Don’t let ‘egg and spoon’ streaming speed spoil your services

Don’t let ‘egg and spoon’ streaming speed spoil your services

You may have all the latest gear to stream church services but if your internet speed is slower than an egg and spoon race, you will have wasted your money.

So says Dan Herbert of DSAV, exhibitors at CRE South West 2021 and CRE National 2021. 

‘You may have heard the terminology SD, HD, 4K and now even 8K which all relate to display resolution,’ he said. ‘A 4K display, for example, will have a greater number of pixels than a 720p display of equal area and will therefore appear sharper with greater image detail.  The key to remember is, the greater the pixel count, the higher the resolution, the better the image quality.’

Failure to consider the correct integration of 4K-capable equipment into a wider visual system may result in needless cost with little benefit.

‘We recently visited a church that had bought a 4K switcher and cameras,’ said Dan, ‘but as their existing projector and displays supported a maximum resolution of only 720p, and their internet speed was slower than an egg and spoon race, they saw zero benefit.

‘Budget is a key factor but you don’t have to look far to see that adding a camera and associated equipment could cost you many thousands of pounds. However, there are continuing advances in technology and cost-effective solutions are available that don’t compromise on quality. There’s never been a more important time to ensure good stewardship by investing in the right solution.’

If you are contemplating investing in 4K, particularly for streaming services, these are DSAV’s top tips:

• Check the resolution of your existing AV equipment – Some 4K switchers/mixers require input and output resolutions to match, therefore all items of equipment must be capable of displaying at 4K.

•  Check your target output – Scaling switchers mixers that upscale to match your chosen display resolution are available. However, the target output needs to be considered, particularly if you are feeding both a live stream and displays with the same content.

•  Check your internet connection will handle 4K without buffering – To stream 4K you will need a minimum 25MBps upload speed. For live 4K broadcasts however, at least 50Mbps is recommended.

•  Check that your laptop/media-player supports 4K – Most laptops aren’t 4K-compatible and old Blu-Ray players cannot play the new format 4K Blu-Ray discs.

•  Check your storage capacity – 4K video files are large and if you intend to keep them on your system you will need extra storage capacity.  This is important if you are planning to playback or record content locally.

•  Check your content resolution – Presentation content will display at its native resolution (e.g. a photograph or image with a 720p resolution will be displayed as 720p even on a 4K display).

Click here for more information

• DSAV are exhibiting at CRE South West 2021 (17-18 Mar) National 2021 (12-14 Oct 2021)

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