Thank you for your detailed explanation. My name is Jason Ward. I began pastoring in 2019, just before the pandemic. God gave us a vision of a wall-less ministry of which indoor worship, outdoor worship, livestreaming to various enpoints and hybrid via Zoom are a part.

We have had success in all areas, with natural room for improvement and growth.

Our greatest challenge has been with the audio via Zoom. I did read what you posted, but if you are open to further questions /discussion I'd love to pick your brain and get some guidance on how might resolve our challenges.

We currently have a setup with a Zoom host computer at the front of the church with an ambient mic to capture sound.

We cast the image from that computer to one of two televisions in the sanctuary so that Zoom virtual attendees can be seen and heard. The audio FROM those Zoom attendees simply comes through the television's speakers. 

The ambient mic that sits at the front of the church to capture sound for Zoom has to be manually controlled via the control on the mic to increass/decrease its sensitivity depending on what's occurring in the worship.

We have very lively worship with multiple instruments, a organ, electric piano, drums, praise leaders singing into house mics, congregation singing, tamborines etc. At these times that ambient mic needs to be turned down to reduce its sensitivity other Zoom gets "overwhelmed" and simply shuts out ALL sound. At times even when not shutting out all sound, it gets choppy.

When there is one speaker, the audio normally is fine, as Zoom is able to handle that with no real issues. We also pass a mic around the church when members testify as the ambient mic at the front of the church is not sensitive enough to capture "unamplified" voices from positions in the church too distant from that mic. 

We've tried adjusting Zoom audio settings. We also have another Zoom PC (as a participant in the Media team booth) that we've opened a mic with. We had feedback that that solved the audio issue, but it caused an echo in the church over the television to which the Zoom PC connected to the ambient mic at the front is connected to. 

I believe and am encouraged that there is a solution to these challenges and we are open to any feedback, including alterations to our Zoom setup that will make it successful and a seamless experience for all. 

Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated. 

God ess you. 

Pastor Jason Ward

Refuge Church of Christ

Waterbury, CT