How to do Facebook Live with the liturgy on screen simultaneously (using free software @obsproject)

fb live with ppt — My first service with the liturgy on screen

I’ve been broadcasting a simple said Eucharist every Thursday evening since the lockdown began. I’ve sent out copies of the order of service and made it downloadable from the church website but what I’ve really wanted to do is take a service with the words appearing on the screen at the same time, so that people can really take part at home. This week, I learnt how to do it so I thought I would share it with you as it wasn’t quite as difficult as I thought it would be. I’m sure this is probably possible on an ipad but these instructions refer to a PC (a laptop in my case with built in webcam).

What you will need to do this:

be already familiar with Facebook live
have a webcam in your laptop/computer
have a USB microphone plugged into your laptop (or built in to your webcam)
download Open Broadcaster Software for free from https://obsproject.com/
a decent wifi connection
your order of service on PowerPoint in portrait format (I show you how to do that in the video below or you can download my simple said Eucharist order of service here: midweek eucharist powerpoint portrait)

Follow the instructions in this video below, best thing to do is to have this video playing and keep pausing it as you work through each step. I hope it’s fairly straight forward. I am completely new to this so literally only a couple of steps ahead of you and I’m not as ‘techy’ as people think! I always say I’m like a driving instructor with these things – I can show you how to drive it but if it breaks down you need a mechanic! Enjoy!

There’s one step I miss out in the video below. Before you paste in your Facebook live stream key you need to select Facebook first from the ‘service’ bar at the top under Settings and Stream.

And here was my first go at doing a live Eucharist in this way: https://www.facebook.com/revbryonytaylor/videos/10157362788985756/

4 comments

Thank you Bryony – I have been playing with OBS as well – It is worth noting that the first time you do this – on the settings – stream – you then need to select the Service ‘Facebook Live’. You only have to do this once – but it took a few minutes of problem solving to discover this – as it was trying to log me into TWITCH.
Have you tried using a clicker for the PowerPoint so that you can do it alone?

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Thanks Bryony, I have been playing with OBS as well – it is worth noting that the first time you set up a Live stream on Facebook – when you go to settings to put in the code you should select Facebook Live in the service. You only have to do this once – but it is something that caused me a headache for a while.
Have you used a clicker with the PowerPoint? I am asking as I could be broadcasting alone and would need to move it on. Regards
Danie

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