During the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, many have been struggling to do normal everyday things. Limits on how many people are allowed to gather together have placed a strain on those needing togetherness time. Funerals are no exception here.
My grandmother passed away this April and it was hard for us not to be together to mourn and celebrate the beautiful life she had. She had a loving husband who passed before her and 10 amazing children who brought her joy and 17 grandchildren. With this said, you can see that anytime our family gets together, there are large gatherings. With only 10 people allowed at the grave site, it was hard to figure out a way to hold a funeral in the year 2020.
My family pulled together and found ways to bring closure to those who needed it, especially those who could not be there to say their final goodbyes. With today’s technology, we’ve been blessed to use it to share photos of the funeral with our family and friends and even live stream the small funeral service.
We’d like to share this blog post of how we live streamed my grandmother’s funeral with those who may be in the same predicament we were in. After reading this blog, please reach out to us if you have more questions that we did not answer. We’d be happy to share with you as much information as we can.
Analytics
- According to the live streaming service we used, we had 25 people viewing the live stream during the funeral service. With this streaming service, you were able to view the live stream again after it ended. There were a total of 76 views of the video.
- The live stream was shown in 16 different states, 2 countries including the United States and Afghanistan, and in 4 different time zones.
- Most views were from computers but some did watch on their smartphones or tablets. Many of my family members hooked their computers up to their televisions via a HDMI cable and watched on their televisions.
- The live stream was shown on 6 different internet browsers.
- Playback quality was at 720p.
- The live stream was shown on 5 different operating systems including Windows, IOS, Linux, macOS, and Android.
Step 1: We created a secured web page.
We added …
- a background to the web page that was calming and peaceful for those who visited the page,
- my grandmother’s name at the top of the page,
- the link to my grandmother’s obituary,
- and general directions for users of the live stream and the web page.
We turned off the web page’s indexing and made the page private with a password.
Step 2: Add live stream code to web page
We used a live streaming app called Boxcast to physically stream the video. Boxcast provided an embed code that we put on the web page. We highly recommend using Boxcast for your live stream. They had excellent customer service. The customer service team were polite, down-to-earth, and answered questions in a timely manner. They also provide a free 2-week trial.
The stream allows you to rewind the live stream if you enter after it has begun and it allows you to re-watch the stream in case you were unable at the live streaming time.
Step 3: Send website link and password to family and friends.
This part is pretty self-explanatory. We have a family Facebook page and various other communication services set up for a family of our size, and we blasted out the website link and password to those we felt needed it.
Step 4: Equipment
Camera, Video, and Microphone
We used 2 Apple iPads for this. Nothing else.
iPad 1 was for live streaming. We downloaded the Boxcast app to that iPad and set it up on a tripod. We didn’t do any fancy footwork with the tripod. Just aimed it at the casket and left it alone. We did make sure to notice that it was a bit windy out and aimed the microphone part of the iPad away from the wind, but stood about 12 feet away from the Pastor so he could be heard. We did ask the Pastor to speak a bit louder than he normally does so he could be heard on camera. We reminded him of this too right before the funeral since we noticed the wind. Keep in mind, if your pastor is wearing a mask, he or she will need to speak even louder because he or she will be muffled.
iPad 2 was used as a backup. We did not live stream from this iPad but just tapped the funeral. We did this incase for some reason, the live stream did not work. At least we would have had a video to share with others at a later time. However, we did not need this backup video as the live stream was flawless and we had no interruptions at all. After the live broadcasting, we were also able to download the live video to our hard drive for no additional fee.
2 tripods were used to dock each iPad on.
1 cell phone – We used our iPhone to connect to data towers around the cemetery since the cemetery did not have WiFi for the iPad to connect too. We called Verizon ahead of time and confirmed with them that there was enough data around the cemetery to stream a live video. The cell towers around this particular cemetery had 4G LTE service. When we were ready to begin the live stream, about 10 minutes before the funeral began, we turned on our Hotspot on our iPhone and connected our live streaming iPad to our Hotspot. We also made sure to silent our iPhone so it would not ding during the funeral.
1 large umbrella – This seems like a stretch but you never know when a freak rain shower will come through and damage all your equipment. So, we also brought a large umbrella to hold over top of our equipment in case it started raining.
We understand how difficult this time can be with isolation and physical distancing, but there are some ways to make the most of it. We hope this blog helps those who are struggling on a deeper level. Please do reach out to us if you have any questions about this process.
Our condolences to you and your family.