Streaming Overview
Nlarj gives your church professional live streaming with full control. Everything runs locally on your laptop — your camera feed never leaves your machine until you upload it to your own cloud storage.
How it works
- Your encoder (OBS, vMix, etc.) sends video to the Church Admin desktop app running on the same laptop
- The desktop app transcodes and uploads to your BYOS bucket
- Members watch from your bucket via the Nlarj apps
This keeps the bandwidth model simple: you only need enough upload speed for the final upload to your cloud storage.
Supported streaming software
| Software | Notes |
|---|---|
| OBS Studio | Most common, free, runs on Windows/Mac/Linux |
| vMix / Wirecast | Professional multi-cam setups |
| Professional broadcast encoders | Lower-latency option for larger productions |
Why BYOS?
You own your content. Sermons, recordings, and thumbnails live in your R2/S3 bucket, not ours.
- No vendor lock-in — move providers anytime, your data comes with you
- Predictable costs — storage/bandwidth charges go directly to Cloudflare or AWS
- Scale without platform fees — 10,000 viewers or 10 — no per-seat streaming fees from us
- Compliance — your data in your account meets most privacy frameworks
See BYOS Config to connect your bucket.
Bandwidth requirements
Only your laptop's upload speed to your cloud storage matters — OBS → the local app uses no internet bandwidth.
| Stream quality | Upload bandwidth needed | Viewer bandwidth |
|---|---|---|
| 720p @ 30fps | 5 Mbps upload | 3 Mbps download |
| 1080p @ 30fps | 10 Mbps upload | 5 Mbps download |
Test your upload at fast.com before a live service. You need 2× your bitrate as headroom to avoid drops.
Stream keys
Stream keys authenticate your encoder to the local ingest server. Each church can have multiple keys with different purposes:
| Key type | Use for |
|---|---|
| Primary | Your main encoder (most churches only need this one) |
| Backup | A secondary encoder or failover device |
| Temporary | One-off events — revoke after the event ends |
Manage keys from Live Streaming → Stream Keys in Church Admin:
- Create Stream Key — name it (e.g., "Main OBS Key"), pick a type, click Create. The key value is shown once — copy it now.
- Delete Key — immediately revokes the key. Any encoder still using it will be disconnected.
- List Keys — see all active keys for your church, with the name and type visible (the actual key value is not shown again after creation).
Treat each key like a password. Never screenshot or share it. If a key leaks, delete it and create a new one.
Viewer count
Members watching your stream show up in real-time via the Viewer Count badge in Live Streaming — updates within a couple of seconds.
Recording and replay
Every live stream is automatically recorded to your cloud storage. After the stream ends:
- The recording is finalized
- The sermon appears in Sermons management within seconds
- Members can replay it immediately
To save storage, optimize the recording a day or two later — typical savings: 40-60%.
Next steps
- Configure BYOS — connect your R2, S3, or Google Cloud Storage bucket
- OBS Setup — configure OBS Studio to point at the local ingest (
rtmp://localhost:1935/live) - Start Your First Stream — go live