It happens when you least expect it. The worship team finishes, and the sermon is about to begin. The only problem is that your live streaming is having issues, leaving your online followers in the dark. What a nightmare scenario for any church to be in. What could be happening to cause this?
The Levifi IT team has worked with many churches struggling with this issue. Here are the top 5 reasons your church is struggling with live streaming.
Reason 1: Your internet is unstable.
Live streaming depends on a fast and stable internet connection. An unstable or slow internet connection will cause quality issues or stop you from live streaming.
How to fix this: First, check with your internet service provider to see what internet speed you are supposed to get, and then have them check your internet modem to see if you are getting what you paid for. If everything checks out, you may need to upgrade your internet speed.
The Levifi IT team suggests before spending additional money to upgrade your internet speed, have an IT professional look for problems with your network.
Reason 2: Everyone shares the same wifi.
If your congregation and live streaming equipment share the same wifi network, you will see that it slows down as soon as your church service starts.
How to fix this: Having a dedicated wifi for your live streaming equipment and one for your guests is the best method. Your live streaming wifi network will be fully available for live streaming purposes instead of serving guests.
The Levifi IT team suggests that you make both wifi networks password-protected to keep your congregation from getting on the live streaming network.
Reason 3: Older network equipment is slowing you down.
A network is only as strong as its slowest device. A single switch running at slower speeds can cause your live streaming to slow or stop altogether.
How to fix this: Perform an inventory of your network equipment. Look for switches and access points. For any equipment older than three years, you should evaluate replacing it.
The Levifi IT suggests that you have an IT professional do a network audit. You will know what equipment is there and what to replace due to age and low performance.
Reason 4: Your guest network is open to the public.
If you have free wifi, you may have people around your church connecting to your wifi if there is no password.
How to fix this: Everyone loves free guest wifi, but you need a password on the network. If you don’t have a password on the wifi network, you will not know who is on it or where the person is going online using your network.
The Levifi IT team suggests that you change the password on your free guest network about once or twice a year. Also, ask yourself if you need a guest network at all. The advancements in mobile technology have made a guest wifi network optional.
Reason 5: Your network is configured wrong.
Your guest network does not need the same resources as your live streaming network will. Keep the two networks separate from each other.
How to fix this: With having a dedicated network for live streaming and a dedicated network for guests or anything else, you can configure the live streaming network to have more bandwidth resources than other networks. Imagine that the live streaming network gets 80% of the bandwidth and everything else gets 20%, improving your live stream because it has more bandwidth.
The Levifi IT team suggests that you only attempt to configure your network this way if you understand how to configure the equipment. Leave this fix to an IT professional if you are uncomfortable configuring a network.
Final thoughts and suggestions
If you need help tackling issues with live streaming, call us. There is no need to suffer the embarrassment of live streaming issues and leaving your online followers in the dark. The Levifi IT team can help solve your live streaming issues.
The Levifi IT team suggests that you consider a deep dive. What if someone did a complete checkup on your network to find the cause of the issues you’ve been having? Now, expand that checkup to include your computers, servers, and any technology you use. A deep dive is just that. The Levifi team will do a complete audit of your technology and talk to your team to discover what is causing you pain when using technology. If you want to stop your technology headaches, start by scheduling a free consultation.
