We streamed Remembrance Sunday! This is a first for us, having pre-recorded the worship and act of remembrance last year, this year we wanted to make sure people could still take part even if they weren’t able or comfortable to join us in person.

We talked a bit about how in last week’s notes, but this is all about looking back at what happened; what went well, what didn’t go so well, and what we can do in the future.

Things that we liked

  • Feedback was almost immediate that it was widely appreciated, with people in the Community Centre who couldn’t make the procession to the War Memorial feeling like they were still part of the service
  • The audio system at the War Memorial – entirely battery powered – behaved exactly as we expected
  • The communication between different members of the Tech Team was useful in letting people know the current state of the broadcast

Things that we didn’t like

  • The radios we used to stay in touch caused some interference to our audio
  • One of our remote cameras failed to connect properly
    • Although this didn’t turn out to be a problem, because people then stood in front of it anyway
  • Mixing audio from remote camera sources didn’t work as smoothly as we would have liked
    • Although this didn’t turn out to be a problem, because we were down to one remote camera
  • We forgot to make sure the usual automated bells to signal the 10.00am service were switched off, so they started ringing 15 minutes into the Remembrance Sunday service.
  • Uniformed organisations weren’t in place in time, so we were left using less than ideal camera angles to cover the beginning of the service

Things we learned

  • We need to check that all our tripod mounts are compatible as part of our planning exercise
  • We need to have more planning for where people stand and when things happen, because mistakes are recorded for all time and are visible to the world
  • Where we have a roving camera who is focussing on action in front of them, they need a spotter if they’re moving around (especially if they aren’t moving forwards)
  • We need to make sure we have the necessary permissions in place for video work involving uniformed organisations further in advance

Things we’re going to do

  • Write a new checklist for hooking OBS into our usual stack ready for including external video sources
  • Write a new checklist for outside broadcast camera setup, to reduce unexpected configurations
  • Work out exactly how audio mixing should work, and make sure that’s part of the checklist
  • Start keeping common playbooks with churchwardens etc around these special services and events, so we have a shared understanding of what happens and when
  • Investigate ways to move the antenna for tech radios outside, to both improve reception and reduce interference