Stream it yourself

We have often heard that families decide they will stream it themselves.

I think this scenario really depends on how close you are to the deceased and if anybody is worried if it works or not at the end of the day.

If it works or does not work and thats OK with you all then yes I say stream it yourself.

If you are happy with bad quality, buffering, bad sound, the stream stopping and starting and connection failed please wait messages and its worth the risk yes stream it yourself

Church wifi is notorious for not working on the day

Church Audio Visual equipment is notorious for not working on the day

4G mobile coverage in 80% of Churches is horrendous

Are the people watching the stream important and close to you and the deceased ? what kind of viewing experience would you like to them to have?

Do you have a safety recording for when the church wifi drops out the second you hit stream ?

Is this something you really want to be doing during a funeral service then fire fighting all the problems that happen

If saving money is important

If you are not worried about ‘hearing’ the readings then streaming it yourself is for you.

Priests. Vicars. Pastors and cannons don't like you walking around waving a iPhone during the service, in fact some get some passionate about it when us professionals come in they are already angry from the last person who came in making a nuisance and ruining the service.

With Funerals you do really only get once chance there is no retakes and some people will miss out whether that be 5 people to 100 people trying to watch the live stream.

Crematoriums have already been beaten up over the shocking quality if indeed it actually worked at all. Most were getting so much hate after the streams they decided to do it for free for a while

Doing it your self is either a risk you are happy to take or not but just remember you could have it done well and a nice memorial video to keep after with zero complaints or hassles

When people say to me to save money ‘they are doing it themselves’ I think, sadly you will find out when it's too late that this was a bad idea.

We have streamed hundreds of funerals indoors and outdoors and in all conditions. We also don't use Church wifi ( no way ) we use our outdoor antenna system with all 4 networks bonded together so if Vodafone drops then the others carry on. No interruptions

Every stream we do is nerve racking and full of challenges. We have invested over £50k this year to make sure its the best kit possible and failure rate down to zero as much as possible.

One thing for sure is that if I was watching a funeral stream by somebody holding a iPhone or similar I probably would not bother to watch it so it ‘might be worth not doing’ it at all if doing it badly is the other option.

The same applies with using a cheap person to stream it, you will get a cheap experience and a few fails and risk but they are cheap so that might Ok and a risk worth taking.

Darren