Did you have trouble with the worship livestream on Sunday?

The AV Team of the church makes every effort to make sure that the worship livestreams deliver a worship experience that invites you into the service from wherever you are. That said, internet service providers are being taxed in unprecedented ways right now with the immense amount of streaming video we are now using with Zoom calls and livestreamed services for churches everywhere (not to mention tons of Netfilx, Hulu, etc.). So even when things go out from the church perfectly, there can be difficulties on the receive end, and we know that those are just as frustrating. Here are a few things you can do on your end to prevent and address problems you may have accessing the livestreams.

1. Avoid using Internet Explorer. Microsoft has ended development of the Internet Explorer web browser and replaced it with the Edge web browser. Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Safari are also supported. Many of the people who have had problems with the livestream were using Internet Explorer, and switching to another browser on the same computer sometimes the problems immediately.

2. Make sure you are in a part of your home that has a strong signal Wi-Fi signal. In general, proximity and line of sight to your wireless router are both important. You can test your connection speed at www.speedtest.net from the place you want to be when you stream the services. A connection speed of 5-10mbps is all you need for a good livestream, but sometimes on the other side of the house from the router with doors closed you may find your connection dipping below that.

3. If you have trouble on one streaming platform, try another. We stream to the church website, Facebook, and YouTube to provide redundancy and accommodate different people’s preferences. Please note that the church Facebook page is completely public, which means you can watch on Facebook even if you do not have a Facebook account. Likewise, anyone can watch on YouTube, with or without an account.

4. If you continue to have problems with the live webcast, remember that recordings of the services are immediately available on Facebook and YouTube and are generally published to the church website by early afternoon on Sunday.

5. Wherever and whenever you worship with us online, be sure to sign the online guestbook and continue your giving so that these ministries of the church continue.