Blog Posts

This post talks about what governments should be looking for in an embedded video player on their website. It's part of our series on local government live streaming.

If you’ve decided that it’s important for your public meeting live stream to be on your website, your next step is to understand what you might be looking for in a video player.

(Thinking you should just stream on Facebook Live? Here’s what you should be considering)

Not all embedded video players are made the same. This article addresses a few of the features you should be looking for in a player.

This post addresses the upsides of multi-site churches. It's the main post in our series on multi-site churches.

If your church is thinking about opening up one or more additional sites, congratulations!

That means you’re reaching a growing number of engaged members and people are excited about joining your community. Things like this can only happen when a church is truly connecting with its members and delivering a message they want and need.

Still, the growing trend of multi-site churches remains controversial. Because the subject is so broad, we’ll cover different aspects of it in this blog. This post will lay out some of the common arguments for multi-site churches. Next week, we’ll present the opposite case.

This post talks about Christmas Eve as the most important service for engaging with members of your church. It's the part of our series on church engagement.

Every year, millions of Americans pile into their cars and head to church on Christmas Eve. Attendance can be so high at this time of year that some ministries will hold several services - some as many as five or six - to ensure that everyone who wants to worship can.

As a leader in your church, putting adequate time into preparing for the Christmas Eve service can ensure that it has the greatest impact possible. Below are the three reasons that if done right, this service will leave a lasting impression on both your church body and surrounding community.

This post addresses the benefits of using a hardware encoder vs. a software encoder in your live video streaming setup. It's part of our series on video encoders.

Hardware or software encoder? The battle rages on. Well, battle is a strong word, but there are important distinctions to point out between the two.

When it comes to live video streaming technology, the decision between hardware or software encoder will inevitably come up. The goal of this post is to arm you with information so that you can make the right choice that best fits your streaming needs.

If your city has decided to start live streaming it's council meetings, there are several decisions you need to make about your set up. One of those decisions is whether to use a hardware or a software encoder.

When making this choice, the most important thing to keep in mind is how the solution will be used by your clerk, finance officer, or other administrator running the meetings.

If you are like many cities, your staff resources are limited at the time of the meeting. It's important to find the most automated process for the meeting administrator. That person already has a thousand other things to worry about as the meeting gets started. If you choose the wrong type of streaming setup, you will make their lives much more painful on a regular basis.

With this in mind, we recommend choosing a hardware encoder. The benefit of hardware encoders is that, unlike software solutions, they were explicitly built to stream and do nothing else. They are reliable, simple, and take out the additional risk and time of software solutions.

Additionally, hardware encoders free up existing equipment (you don’t have to dedicate a laptop to this process) and are typically less expensive than their software counterparts.

This post addresses the downsides of multi-site churches. It's the main post in our series on multi-site churches.

As an involved member of your community, you’ve likely heard of the increasingly popular trend in the church space: that of the multi-site church. Those in favor of them claim that with more campuses, a church is more able to achieve its goal of spreading God’s word.

Others argue that just because you can open new locations doesn’t mean you necessarily should. It’s a major step – one that could fundamentally alter the course and nature of your church. As more churches take this route, it’s important to learn about the risks and rewards involved and the right way to go about it.

This post presents arguments for multi-site churches, so this week’s will encourage proponents of multi-site churches to consider the other side.  

 

When you stream a live event, there’s a lot on the line. People tuning in from various locations expect a reliable stream. With high expectations that all ride on you, it’s a relief to know that someone’s in your corner.

Live streaming can be easy, but issues do come up in the process. What if your network fails? What if you want to experiment with something new?

If you run into an issue with your Facebook Live or YouTube Live who do you call? There’s no way to contact someone at Facebook or Google to answer your questions or concerns. Additionally, if your public meetings happen in the evening, your clerk or other meeting administrator may not have your full tech team around to troubleshoot.

It’s important to have a team behind you, ready, willing, and enabled to help out.

BoxCast’s Proactive Approach to Customer Support

At BoxCast, we know how important your live stream is. We are successful when you are successful.

BoxCast’s approach to customer support is a little bit different than your average customer support experience because we are proactive, not reactive.

If you have a broadcast scheduled, but no video input connected, the BoxCast team will reach out to make sure everything is okay and that you are aware that your video camera is not turned on.

This post addresses the three most common questions about local government live streaming including discussions on content types, comment sections, and viewership. It's part of our series on local government live streaming.

In my day-to-day conversations, I chat with communications directors, public information officers, municipal clerks, IT directors, and city managers about how to use live streaming to increase citizen engagement and transparency in public meetings.

In those chats, a few questions appear regularly. Below, I’ll address the answers I give to the most common questions I get asked.

This post addresses how to utilize the social platform, Instagram to better engage members at your church. It's the part of our series on church engagement.

It’s impossible to ignore the increasing presence of churches on social media. Most churches now have Facebook pages and Twitter accounts, as they've realized that they can use these platforms to further connect and communicate with their community.

As churches seek to connect with their younger members, many have started to consider an additional form of social media: Instagram.

This post addresses the importance of live streaming in building out a multi-site church. It's the main post in our series on multi-site churches.

In recent years, the multi-site church model has become increasingly popular. Most churches open a new campus when they approach 1,000 members, but about 50% of those churches say that they could have opened a satellite campus even sooner, at around 850 members.

If your ministry is thinking about opening an additional location, that means you’re reaching a growing number of engaged members and people are excited about joining your community. This can only happen when a church truly connects with its members to deliver a message they want and need, so congratulations!

This post makes the case for using lower thirds in your streaming production for your church or ministry. It's part of our series on church live streaming.

Looking to bring an extra level of sophistication and interaction to your live video stream? Consider using lower thirds.

This post looks at alternatives for getting an internet connection that meets the necessary speeds for a reliable live stream without the use of mobile hotspots. It's part of our series on upload speed for live streaming.

Here at BoxCast we believe that every event that is watched live should be streamed live. Unfortunately, not every event takes place in your usual venue where you there is a reliable internet connection. Whether you are streaming an away football game or a charity concert at a remote venue, we have often suggested the use of a simple mobile hotspot from your phone because of the low cost and simplicity.