What your church needs to get started

Quick Summary:

•  AC Central account with Onward Media
  
•  Windows PC with sound card[1]
•  Rocket Broadcaster Pro software encoder[2]
•  Broadband internet connection

Account Setup

To give your local members and the broader AC brotherhood easy access to your audio sermons on your website and the new mobile application, you will need to first sign up by going to http://www.apostolicchristian.org/ac-central-contact-form.

We will then create an AC Central user account for your church. This is where you will log in to upload your sermon audio archives. Please let us know what user name and email address you want for the account. Email that to Rachel Schrock at rschrock@onwardmedia.org.

A modest monthly fee is assessed to pay for the ongoing expenses, maintenance, support and to fund future system enhancements. Invoicing and receipting is handled by Onward Media.

NOTE: Video live streaming and archiving is an available option, for an additional monthly fee. The information in this document is primarily about the requirements for audio.

Computer

Your recording bench will need a Windows PC with a sound card that has an audio “Line In” jack.

Recommended hardware specs:

Windows 10
Intel Core i5 or higher
8GB memory or higher
Solid State Drive

Purchase Rocket Broadcaster Pro[2] at https://www.rocketbroadcaster.com/pro. Cost is $99 for a lifetime license. The Pro version allows Onward Media to remotely connect to your Rocket Broadcaster for instant setup and we’ll also be able to make any future changes that might be needed. Please save your license code for future reference. You will need when you upgrade computers.

A member of the AC Central team will setup Rocket Broadcaster for you. 

Internet Connection

Streaming

Audio live streaming requires a broadband Internet connection at your church facility. (For information about internet requirements for video, go here.) Nearly any modern method will work: DSL, Cable, Fiber Optic, or Cellular Data (LTE or better). Satellite is not recommended due to the extreme latency. 

Recommended minimum upload speed = streaming bitrate x 4

We configure churches with a stream bitrate of 128kbps, therefore you should have a consistent upload speed of 512kbps or faster, ideally it should be much faster. You will also appreciate the faster upload speed when it comes time to upload your sermon file.[3]

Testing your upload speed:

To verify that you have the required speed, go to:

http://speakeasy.net/speedtest.

Uploading

You will need an Internet connection to upload audio sermons to the AC Central server, but it doesn’t have to be at church. Sermon files can be uploaded from any computer, anywhere, through a browser. Therefore, if you prefer to take the sermon files home to upload, you can. Any Internet speed will work, but since sermon files are rather large, fast broadband is recommended.

[1] A Macintosh computer (OS X 10.7 or higher) with Audio Hijack installed also works well. Audio Hijack costs $59 and can be downloaded at https://rogueamoeba.com/audiohijack/. However, we do not currently provide tech support for streaming on Macs.

[2] Or Audio Hijack if using a Mac, but see above.

[3] More bandwidth is always better. Our recommended upload speed will work well, provided you get that consistently. If your speeds vary - and most do - then upgrade to a higher plan, like at least 1Mbps upload.