How to add video to AC Central

AC Central apps and website now support video livestreaming and video archives via the Apostolic Christian Church of America's Vimeo Enterprise account.

This is how to get started

First, contact Onward Media and let us know your church wants to upgrade your AC Central account to include video. Information about our video integration and pricing is on our FAQ page.

Go to Vimeo, click the Join button and create a free Vimeo Basic account for your church. (When you are operating as a user underneath our account, you are not subject to the limitations of the free account.)

Email us and provide the email address you used for your church Vimeo account.

We will add you as a Contributor to our ACCA Vimeo Enterprise account. This gives you access to a folder specific to your congregation and enables you to add, delete, and modify archived videos and configure and start/stop live events. Look for an invitation email from Vimeo. Note: you must be logged into your Vimeo account BEFORE you click the "View Folder" button in the the invitation email.

When you are logged into Vimeo, click your account icon at top right to make sure you are operating in the ACCA account and not your personal account. There is a dropdown menu directly below your Email address. You should have a checkbox next to Apostolic Christian Church, NOT your congregation name or your personal name (depending on how you setup your Vimeo account).

Your livestream event is already set up for you. This is what is configured to work with AC Central. It is an unlisted event.* This event is what you will use for streaming all of your live video services that you want viewable in AC Central. (Use the same event for Sunday and midweek. Don’t worry about setting a time and day in Vimeo.) Do not create a new event for your normal services. If you do, it will not show in AC Central.*

You can find your live event inside your congregation folder which is under Library in the left sidebar. The live event will say "Upcoming."

To stream video, you can use whatever video encoder you wish. The easiest option is Vimeo’s browser-based software encoder. It includes basic broadcast production tools, like adding lower thirds and images. OBS is another software encoder option, which many of you are already be using. OBS offers more capability than Vimeo’s encoder, but it is more complicated to use. Or you can use a hardware encoder.

To start streaming, click the "[Name] AC Church services" text link on your live event in your congregation's Vimeo folder. That will take you to the settings for your live event.

You can also setup simulcasts if you want. Click the Setting gear icon, then choose Destinations. NOTE: because of the way user permissions work in Vimeo only the account owner can configure social media connections so instead you will need to use the RTMP option to connect to Facebook and Youtube.

Then, choose how you wish to stream. 

Click the Go live button at top right. This will show the Production modes. You can choose whether you wish to stream using Vimeo's browser-based encoder or use a different encoder, such as a hardware encoder or a different software encoder like OBS. To use Vimeo's browser-based encoder, select "Live production". This is shown below.  

If using any option other than Vimeo’s browser-based encoder to stream, , select "RTMP stream" which takes you to a stream setting screen where you can get your stream key and RTMP URL for your encoder. Once OBS — or whatever software/hardware you choose — is setup, you will not need to login to Vimeo to start the live event.*

If you are using Vimeo’s browser-based encoder software, you can add an image as a welcome slide, add captions (lower thirds), setup scenes, etc. Click Go Live in top right when ready to start. See the current number of viewers by going to the Analytics tab.

Once you turn off your live stream, the recorded video will automatically be added to your congregation’s folder in Vimeo as a video archive.

To add your video archive to AC Central, select the video, click the link icon and copy video link.

Paste that in the AC Central Add Sermon (or Edit Sermon) window.

Other important info

1. An unlisted event means it will not be discoverable in Vimeo’s site, but anyone with the link can access it. It can also be embedded in a webpage. If you change your live event to be public instead of unlisted, you must notify Onward Media so we change it in the AC Central backend. Otherwise it will not be visible in AC Central.
   
2. You cannot be logged into your Vimeo account and stream using OBS at the same time. This will cause player errors in the app.
   
3. There is a five minute “tail” on the livestream when using OBS. It will show live in the app for five additional minutes. If you attempt to stream again during this window, the player in the app may get confused and users will be taken to the former, finished stream.
4. If you need to stream a private event you don't want on AC Central, then create a new event and set your security settings accordingly. 
5. Please do NOT add extra time before and after your church services. Our costs are largely based on the number of concurrent streams we have and stretching your live time out will create expensive overlaps.