How We Live Stream a Funeral With No Mobile Signal
Funeral live streaming doesn’t always happen in venues with reliable Wi-Fi or strong mobile coverage. Sometimes there is barely a usable mobile signal at all. That doesn’t mean a professional live stream isn’t possible, but it does mean the connection needs to be planned and tested in advance.
In this real-life case study, we faced two challenges at the same funeral service. The first was connectivity: none of the available mobile networks provided enough data to safely rely on for the live stream. The second was privacy. We had been specifically asked to ensure that only three people taking part in the service appeared on camera.
The video above explains how we solved both problems, using Starlink to provide the internet connection and a combination of carefully positioned cameras and pre-recorded footage to protect the privacy of the congregation.
It also demonstrates an important part of professional funeral live streaming that viewers rarely see: the preparation that takes place before a service begins. With a funeral, there is only one opportunity to get it right.
This week, we’ve been asked to live stream a funeral service from a church where there’s no usable mobile data whatsoever, making a reliable stream very difficult.
And if that wasn’t enough, there’s a second challenge. We’re not to show the faces of anybody at the service apart from the three people who will be getting up to speak.
Transcript of video
I’m Simon from Spire Live Streaming, and in this video I’m going to show you how we overcame both of these challenges.
Let’s address the first one: the data connection we need to send the live stream.
Normally, we can take connections from the available mobile data networks and combine their bandwidth to give us a good, strong connection.
I already knew that the mobile networks around this particular church were pretty patchy. The Ofcom website indicated that there was coverage, but we went along and carried out a recce anyway.
And, as you can see, there was barely anything usable.
So, in situations like this, we use Starlink.
We carry a Starlink dish with us and, as long as we have a good view of the sky, it can provide us with an excellent internet connection.
And in this case, it worked extremely well.
The result was a stable, steady funeral live stream with no dropped frames and no buffering. For everybody watching remotely, everything appeared completely normal.
The next challenge was privacy.
It’s not completely unusual, but it’s not something we’re asked to do very often. We had been instructed to show only the faces of the people who would be speaking during the service.
In this case, that meant the priest, a family member delivering the eulogy and one other person who would be reading a poem.
During a funeral live stream, we use a minimum of two cameras. Sometimes we’ll use a third camera as well.
The reason for this is that we can set all of the camera angles up in advance. During the service, nobody then needs to walk around adjusting cameras or moving equipment and causing a distraction.
We simply maintain a quiet presence at the back of the church, which is really how it should be.
The potential problem came during Communion.
People would be getting out of the pews, walking towards the front of the church and then returning to their seats. That created the possibility that one of our cameras could inadvertently show somebody who shouldn’t appear on the live stream.
Rather than risk somebody walking in front of one of the live cameras, we decided to take the live camera feeds off screen completely.
The sound from the service would continue, but rather than viewers at home being presented with a black screen, they would see a pre-recorded sequence that we’d prepared in advance.
We filmed candles around the church, stained-glass windows and other details inside the building. The family had also kindly provided us with photographs and a copy of the Order of Service, so we were able to incorporate those into the sequence as well.
At the end of Communion, once everybody was back in their seats, we returned to the live cameras.
In the end, everything worked exactly as we’d planned.
The internet connection remained beautifully stable, Starlink didn’t let us down, and we were able to respect the instruction not to show anybody other than the three people taking part in the service.
Hopefully, that gives you a little insight into what goes on behind the scenes of a professional funeral live stream, and the work that takes place in advance to make sure everything runs as it should on the day.
Because with a funeral, there’s only one chance to get it right.
Thanks for watching.
Planning for the unexpected
This service is a good example of why we carry out advance checks when a venue presents unusual challenges. Mobile coverage maps can be useful, but they don’t tell us whether a connection will actually be reliable enough to carry live HD video.
Having alternative connectivity available, planning camera positions in advance and understanding any privacy requirements before the service begins means these problems can be solved without affecting the experience of the people watching remotely.
For the viewer, the technology should be almost invisible. They should simply be able to open their private link and watch the service.