Live streaming backup plans
We have plans in place for when things go wrong
There will always be a high-quality video of the funeral to keep and share
Live-streaming works perfectly most of the time and our hearts are in making it work. Disruptions are very rare, but they can happen. So we have back-up plans in place to deal with them if they occur.
First, we will keep trying to get back online - often we can, although it is not always possible. And even if we do get restarted, a few minutes of the service may be missing. If we’ve suffered a catastrophic failure we may not be able to resume streaming - but we do continue to film inside the cameras, and on our laptop during multi-camera streams.
If something has gone wrong we fall back onto these recordings and upload the complete service to the viewing page for people to watch in replay.
There is always a video to watch as the stream is not our only version of the funeral .
It’s a little like printing a letter and sending it, but it becoming lost in the mail - you still have the letter on your computer, and we still have the funeral video files on our equipment.
Things that can go wrong
1. Communications problems over mobile networks
Mobile networks can become slow, congested or even drop out - which is why we don’t rely on just one when we stream funerals.
We use a special ‘bonded’ connection which ties together Telstra, Optus and Vodafone mobile networks so we use all of them at the same time to send the stream.
This really helps to protect us from those common mobile ‘dropouts’ that can take a stream offline.
If one of the networks slows down or drops out the other two take over the load.
And, by tying different networks together, we can often get reliable connections in places where one network alone might not sustain streaming.
This system gives us a lot of confidence in producing solid, reliable streaming connections.
But no streaming setup comes with a 100% guarantee. There are so many other technological links in the chain that can experience a problem and cause disruption to a stream.
2. Problems with the servers receiving and broadcasting the stream
The video travels around the world and back between leaving the funeral and appearing on the viewers screen. Sometimes, ‘packets’ of information can get lost on the way or even arrive out of order.
It’s a little like airport baggage - it usually finds the right carousel in the right airport, but sometimes the system does not work as it should.
Usually, these sorts of problems don’t take the stream offline but they can result in the video and sound losing their synchronisation. This could mean the sound happens before it should, or after it should. Luckily this does not happen very often, but when it does this is, unfortunately, not something we can fix during the funeral as it is beyond our reach and control.
But we always have a local recording in our cameras and laptop, which is ‘clean’ and in-sync as it has not had to travel that global-route.
We upload that ‘clean’ copy as the lasting replay on the streaming page and include it on your USB stick copy.
3. A failure of our local equipment
This is very rare for us as we use professional broadcast TV equipment which is generally very reliable. But, as with all electronics, an individual piece of equipment can freeze up in action.
These are problems that we can work on - and usually fix - during the funeral. But we also have backup cameras and microphones to cover our needs.
A freeze or crash of our laptop during a multi-camera stream is our greatest threat as it will take that stream offline. Our first step is to reboot and re-establish the stream, while the cameras continue recording so that nothing is missed. Afterwards, we create a complete replay from those camera files.
We know how important your stream is and how upsetting it can be if it does not work.
Please know that we are heavily invested in giving you the best video possible.
Why we don’t stream to YouTube or Facebook
It is not practical to professionally live stream funerals on social-media platforms like YouTube or Facebook, as they present critical problems.
The performance standards on social-media are not guaranteed and can be extremely variable. The resolution of the video can be downgraded by the platform to suit its bandwidth needs, leading to a very disappointing result.
But the biggest problem is that Facebook and YouTube may terminate live streams which contain copyrighted music, as most funerals do.
Their computer algorithms work in real-time to detect and block these feeds. It can happen without notice, even because of music which is barely audible in the background.
These are not issues for our live streaming, as we hold licences to broadcast the music associated with funerals and use a world-leading commercial streaming platform, with guaranteed performance standards.