Santa Barbara SDA Church- How to Go Live!

Know Jesus Fully: Steps to Live Broadcasting- 5


	Software- Encoding, editing, splitting, joining. Sounds complicated, right? Well, it's not that difficult. Windows Media Encoder 9 is the software that converts the video signal into the compressed format that streams to your viewers. The basic setup for this can be found here. Editing software comes in many shapes and (dollar) sizes. Depending on your budget, you can find software (such as Roxio Media Creator or UIead Video Studio) for under $100.00 that will edit Digital Video (DV), AVI,or Mpeg formats. This is useful for creating your trailers, credits, or "commercials". Your encoder produces a backup file that is a windows media video file (WMV). You may stream live the full church service but may want to only place the sermon on your archive site. It took me a while to find a simple piece of software that will trim the WMV file to the correct length for upload to the video archive, but I did find one. It's from Boilsoft.com and they make a joining software also. The joining software allows you to piece together WMV files to make one video. They are both worth having!
Trailers- Trailers are small pieces of a video much like a commercial. We use a trailer at the end of our service to promote our church, a book or DVD, an upcoming event, etc. They take time and planning to do these in a reasonably professional manner. Finding the right person to act as "host" is important! This person should have a relaxed demeanor, the ability to talk and make eye contact with the camera, and an ability to "connect" to the audience. Free Offers- Books, magazines, bible studies, DVD's or CD's. All of these are great free things to give to your viewers. Be sure to have them available on your website. Be sure they are easy to order. I received an email from a viewer that requested a bok that we weren't even offereing. I sent the one they requested and a Steps to Christ. What a marvelous opportunity to share the goodness of Christ our savior! Advertising- Paper, press releases, radio, cable tv, business cards, word of mouth, e-flyers. All of these methods of advertising reach a different demographic. The most effective is a personal contact or "word of mouth" advertising. The personal touch is still the most effective method of advertising. It's also the cheapest.
Blogs, Podcasting & RSS- You have probably heard of this lastest trend hitting the internet. Blogs are basically online newspapers where there are many contributors. Currently I have not yet found an effective use for this medium, but there will be a time. Content supply is the hard part right now. There are "streams" being developed as we speak. Adventist News Network has started using this along with some other departments in the church. However, the technology behind it has great potential! RSS feeds are what fuels a Blog site. The concept is like watching FOX News or CNN on the TV nightly. The chanel doesn't change, but the content does. The RSS feed is controlled by the provider and is read by the subscriber. Podcasting uses the same technology, but delivers a video or audio file insted of written content. Some interesting info-- " According to a Pew Internet & American Life study conducted last year[2004], 5% of survey respondents subscribed to RSS feeds via newsreader software or a Web-based aggregator. Extrapolated out to all online Americans, that would amount to 6 million people who are consuming news and other information from blogs and content-rich Websites via RSS." Potential? I think so!

Glossary	Index