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Start Your First Stream

Prerequisites​

OBS and the app live on the same laptop

The app runs a local ingest endpoint at rtmp://localhost:1935/live. OBS must be on the same machine — it cannot stream from a different computer. Video goes from OBS into the app, then uploads to your own cloud storage.

Pre-stream checklist​

Before Sunday service, 15 minutes before start:

  1. Test upload speed at fast.com
  2. Power camera and verify framing
  3. Test mic — speak into it, check levels in OBS (green = good, red = clipping)
  4. Close other apps — Slack, email, background downloads all eat bandwidth
  5. Use ethernet if possible — WiFi is variable
  6. Confirm your stream key is loaded — open the Church Admin app and check that at least one stream key is listed

Go live​

Step 1 — Point OBS at the local app​

  1. In OBS, open Settings → Stream
  2. Service: Custom
  3. Server: rtmp://localhost:1935/live
  4. Stream Key: paste the key shown in the Church Admin app (Streaming → Stream Keys)
  5. Click OK, then click Start Streaming in OBS

OBS will connect to the app on your own laptop. The OBS status bar should show a green connection indicator and no dropped frames.

Step 2 — Click Go Live in Church Admin​

  1. Open the Church Admin app
  2. Click Live Streaming in the sidebar
  3. Click Go Live
  4. Fill in:
    • Stream Title (required) — e.g., "Sunday Morning Service"
    • Speaker (optional) — select from your speakers list
    • Encoder (optional, shown if your laptop has more than one) — pick the hardware encoder you prefer (NVENC, QuickSync, etc.) or fall back to software
  5. The dialog also displays the RTMP URL and stream key for quick reference
  6. Click GO LIVE

The app starts a local streaming pipeline, begins uploading video segments to your cloud storage, and (if the transcription model is ready) starts live transcription in the background.

Test before announcing

Do a full test 24 hours before the service. Go live for 2 minutes, watch it back on your phone, then end the stream. Fix any issues with time to spare.

During the stream​

The dashboard shows live health cards driven by the actual pipeline:

Stream Health (from your local encoder):

  • FPS — frames per second coming in from OBS
  • Bitrate — current encode bitrate in Kbps
  • Dropped — dropped frames (should stay at 0)
  • Speed — encode speed relative to real-time

Upload Health (to your cloud storage):

  • Segments — video segments uploaded so far
  • Speed — upload speed in Kbps
  • Total — total bytes uploaded
  • Any upload errors appear in red

Viewer count is shown on the live stream card as "N watching".

A green border means healthy. Orange or red means something needs attention — check your network or OBS settings.

End the stream​

  1. In OBS, click Stop Streaming
  2. In Church Admin, click End Stream and confirm

The app stops the local pipeline, drains the transcription queue, uploads the final segments and transcript, then offers a "Save on Storage?" dialog with three choices:

  • Not Now — keep the raw segments as-is
  • Quick Save — quickly consolidate segments into a single MP4
  • Max Save — re-encode to compress harder (slower, smallest file)

You can also optimize later from the Sermons screen (see Optimize Recording).

Don't close OBS before ending the stream

Closing OBS mid-stream can corrupt the final segment. Always click Stop Streaming in OBS first, then End Stream in the app.

After the stream​

Review the recording​

  1. Open Sermons in the sidebar
  2. Find your just-ended stream
  3. Click to preview — verify audio/video quality

Optimize to save storage​

Live recordings are stored as many small segments, which costs more than a single MP4. Once no one is actively watching the live-quality replay, optimize the recording to cut storage cost (see Optimize Recording).

Scheduling a future stream​

If you want a stream to appear on the "Coming Up" list before it goes live, use Schedule Stream (separate from Go Live). It takes a Title, optional Description, and Scheduled Start date/time. You still need to click Go Live at broadcast time to actually start streaming.

Troubleshooting​

See Stream Issues for:

  • Stream won't start
  • OBS can't connect to rtmp://localhost:1935/live
  • Viewers can't see it
  • Buffering / dropped frames
  • Audio sync issues