This weekend someone tweeted me asking if esv.jeffmcfadden.com was down temporarily or permanently.

The site had actually been down ever since I moved my website off of PHP (a long time ago). I hadn’t bothered to bring the site back, mostly out of laziness/busyness.

Having a couple hours of free time I figured now was as good a time as any to bring the site back. From doing some research a while ago I knew I’d end up writing my own ESV API gem because what was already out there wasn’t really what I was looking for.

I wanted a gem I could easily drop into my rails app that wrapped all the methods in the API in a dead-simple and straightforward way. It needed to work with rails 3.1 on ruby 1.9. I wanted to be able to call the api and get html back that I could just drop into a view.

After a couple of hours I came up with esv_api. To test it out I threw together a quick rails app for the esv site and dropped it onto Heroku.

If you use the gem or find it helpful I’d love to hear from you.

Last winter, from January through March, our church attendance was down nearly 30%. Between a few vacations and an intense RSV and Flu season the congregation was knocked down pretty hard. Knocked down and out (of the service), but not completely out of participation thanks to our live stream.

We’ve been livestreaming video of our service since we started 2.5 years ago. When we planted, I couldn’t find any helpful information about livestreaming that wasn’t aimed at large churches with much larger budgets than we were working with. Looking around recently for some equipment I still couldn’t find a good reference. So, here’s a bit of a history of what we’ve done at Grace Church. Hopefully it can be of help!

Getting Started

Diving into livestreaming isn’t free, but even the smallest of churches (we started with 30 people) can participate.

To get started you’ll need someone dedicated to the task of acquiring equipment, learning how it all works together, and training others to help out.

Equipment

At a minimum you’ll need a computer, a camera, possibly a video adapter, an audio feed from your soundboard, an internet connection, and an account with a video streaming service.

Computer

To stream your service you’re going to need a computer. The computer takes the video from the camera and encodes it into a format ready for streaming via the streaming service. To be able to encode video at the quality you probably want, you’ll need a relatively powerful computer. Look for something with at least an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. If you’re already using a computer for projecting words for songs, you might be able to use that computer to do double duty.

We’re a portable church, and we use mostly Apple equipment, so we’re using a 15” Macbook Pro. Our pastor uses it as his computer during the week.

If you’re going to use a firewire video converter like the one below you’ll need a computer with a Firewire 400 or 800 input.

Cost: $0 (If the computer you own will work, or you can borrow one) - $1199

Video Camera

When we got started we just used a cheap Logitech webcam as our video camera. The quality was low. You could barely see the stage. But it worked! It was better than nothing for the family stuck at home with sick kids.

Today you can buy a Canon Vixia Camcorder for under $300. If you’re going to convert your video for uploading later (to a service like vimeo) then you’ll want to get an HD camcorder.

The only requirement of your camcorder is that it has live composite or S-Video output. What this means is that the camera will output a low-def video feed at the same time that it is recording.

If you really have no plans to record your video on the camera, you can ditch the live-output requirement, and maybe even pick up an older still camera with video output.

Also keep in mind that if your camera is going to be in the back of a room you’ll want a high optical zoom (10x+). You do not care at all about the term “digital zoom”. “Digital Zoom” is a hoax. You only care about optical zoom.

Cost: $79-$400+

Video Adapter

If you aren’t using a basic webcam, then you’ll need a way to get the video stream from the camera to the computer. This is where the video adapter comes in. If you have a computer with a firewire port of some kind, then go buy one of these.

If you don’t have a firewire port, then you’ll need to find another solution. Livestream Procaster (which we’ll talk about below) works best with devices from Canopus, but you’ll want to verify that your device is supported before you buy.

Cost: $150+

Internet Connection

To stream live you’ll need an internet connection. For the best quality you’ll need something with at least a 1 Megabit Per Second upload speed. You can get away with a bit slower if you lower the quailty of the video you’re uploading.

Being a portable church, we don’t have any internet available to us in our building. We’ve opted to go with a 4G LTE Card from Verizon, attached to a Cradlepoint Wireless Router

Cost: $0 (You already have it)-$60/month

Streaming Service Account

Don’t bother looking around. Just go to livestream.com and sign up now. It’s free ($350/m if you don’t want ads to appear in your stream) and it Just Works. They have native software for both Windows and Mac.

Download the free Procaster software.

Cost: Free

Audio Feed

The last thing you’ll need is an audio feed from your soundboard. Talk to your sound operator about what you’ll need to get a feed to your computer. Usually you’ll just need a simple audio cable and maybe an adapter.

If you don’t have a sound board then you’ll need somekind of mic setup to get the feed for your stream.

If you’re really stuck you could try just pulling in the ambient room audio from a microphone at the computer. This might get you by, but you’ll be dealing with some pretty bad audio, and you’ll pick up voices of anyone whispering nearby (potentially embarassing!).

Putting It All Together

So you’ve spend somewhere between $79 and $3000 getting the equipment you need to be able to livestream your service. What now?

1. Take the video (and maybe audio depending on how you want to set things up) out of your video camera and feed it into your video converter (and thus into your computer).

2. Take the audio feed and either feed it into the camcorder (if you’re going to record live on the camera) or into the computer doing the streaming.

3. Fireup the Livestream Procaster software and login to your account. Configure any settings under the preference tabs, then click “Go Live”! You’re streaming!

Upgrades

At Grace Church, in the time since we started streaming, we’ve upgraded equipment and updated workflow, but the basics are all the same, and we still don’t have a huge budget.

We upgraded our camera from a webcam to a camcorder + video adapter. We upgraded our tripod recently.

Here are some other options available to you as you upgrade your setup:

• Get A Better camera
• Get Multiple cameras
• Remove the ads from your streaming service
• Embed the livestream on your website
• Use the high+mobile quality streaming to give everyone a chance to view your stream wherever they are
• Promote your stream on Twitter and Facebook

Keep Streaming

This isn’t the post for it, but there are a lot of great reasons to keep streaming your services for your congregation. From the sick or elderly to the mothers’ cry room, there are members of your church that can’t otherwise participate in your Sunday Service. A livestream helps keep them connected and ultimately builds the church. So keep on streaming.

Summary

Joshua Topolsky (emp. mine):

This question sparked deep user studies at Google on mobile phone use, what Matias described as “Serious baseline ethnographic research which hadn’t happened before.” He tells me that the company spent a great deal of time and effort watching how and why regular people used their smartphones. Not just Android phones, but all smartphones. The company even had employees “shadow” users, visiting them at their homes and workplaces to watch how they interacted with their devices. Matias wouldn’t share numbers, but intimated that the study was a significant undertaking.

This, in my mind, is the battle that Google is constantly facing. In a rigid engineering-biased culture, how do you build products or platforms for people who aren’t engineers?

In the same article Matias Duarte says, “We want to create wonder. We wanted to simplify people’s lives.” Duarte is amazing at what he does, and I wish him the best of luck in turning that ship.

Roboto

I actually like it. Has character.

Screen Resolution

The new expected resolution for Android 4 phones is 1280x720. The best I can figure this requires a 4+ inch display. Is this really the case? Will everyone really start walking around with mini-tablets in their hands?

The Google Apps

The updates look great. Google’s apps have always been good on Android. So good, that in my experience they were just about all I used. I found few things that came even slightly close to them in quality and ease of use.

No more hardware buttons?

Seems that those hardware buttons are going away, which is a Good Thing. The sooner Android can ditch those buttons the better.

Face Unlock

Didn’t work in the demo, which gives me no confidence it will work in practice. How maddening if you can’t get your phone to unlock. What do you do, stare at it harder? Maybe I’m wrong and it’ll work everywhere but the demo.

Sharing

Looks like intra-app sharing has gotten even better. Android blows iOS away on this front; I really wish this behavior was available on my iPhone.

User Experience

Again, from the Topolsky interview:

Matias also told me that a new style guide was being prepped for developers with lots of off-the-rack pieces that would make it easier for third-parties to create the same kind of streamlined, beautiful applications I saw in Ice Cream Sandwich.

If you’re and Android user, this should be wonderful news. Android apps are an inconsistent mess of UI across the board. Some level of convention would be amazing for Android users.

Availability

I haven’t heard yet when you can buy a non-Google Android 4 phone yet. Given history though, it could be nearly a year, by which point you could get an iPhone 5, or a Metro phone.

If the Galaxy Nexus really is the Big Hit Android 4 phone though, maybe the Android experience really will improve afterall.

Is anyone singing love songs to their Android voice control? Probably not.

My Android-using friends will just watch that video and mock it saying that, clearly, iPhone users are not jobs. Well, the truth of that notwithstanding, Siri is a great example of the different approaches between Android and iPhone.

On Android, you have Voice Control. What more do you need? You tell your phone what to do, and stuff usually happens.

But on iOS, you have Siri, a friendly virtual assistant. At the end of the day you can make all the same appointments, reminders, and dictation on either platform (Having used it, I’d say Siri is much better than Android at all of these tasks today, but no doubt Google will catch up on the interaction side). On one, you’re going to have fun doing it. On the other, it’s just another feature.

This, to me, summarizes the difference in the iOS and Android approaches: Android is giving you features, as many as possible. iOS is giving you an experience, as delightful as possible.

John Gruber:

E-ink feels peaceful to me. The Kindle doesn’t feel like a computer. It feels — not to the touch but to the eyes and mind — like a crudely-typeset and slightly smudgily-printed paper book. That’s a good thing. Battery life is un-computer-like as well: Amazon measures e-ink Kindle battery life in months, and they’re not joking. It’s a surprise when the Kindle actually needs a charge. I was a doubter until I owned one, but now I’m convinced that e-ink readers have tremendous value even in the post-iPad world.

Gruber nails it on this one. E-ink really does feel “peaceful” when you’re reading it. When I take my iPad or my phone outside to sit and read, I feel like it’s a device of anticipation, giddily awaiting the next moment that I’m going to launch an app, send a tweet, or take a picture.

But when I sit down with my Kindle it really feels like all it wants to do is sit lazily all day and turn a few pages. I’m not even sure if Amazon knew what they were on to when they picked up E-ink for their reader. Maybe it’s really the E-ink guys that deserve all the praise.

Regardless, if I’m going to sit down to just read these days, you can bet I’m going to grab the Kindle to do it. E-ink really does seem to have a place in the world; I hope it doesn’t go away any time soon.

October 5, 2011:

”Features on Apple’s iPhone 4S fall short of high expectations”

Even though the iPhone 4S is an improvement over its predecessor, it isn’t being perceived as a breakthrough partly because it’s not being branded as an iPhone 5 as most people had been expecting, said Prashant Malaviya, a marketing professor at Georgetown University.

October 11, 2011:

“4S preorders topped 1 million the first day you could order it, topping the iPhone 4. Does this iPhone live up to the hype?”

This is just funny.

Matt Perman, quoting Scott Belsky:

Ideas don’t happen because they are great — or by accident. The misconception that great ideas inevitably lead to success has prevailed for too long. Whether you have the perfect solution for an everyday problem or a bold new concept for a creative masterpiece, you must transform vision into reality.

I can’t tell you how many people come to me with “I have an idea for an app…” and simultaneously expect me (or some other developer) to front all the money, push all the sales, and market the whole thing.

It’s not a good idea until you do something, and even then, it might turn out to be a rotten idea after all.

If it’s a really great idea why not take a risk and make it reality?

apple.com/stevejobs

Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.

James 4:14 (ESV)

yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

ESPN Reporting:

The memo does not specify the reasons for a change in protocol, but players, coaches and executives who have spoken with ESPN on the condition of anonymity say they believe it is the result of persistently expressed concerns about the practice of teams using technology to detect opponents’ verbal audibles, snap cadences and in-line adjustments. On Monday night, Costa claimed the opposing Redskins were shouting out simulated snap counts similar to Romo’s normal cadence, which resulted in errant snaps from center.

Fascinating side effect of technology in a highly-competitive space.

According to IHS iSuppli, as reported in PC Magazine Amazon is losing $10 on every Kindle Fire they sell.

Who knows how true this is. We know, for example, that Apple, with it’s massive volume and remarkable supply line, pays less than just about everyone else for component. So how is iSuppli supposed to know the deals that Amazon makes for parts?

Even if they are losing $10 per Kindle you can be sure that they’ll make that up, and more. The $40 “discount” they give for their ad-supported Kindles is a clear indicator that the ad-supported functionality alone is worth $40 per device to them.

Bezos is a smart, competent business owner. Unlike the yahoos at HP, you can be assured that Amazon isn’t throwing their cash out the door just for grins.

I’m still really skeptical of all these iSuppli parts costs lists though.