How to Live Stream a Church Service With OBS: A Real Setup

There are about 22 minutes to get a livestream up and running, with a laptop running OBS as the encoder. That was the situation in this walkthrough at The Way, where I set up OBS on a MacBook Air to stream that night’s gathering.

We weren’t officially livestreaming there yet; I set it up that night to show how it’s done. That’s what makes it useful, because it’s a real church system rather than a studio demo. Here’s each piece of the chain, the audio catch that will bite you, and how the rest of the production system feeds the stream.

Choose Your Encoder: A Laptop With OBS or a Dedicated Box

Every livestream needs an encoder, the thing that takes your video and audio and pushes it to the internet. For this stream, that’s a MacBook Air with an M2 chip running OBS (Open Broadcaster Software). Part of the reason was to test how that computer handles encoding, along with the capture device below.

A computer running OBS is the cheapest solution. If you’re serious about streaming and the budget allows, dedicated encoders from Resi or BoxCast are absolutely the best solutions.

A dedicated encoder has one purpose: receive an input signal and push that signal to the internet.

That’s the tradeoff. A computer can do the job at the lowest cost, while a dedicated encoder exists only for that job. Start where your budget is, and know where the upgrade path goes.

The Whole Signal Chain

Here’s everything feeding the stream in this setup:

• Video: Panasonic camera → SDI cable → Blackmagic UltraStudio Recorder 3G → USB-C → MacBook Air running OBS
• Audio: broadcast mix from an XLR output on the back of the Yamaha QL5 → one mono XLR cable → camera input 1 → embedded in the camera’s SDI signal
• Graphics: ProPresenter computer on Wi-Fi → NDI over the building network → OBS
• Network: the OBS computer on the building’s wired Ethernet

Every one of those links is a place to check when something goes missing.

Step 1: Bring Video In With the UltraStudio Recorder 3G

The first thing you need is video. At The Way there’s one camera, a Panasonic with an SDI connection. An SDI cable runs from the camera to a Blackmagic UltraStudio Recorder 3G, and a USB-C cable runs from the Recorder 3G into the MacBook.

Install Blackmagic’s software for the Recorder 3G. Once it’s installed, a Blackmagic source is available in OBS. Create the source, and the camera shows up.

Blackmagic makes a sibling box that’s easy to confuse with this one:

• The UltraStudio Recorder 3G is for video input, getting a signal into the computer.
• The UltraStudio Monitor 3G is for video output, sending HDMI or SDI out of the computer.

The software is the same, and the process to make each one work is the exact same. Either one is a great tool to have in your kit, and I cover the output side in Blackmagic Monitor 3G: Expanding Your Mac’s Display Capabilities.

Step 2: Add ProPresenter Graphics Over NDI

Lyrics and graphics come from the ProPresenter computer as an NDI source, streaming over the network. In OBS the graphics show up as a second source, with no capture card and no extra cable run.

On the ProPresenter side, the stream output has to go out as NDI instead of to a physical screen. In my Audio, Video Capture into OBS for Live Streaming & ProPresenter NDI Graphics Training, that’s done under Screens → Configure Screens by setting the stream output to a New NDI output.

That training also covers what to do if OBS has no NDI source to add. Install the NDI plugin for OBS and the NDI runtime it asks for, restart, and the NDI source appears.

Decide Which Computer Gets the Cable

At The Way I only had one Ethernet connection. The computer running OBS was wired to the building’s network, and the ProPresenter computer was on Wi-Fi.

The reasoning: streaming plus receiving NDI takes more bandwidth than just pushing NDI lyrics out. So the machine doing both jobs got the wired connection, and ProPresenter only had to send.

Step 3: Camera-Embedded Audio and the Mono Fix

The audio path is the clever part of this build, and it comes with one catch.

A single mono XLR cable runs from the front-of-house console into input 1 on the camera, carrying the broadcast mix. The camera embeds that audio into its SDI signal, so audio and video travel down the same cable into the Recorder 3G. In the OBS audio mixer, where you monitor your audio sources, it shows up as the Blackmagic device.

Here’s the catch. On the camera, only the left channel is the console feed. The right channel is audio from the camera’s own microphone, so the camera still records a reference to its SD card. OBS needs to know this is a mono signal, not a stereo pair with a real left and right.

The fix in OBS:

1. In the audio mixer, click the three dots.
2. Open Advanced Audio Properties.
3. Under Blackmagic device, set it to Mono.
4. Adjust the balance so the audio comes from the proper side, the one carrying the console feed.

With Mono on, OBS uses that same signal for both left and right. Afterward, put on headphones and confirm you hear the console mix in both ears, not the camera mic.

If the stream still sounds thin or muddy after that, the next place to look is the mix itself. Why Your Church Livestream Audio Sounds Bad walks through the usual causes.

Step 4: ProPresenter Outputs That Feed the Stream

The ProPresenter computer at The Way runs graphics for the side projectors, and a lot more. It has a main output for the screens, a stream output, a stage display output and a small multi-view that shows them together.

Click a song and the stream output shows the lyrics as a lower third, while the main output fills the screens. Click into the sermon notes and the stream output creates a main output and a scriptures output, using Looks and macros to decide what goes where. I built that stream layer so everybody sees what they need to see, and I cover the setup in another video in my streaming with ProPresenter series.

That stream output goes over NDI to OBS, and now the stream has graphics. For the ProPresenter side in more detail, read ProPresenter Stream Output: Dedicated Live Stream Graphics & Audio.

Troubleshooting: When a Piece Goes Missing

Work from the source toward OBS:

• No Blackmagic source in OBS. Install Blackmagic’s software for the Recorder 3G; the source becomes available once it’s installed. Then check the SDI cable from the camera and the USB-C cable to the computer.
• No NDI source option in OBS. OBS needs the NDI plugin and the NDI runtime. Install both and restart.
• OBS has an NDI source, but ProPresenter isn’t in the list. Confirm ProPresenter’s stream output is set to an NDI output. On a Mac, go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Local Network, make sure ProPresenter is toggled on, then fully quit and reopen ProPresenter. That video, ProPresenter NDI & Remote Not Working? Fix the macOS Local Network Permission, also covers VPNs, firewalls and keeping both computers on the same subnet.
• Audio in only one ear, or you hear the camera mic. Set the Blackmagic device to Mono and adjust the balance toward the console feed.
• The stream stutters. One thing to check is which computer has the wired connection. At The Way, the one streaming and receiving NDI got it, because it has the heavier network load.
• The wrong graphics are on the stream. Look at ProPresenter’s stream output and the Looks and macros that drive it, not at OBS.

The System Around the Stream

The stream is only one piece of the production at The Way. The rest of the system is what makes a one-laptop stream possible.

A Dedicated Production Network

Most notably, front of house has a dedicated production network, so everything can communicate. Lighting, Dante audio and NDI graphics can be controlled, sent and received from almost any computer as needed.

A network switch at front of house connects the computers there, including the lighting computer. A connection from that switch runs to the Dante switch on stage, which gives front of house access to Dante, the lighting and the node on stage.

On that network, Resolume talks to the lighting console, and the lighting console talks to the node. One computer sends lyrics to another over an NDI link for the lyric strip. The Resolume machine also talks to the video wall’s processors, and a computer with SDI connections feeds the projectors on each side of the room. For why a planned network matters, see Church Production Crashing? Your Network Architecture Is Wrong.

Audio: Dante, a QL5 and an X32 for In-Ears

A Yamaha QL5 mixes the room at front of house. It connects directly to the Dante switch on stage, receiving stage inputs from Dante-enabled stage boxes and many channels of tracks from Ableton Live over Dante.

On stage, an X32 mixes the in-ear monitors, which limits the ears to 32 channels. The band’s P16 personal mixers, connected to the X32, limit things further to 16. With a full band, realistically the tracks can’t take more than four P16 inputs: a stereo pair, click and cues.

So the tracks come to front of house as separate channels, normally about 12. The QL5 builds a mix bus of all the tracks and sends it back over Dante to the X32, which is how the tracks get condensed into one stereo pair on the X32 and the P16s. Some band members use wireless in-ear packs fed directly from mix bus outputs on the monitor console, while others use P16s.

If an X32 runs your monitors, ShowBuilder writes routing, channel names, colors and monitor sends into a loadable show file, with a printable patch sheet to match.

The same Dante network carries timecode, too. Audio timecode from Ableton Live goes over Dante to ProPresenter to trigger slides, and that’s a topic for its own video.

Gear Mentioned in This Guide

Affiliate links — clicking them helps support what we do at no cost to you.

• uni USB-C to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter — a MacBook Air has no Ethernet port, and the streaming computer is the one that should get the wired connection. Buy →

The Whole Thing in One Picture

• Encoder: a computer running OBS is the cheapest start; Resi or BoxCast encoders are the dedicated step up.
• Video: SDI from the camera into a Recorder 3G, USB-C into the computer, added as a Blackmagic source.
• Graphics: ProPresenter’s stream output sent as NDI, added in OBS as an NDI source.
• Audio: the console’s broadcast mix into camera input 1, embedded in SDI, then set to Mono with the balance on the console side.
• Network: the wired connection goes to the computer that streams and receives NDI.
• The system: a dedicated production network carries lighting, Dante audio and NDI graphics together.

Watch the Video

The whole walkthrough is below. Jump to video in via the Recorder 3G, the camera audio feed, the mono setting in OBS or the production network.

Keep Going

• Get the graphics side right with ProPresenter Stream Output: Dedicated Live Stream Graphics & Audio.
• Adding more cameras? Read ATEM Switchers for Church Livestreaming: Everything You Need to Know.
• When something breaks mid-service, use Church AV Troubleshooting 101.

More training is on the YouTube channel: youtube.com/@CrazyAmazingDesigns.