To get a video source into your computer for recording or streaming purposes you may need a device that converts the analog signal to a digital signal that the computer can understand. There are a number of USB based devices that work well. The one the synod uses with their TriCaster equipment is AverMedia DVD EZMaker USB Gold. We have found it works exceptionally well for use with laptops. It essentially creates a video source that your software recognizes and reads.

Free computer-based recording software is available that will capture video/audio feeds and turn them into digital files for use in streaming or archiving for playback on the web. Depending on your preference for either Windows Media or Flash, both are available. The Windows Media Encoder records files in the wmv format, while the Flash Media Live Encoder stores FLV files.

If you are looking for a more professional video recording setup with multiple cameras that you can switch between cameras with transitions and overlays, you may want to consider the Tricaster. There are multiple versions available. The synod uses Tricaster Studio for our live event recording/streaming. For many congregations this might be overkill, but for those who really want to dive in, it's fairly easy to use, but expensive. It ranges in price, depending on model, between $4,000 and $10,000. The Tricaster is essentially a production studio "in a box". The box happens to be a computer with a bunch of audio and video ins and outs.

If you don't want to invest that much in your setup there are software alternatives that will work with multiple cameras and do the switching etc. The one I've heard the most positive reviews on is only for the Windows platform. It is called VidBlaster and is a software only version of many of the same features in the Tricaster. I can't vouch for it myself, but I know some folks who are using it and like it.

Video or "web" streaming is pretty easy these days and free. There are four services that I'm familiar with and have tried: 1) UStream, 2) Mogulus, 3) Stickam, and 4) Kyte. More are coming on the scene every day. There is a good list of them at Robin Good's "Master New Media" site. In the fee based category, one that works really well is Veodia. It is a pricey if you don't use it a lot since it is a base price, not usage, but it's dumb simple. All of them come with some baggage (i.e. ads, etc). But they all allow embedding a player in your own site, so that helps. Almost all of them stream via flash and come with their own web-based encoders. One other thing to note about most of the above is that they all were created with social networking as a goal. This doesn't always fit well with congregational streaming usage, but since you can somewhat insulate the stream from the site with a portable viewer, they can fit the bill.

In case you were wondering what the synod uses for their live streaming of events like Call Day, etc., we use a service called Internap. It's a paid service, but will support thousands of users. The consumer level services like UStream start to choke when you get toward 1,000. We've also had some issues with those providers in getting their web-based encoder to play nice with our Tricaster.

UPDATE to paragraph above - After significant research we determined that free services provide all the functionality we need on the synod level. The one we decided on as the primary streaming service is Zaplive. As a backup service we will be using Mogulus (see link above).

2/23/09 - From Pastor Chris Koschnitzke, Christus, Delavan, WI -

On the video side, ... a Toshiba DVD recorder, which records the service right to the DVD. Then, to make copies of the DVD, we got a Microboards 1x3 DVD Duplicator, and it duplicates the DVD in less than 10 minutes.