Live stream to Facebook + YouTube + your church website at the same time. Multi-camera scene switching, lower-thirds for speakers, song lyrics overlay. No subscription, no watermark, no per-viewer cap. Works on the church PC or laptop you already own.
A complete church streaming rig comes together in about 10 minutes the first time. Once it's set up, every Sunday after is a single click to go live. The same flow holds whether you run one camera or four.
Install SplitCam on the church laptop that drives slides or lives in the AV booth — it runs on Windows 10/11 and macOS 11+. It costs nothing, asks for no account, imposes no time limit, and never stamps a watermark on the broadcast.
Plug each camera into the PC and add as a source. SplitCam supports:
• USB webcams — Logitech C920 / Brio for under $200
• DSLRs / camcorders via HDMI capture card (Elgato Cam Link 4K, ~$130)
• A phone joined over Wi-Fi as an extra angle, using the SplitCam iOS / Android app
• Pre-recorded video as a source (intro reel, baptism video, announcements)
Build a scene for each shot you want: Wide, Pulpit, Worship band, Lyrics slide, Be right back. Switch with hotkeys F1–F5 during the service.
This is the single biggest quality win. The livestream's audio should be the post-mix feed from your church's mixing board, not the PC's built-in mic picking up room sound.
Use a USB audio interface (Behringer UMC22 ~$50, Focusrite Scarlett Solo ~$120) to feed an aux/monitor output from the soundboard into the PC. In SplitCam, select that USB interface as the audio source. Everything the congregation hears — sermon, worship band, organ — is what your remote viewers hear.
Speaker lower-third: add a Text source with your pastor's name and sermon title. Position it bottom-left. Toggle visibility per scene — visible when on the pulpit shot, hidden during worship.
Song lyrics: drop in a Browser Source that loads your lyrics web page. If your church runs ProPresenter, switch on its Network → Web URL output and feed that address to SplitCam. Your lyrics then mirror onto the livestream as your worship leader advances slides — and the free OpenLP works the same way through its stage-display URL.
Open Stream Settings. Tick the platforms you want:
• Facebook Live — paste stream key from your Facebook Page → Live Producer.
• YouTube Live — paste stream key from studio.youtube.com → Go Live → Stream.
• Church website — paste your custom RTMP URL + key (Wowza, Vimeo, AWS IVS or self-hosted Nginx-RTMP).
• More platforms — Twitch, Kick, X/Twitter, plus 84+ pre-configured destinations.
Click Go Live once. Every platform receives the stream simultaneously. Streams travel peer-to-peer direct from your PC to each platform's ingest server — no cloud middleman, no monthly fee, no per-viewer charges.
Different members watch on different platforms. Older members click the link on your church website. Adult children visiting parents catch it on Facebook Live. Younger attendees watch on YouTube. Homebound members open whatever opens fastest on their tablet.
Pick one platform and you lose the others. SplitCam streams to all of them at once, peer-to-peer, for free. Replaces $19/mo Restream and $25/mo StreamYard.
See how multistreaming worksThree honest tiers. Start at "minimum", grow as your livestream audience grows.
Small details that make a livestream look professional rather than amateur.
Begin every stream with the mic muted and a "Welcome — service starts at 10:30 AM" holding slide. Unmute when the service actually begins. Avoids early-arrivers hearing "is it working?"
Wi-Fi drops mid-service ruin a livestream. Run an ethernet cable to the sound booth. A 25 ft cable is $10. It's the single cheapest reliability upgrade.
Scene 1: "Service starts at 10:30 AM" with music. Scene 2: "We're singing — join us" during worship. Scene 3: pulpit during sermon. Scene 4: "Thanks for joining — next week 10:30 AM".
SplitCam's live readout reports encoder load and connection health throughout the service. If the indicator turns red, ease the bitrate down — don't let a degraded broadcast run for the whole sermon.
Every first Saturday — full dress rehearsal of the next day's service stream. 30 minutes, set privacy to "Unlisted". Burns out problems before they're live.
Streaming hymns and worship songs requires CCLI Streaming License ($50–$300/yr depending on church size). Without it, Facebook and YouTube can mute or block your stream automatically.
The three tools churches most often compare. Honest table — each has strengths.
| Feature | SplitCam | vMix | ProPresenter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | $60–$1,200 one-time | $499–$899 one-time |
| Multi-camera scene switching | ✓ Unlimited | ✓ 4 (Basic) – unlimited (Pro) | Limited (worship-focused) |
| Multistream to FB + YouTube | ✓ Built-in, free | Pro tier only ($1,200) | Single destination |
| Lyrics & song slides | Via Browser Source | Via plugin/script | ✓ Built-in (its specialty) |
| Lower-thirds / titles | ✓ Built-in | ✓ Built-in | ✓ Built-in |
| AI background removal | ✓ Built-in | No | No |
| Mobile (phone as 2nd camera) | ✓ iOS + Android apps | vMix Call (paid) | No |
| OBS scene import | ✓ One click | No | No |
| Recording locally | ✓ Built-in | ✓ Built-in | ✓ Built-in |
| Subscription required | No | No (one-time) | No (one-time) |
| Best for | Free, all-in-one Sunday stream | Pro-AV churches w/ budget | Worship/song-focused churches |
Many larger churches run ProPresenter for in-room lyrics and SplitCam for the livestream — feed ProPresenter's network web output into SplitCam as a Browser Source. Best of both, $0 added for the streaming side.
SplitCam is one of the best free options for churches: built-in multistreaming to Facebook + YouTube + your church website simultaneously, multi-camera scene switching, lower-thirds and lyrics overlays via Browser Source, no watermark, no subscription. OBS Studio is also free but requires plugins for multistreaming and has a steeper learning curve for volunteer operators.
Yes — SplitCam has built-in multistreaming. Paste your Facebook Live and YouTube Live stream keys, click Go Live once, both platforms get the stream simultaneously. You can also push to your own church website via RTMP at the same time. Streams go peer-to-peer direct from the church PC — no cloud middleman, no monthly fee. See multistreaming details.
SplitCam is 100% free with no watermark and no time limit. Paid options: vMix Basic HD $60 one-time (limited to 4 inputs, no multistream), vMix Pro $1,200 one-time (full features), ProPresenter $499+ (worship-focused, not a full streaming encoder), Resi $99–$249/month (cloud-based), BoxCast $99–$499/month.
Not necessarily — SplitCam can run on the same PC that drives your projector slides or ProPresenter, provided the machine has enough CPU/GPU headroom (Intel i5 8th gen+, 16 GB RAM recommended). For multi-camera setups with 3+ cameras at 1080p, a dedicated streaming PC is recommended to avoid dropped frames.
Add a Browser Source in SplitCam pointing at your lyrics page. If you use ProPresenter, enable its Network → Web URL output and point SplitCam's Browser Source at that URL. If you use OpenLP or another free option, point at its stage display web URL. The lyrics will appear live in your stream as your worship team advances slides. Note: streaming copyrighted lyrics requires a CCLI Streaming License.
Yes — SplitCam supports unlimited cameras as scene sources. Plug each camera into the PC (USB webcam, DSLR via HDMI capture card like Elgato Cam Link, or a phone running the SplitCam mobile app as an extra wireless angle). Build scenes for wide shot, pulpit close-up, worship band, lyrics slide. Switch between them with hotkeys (F1, F2, F3...) during the service.
SplitCam runs on Windows 10/11 and macOS 11+, with modest hardware requirements. For 1080p multi-camera streaming, an Intel i5 8th-gen or Ryzen 5 with 16 GB RAM is comfortable. For single-camera 720p streaming, an older laptop with i3 / 8 GB RAM can work. Hardware encoding (NVENC / QuickSync / AMF) takes load off the CPU.
Yes — SplitCam has been in active development since 2003 and is used by churches and broadcasters globally. The encoder uses hardware acceleration for stability, the health monitor shows dropped frames in real time, and the multistream stack is peer-to-peer (one platform going down doesn't take the others with it). Run a Saturday dress rehearsal before your first live Sunday.
Free download. No subscription, no card, no watermark. Spend the saved budget on better audio or a second camera instead.
⬇ Free Download