Case Study: Streaming with Grace
The weekly Forum is held in an auditorium setting. Each member of the panel wears a lavalier microphone, mixed and monitored for the house public address system by an engineer in the room. The mixed feed is sent to the control room, where another engineer is mixing and monitoring the audio with an eight-bus Mackie mixing console.
The audio feed is then sent to an Aphex Dominator II limiter and subsequently routed to a Power Macintosh G3 encoder. An iMac is also stationed in the control room, serving as the back-up encoder.
"I brought what I learned about broadcast quality standards to the work that we do here, even on the Web. Even if the fidelity is low, I wanted to make sure that we originated in as high a quality as we could," says Johnson.
All GraceCom events are encoded in Real SureStream format from 16Kbps (mono) to 90Kbps (stereo). The control room engineer monitors the stream quality by routing a local computer’s audio output into the Mackie console.
"Everything we’ve done up until recently has been mono, low bit rate audio streams," says Johnson. "Now that we’re using SureStream and have some higher connection speeds, we’re webcasting in stereo."
The stream is then sent via TCP/IP through a T1 connection and served by Activate. GraceCom plans to install dual ISDN lines in the near future to alleviate latency issues associated with the T1’s upstream feed.
Events taking place in the cathedral itself are managed in much the same fashion as the Forum, though additional microphones (Neumann stereo mics and AKG C451s) hang above to capture audio originating from the choir, organ and gallery.
Video is not currently part of GraceCom’s regular offering, but this is likely to change as new revenue opportunities begin to surface and the cost of robotic camera equipment comes down.
"I want to upgrade to streaming the 11 o’clock service in video, because we can also stream weddings and memorials. Once we begin, it could be a good source of revenue for us," adds Johnson.
Realistic Outlook
GraceCom has maintained realistic expectations about its streaming and production efforts, and Johnson expects the organization to realize the true fruits of its labor over the long term.
"When the capability of technology intersects with our infrastructure and experience — to the point where we’ve been in production for five, six years — then we’ll have an archive of video content and the distribution means will be affordable and ready for us, and will intersect," says Johnson.
In the center of Johnson’s GraceCom office stands a vintage Victrola phonograph, serving as a reminder of the potential of media: A needle wiggling along a groove of spinning acetate held the power to change the world’s notion of what is possible. It seems the next chapter is now being written. Johnson says, "Streaming and the interaction that comes through the IP technologies is a way of changing people’s perceptions, and opening their hearts and opening their minds, that we’ve never had before."