Multistreaming for Churches: Why I Recommend Restream
Livestreaming has become an important part of how churches reach people beyond Sunday morning. But once you decide you want to stream to more than one platform—such as YouTube and Facebook—things can get unnecessarily complicated.
One of the tools I recommend for simplifying this is Restream.
Restream is a multistreaming service. Instead of your church sending separate livestreams to Facebook, YouTube, and other platforms, your streaming system sends one stream to Restream, and Restream distributes it to the destinations you choose.
Why Multistreaming Makes Sense for Churches
One of my goals when setting up a church livestream system is to make Sunday morning as simple as possible for the people running it.
YouTube can be relatively straightforward. Once everything is configured, many streaming programs and hardware encoders can send the stream directly to YouTube with very little interaction from the operator.
Facebook can be more cumbersome. Depending on your setup, there can be additional steps involving Facebook Live Producer, scheduled broadcasts, stream settings, and making sure everything is ready before the service begins.
That’s where Restream can really help.
Instead of your volunteer managing separate broadcasts, the workflow becomes:
Your Streaming System → Restream → YouTube + Facebook + Other Destinations
Your streaming system only needs to send one stream. Restream takes care of distributing it to the platforms you’ve connected.
That means fewer steps for your volunteers and fewer things that can go wrong on Sunday morning.
One Stream Means Less Upload Bandwidth
There’s another important advantage: internet bandwidth.
If you send separate streams directly from your church to multiple platforms, each stream requires its own upload bandwidth.
With Restream, your church sends one stream to Restream regardless of how many destinations Restream is distributing it to.
For churches where internet upload speed is limited—or where reliability is more important than anything else—that can be a significant advantage.
You Don’t Have to Replace Your Existing Streaming System
This is one of the things I like most about Restream.
You don’t have to change the production system you’re already comfortable using.
You can continue producing your livestream with software such as ProPresenter, Ecamm Live or OBS for example, or with a dedicated hardware encoder or video switcher capable of streaming.
Your existing system creates the finished program and sends it to Restream. Restream handles what happens after that.
In other words, Restream doesn’t have to become your production system. It can simply be the distribution system.
Which Restream Plan Do I Recommend for Churches?
For most churches, I think Restream Standard is a good place to start.
Standard allows you to stream to three destinations at the same time, which is plenty for many churches.
For example:
YouTube + Facebook + one additional destination
Even if you’re only using YouTube and Facebook today, having that third destination gives you some room to grow without paying for features you don’t need.
Restream does offer a free plan, but for a church that’s going to depend on the service every Sunday, I generally think the first paid plan makes more sense.
Make Sunday Morning Easier
Technology should help your ministry—not give your volunteers another complicated process to remember.
That’s ultimately why I like Restream.
It’s not about streaming everywhere just because you can. It’s about taking something that can involve several different platforms, logins, settings, and steps and turning it into a much simpler workflow.
Set up your destinations, send your stream to Restream, and let Restream handle the distribution.
Ready to Try Restream?
If you’re looking for a simpler way to stream your church service to multiple platforms, you can check out Restream and its current plans using the link below.
Surrender Sound may earn a commission if you sign up through our Restream links, at no additional cost to you. We recommend products and services based on what we believe is the right fit for our customers—not based on affiliate relationships.
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