Your most frequently asked questions and answers from our Livestream webinar

Live video is immediate, authentic and interactive, and at a time when we can't meet in person, it's ideal for maintaining a sense of community with your church. Viewers are able to comment, ask questions and reply to the host in real-time. 

Facebook, Instagram and Twitter send notifications to your followers when you are live, helping you reach more people.  

Read our tips on going live here.

Can't live stream your video? Learn how to use a video Premiere as a brilliant alternative.

Use all your digital channels to tell your community about your live video. Include it on your website, A Church Near You page, social media profiles, email newsletter and WhatsApp groups - and don’t just tell them once! Let them know the week before, a few days before and send a reminder on the day. It's unlikely that your community will see every post, which is why using a range of tools will help you get the word out.

If you have a scheduled live video, share the link to make it easy to watch, or, tell them when and how they can join.

On A Church Near You, create an event for your live video, and add the tag 'Livestream' so that your event will appear on our dedicated live stream page. Learn more about adding live stream to your A Church Near You page here.

A phone, laptop and WiFi are all you really need to film a video or go live.

However, if you wanted to improve your set-up, a tripod would be top of our list. After this, you could invest in a microphone or a portable light. However, using a pair of headphones with a microphone, and positioning yourself near a window or a light source, can be equally as good.

Read more about setting up your equipment and recording a video here.

When you schedule a Zoom meeting, select to record the meeting to your hard drive or your Zoom cloud storage. At the end of the meeting, the recording will stop and save to your chosen place.

• To find your recording on the cloud, go to your Zoom account, click recordings in the left menu, and download the file as an MP4, or share the link with others to watch online.
• Tip: You can trim the video in Zoom before it goes out.
• The downloaded video can be uploaded to social media. Be aware, different social media platforms require different specifications for video. Read more here.
• Make sure everyone in the meeting is aware that it is being recorded and will be shared on social media.

Learn more about using Zoom for your next church service, Bible study or prayer meeting here.

There are many brilliant video editing programmes available. The digital team uses Premiere Pro and After Effects for editing. However, without spending any money, there are many easy to use software options and apps, which you may already have.

• Zoom lets you trim a video at the start and end before downloading
• Edit a video in Windows 10 using the free Photos app, combining videos, photos text and some basic effects
• Apple iMovie also combines video, photos text and basic effects.

For phone or tablet, we recommend:

• InShot - Apple App store or Google Play
• Cut Story - Apple App store
• Video editor for YouTube - Google Play
• Clips - Apple App store
• Splice - Apple App store
• You Cut - Google Play

We’ve written a blog with app and tool recommendations. Take a look here.

First, think about the purpose of the meeting. Is it a private discussion or is it a public service where anyone is welcome to join and comment?

Zoom is a great option for a private meeting where you can see and speak to everyone present. Set up your meeting with a password, but don’t share the password on social media. We’ve heard of meetings being ‘Zoombombed’ by unknown attendees who found the link on social!

If the meeting is a public service, live video works well. Viewers can interact by commenting and replying, however, the host's video is the only one that can be seen.

Learn more about using Zoom here.

Learn more about using Live video here.

Once complete, your live video will be saved to your Creator Studio.

Use the YouTube link to embed it on a page on a page on A Church Near You.

• Log in to your ACNY page
• Create a new page in the left-hand menu
• Add a page title and your page content
• Scroll down to where it says ‘Video URL’
• Insert the YouTube or Vimeo link here
• Select the order position for the page in the left-hand menu
• Click save
• Learn more about adding live videos on A Church Near You here.

You cannot embed a Facebook video onto a web page. However, the video can be downloaded from Facebook and uploaded to a web page. Alternatively, insert the video link on to a page, so viewers can follow the link to Facebook and watch the video.

Yes, anyone can view the video, however, only those logged in to a Facebook account can interact with the video. 

A church wishing to sing and perform live music on a live or pre-recorded video on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram are able to without applying for a licence as the platforms have a user-generated licence in place (Source PRS).

However, the video is required to be ‘unbranded’ and 'unprofessional' to meet the platform's user-generated licence agreement.

Lyrics are not permitted to be shown during the video as this is copyrighted material and would need a separate licence.

If the video is hosted on another platform, such as the church website, a licence would need to be bought by the church.

CCLI offers a range of licences to suit individual church requirements. Read more here.

To show lyrics in your live or pre-recorded video, you’ll need a licence. CCLI offers a range of licences to suit your requirements. Find out more here.

Playing copyrighted music in your live or pre-recorded video will require a licence. Read more about licences from CCLI here.

Learn more about CCLI licences here.