Everything You Need to Know About Livestreaming a Funeral

 

Receiving the news of a loved one passing away has an immediate effect on people and for most of us, we want to go over to them as soon as possible so we can pay our last respects to them in an orderly manner. This urgency is what makes us want to fly over to them in the blink of an eye and say our last goodbyes. But not all of us are this fortunate.

There are usually many family members and close friends who either live all the way across the country or simply can’t make it to the funeral due to travel restrictions, financial constraints, or maybe an illness that has gotten a hold on them.

Under normal circumstances such people would miss out on the funeral but that does not have to be the case anymore. These days it has become really easy to share this experience with and involve distant relatives and far away friends with the help of Livestreaming.

Many will say that there is no need to live stream a funeral since it is something that most people wouldn’t be comfortable sharing over the internet and would rather have a video tape sent to their loved ones once everything is over. But here’s the thing – when you live stream a video and allow your close ones to partake in the process, they feel closer to everyone present even though they’re not physically there.

 

 

They take comfort in knowing that “they are there” even though they aren’t and respecting their feelings in such hard times counts a lot and will go a long way in harboring a positive relationship with them. Therefore, you should take the time to live stream the funeral proceedings rather than send them a video of the same.

So, how does this work?

Today we are going to go over all you need to know to be equipped with the knowledge to host a live streaming funeral all by yourself.

In order to conduct any sort of livestreaming, you will need a video and audio recording device installed in the chapel or wherever you are conducting the funeral. Most funeral homes can help you out with this since they have listed professionals in their contacts who know their way around videotaping such events and they can easily take over the whole task for you.

However, if you do wish to do it yourself there’s one of two ways it can go – you can either record and stream the whole thing on your phone and since smartphones these days come with high-quality cameras, and you can render a fairly decent video through it. All you must do is know your way around a video streaming platform or application and capture the video on your phone through it. Facebook Live and Instagram Live are two of the most common platforms to live stream.

 

On the other hand, if you want to make sure the video is perfect and money is not an object then you would want to set up your station with all the equipment needed such as a video recording camera, microphone, streaming software, high-performance laptop, and a high bandwidth internet connection to make sure the stream is not interrupted.

 What are some of the devices you can use and what are their pros and cons?

1. Smartphones – The biggest advantage about a smartphone is that it’s right in your pocket and is feature-packed with all the latest requirements. Many smartphones have awesome picture quality too as discussed above, so you can go ahead and use one to record the funeral. With a little bit of skill and some experience it’s a wonder what you can actually do with a simple contemporary phone.

There are a few downsides to this method though – Smartphones usually don’t have a lot of space and recording such a long video will quickly eat up all the space in your phone. You can try to install additional external storage with the help of SD cards in order to create enough space which is really the only feasible way to do it. The other problem is that video consumes a lot of power and if your battery life isn’t that great then you might want to have a power bank handy just in case and you’re good to go.

2. Camcorders – Probably the most convenient device to use that is solely dedicated to the purpose of making videos. Camcorders have incredible omnidirectional microphones and built-in zoom functions that help autofocus without having to know your way around the technical details and jargon of a camera. Other than that, they are easy to hold and have image stabilization to prevent you from taking shaky videos.

Nonetheless, if you are shooting indoors in a low light setting you must want to reconsider this option as it does not capture low light videos very well. Also, since most camcorders do not come with expandable storage you might run out of space soon.

3. DSLR Cameras – While DSLR cameras are fun to work with and render amazing high video quality, you can run into a few problems. DSLRs have great low light video capturing abilities and minimal shutter delays so you will see great picture quality and will be able to focus better but resolution can change with the frame rate of the different sections of the video which can pose to be a huge editing problem.

DSLRs have an undeniably great picture quality but even the best ones don’t have a good audio input so you might want to consider buying a portable audio recorder that can be plugged into the microphone you are using.   

 

What streaming platforms should I use?

 

Some common and highly sought-after streaming platforms that you can use are Facebook Live, YouTube Live, Periscope, Vimeo Live, IBM’s Cloud Video, WoWZA, DaCast and BrightCove.

What can you do from the standpoint of someone who can’t make it to the funeral?

Well, if you’re stuck where you are and for some reason you can’t make it to the funeral you can always show your love and regards by sending something that can either be used in the funeral process or after. In most cases people send cremation urns such as heart urns and butterfly urns that they can use to store the cremated ashes.

urns for ashes are a great gift since it lets them know that you are being considerate about their requirements and if you are really close and wish to keep some of the ashes with yourself you can choose from a wide selection of keepsake cremation urns right here at GetURNS.com.

We understand the loss of losing a loved one. If you have lost someone dear recently, we offer you our deepest condolences in these difficult times and will do our best in helping you find the perfect memorial item to honor them by.