We've got a good mix this month, starting with one of our most requested Spark features: you can now start, stop, and extend broadcasts right from the touchscreen. We've also got a camera trick that uses the phone already in your pocket, a look at what four thriving ministries do differently online, and a few highlights from our team get-together in Cleveland. We're headed to HOWTech next month too, and we'd love to see you there.
Start, Stop, and Extend Broadcasts From the Spark Touchscreen
Our most requested feature is officially here! You can start a scheduled broadcast up to an hour early, run a quick 15 minute private test, end a broadcast that's already wrapped, or tack on a few extra minutes, and you can do all of it from the Spark screen itself instead of heading back for a laptop.
If you've set a Spark passcode, it protects these controls too, so a curious hand in the sanctuary can't end your service halfway through the sermon. Everything behaves the way it does in the dashboard, it's just within arm's reach now.
Church Online Strategy: Proven Patterns from 4 Thriving Ministries
Pathway, Legacy, Sandals, and First Baptist Opelika range from one location to fourteen, and from 3,000 weekly to more than 10,000. We looked at what they have in common online, and found five patterns that don't depend on having their budget.
The short version: they treat the online campus as part of the mission rather than an afterthought, they build so one person can support several sites without driving to them, and they automate the steps most likely to go wrong mid-service. It's worth a read whether you're running nine campuses or one.
Need one more angle? You're probably carrying it. This walkthrough covers connecting an iPhone to a Blackmagic ATEM Mini with a single HDMI cable and the free Blackmagic Camera app, including which adapter you need for USB-C versus Lightning, and why you want one that charges while it runs.
The settings are where it gets good. Matching resolution and frame rate to your other cameras, locking ISO and white balance so the color holds, and switching on a clean feed so no app icons end up on your stream.
HOWTech runs November 5 through 7 at Faith Church in Summerville, South Carolina, and we're proud to be the official streaming sponsor of its first year! Our own David May is giving a talk on Friday, and will be around the floor all three days.
Come find us while you're there and tell us what you're building, what keeps breaking, and what you wish your gear did, because those conversations are most of the reason we go in the first place.
We got the whole team together at our Cleveland headquarters last month, and it was a good one. We attended training, caught up on a lot of overdue hallway conversations, and heard our CEO Gordon Daily walk everyone through where BoxCast is headed next. We can't say much yet, but there are exciting things coming! Mostly it was a reminder that the people building this stuff genuinely like working together, which tends to show up in our product.
ICYMI
A quick look at the content you might have missed!
