Mevo Info Session in Surrey - UPDATE

On Wednesday, July 29, Regan Gorman, Verger at St. John’s, Shaughnessy/Synod office building administrator, and Randy Murray, Communications Officer for the Diocese of New Westminster made a trip out to the Anglican Parish of the Church of the Epiphany, Surrey to do a presentation and demo of Mevo live streaming hardware and software.

The pair were invited by ‘Epiphany’s’ rector, the Reverend Stephen Rowe. Attending the session, masked and respecting physical distancing guidelines were lay and clergy representatives from two other Surrey parishes, St. Helen’s and St. Michael’s.

Regan and Randy did a basic set up of the gear (which takes about 2 minutes) and Regan led the group through a 90 minute session of information, discussion and questions regarding the Mevo live streaming products.

For those who may be interested, please read Regan’s comprehensive Joint Case Study/Beta Test which is available for downloading on this post. As well as containing a great deal of information, there are also links to archived broadcasts from St. John’s, Shaughnessy on Regan’s Facebook page using Mevo hardware with basic software and the Vimeo Pro subscription software. The Venerable Richard Leggett with the clergy and lay team at Holy Trinity, New Westminster purchased a Mevo Start (the Mevo Start was put on the market in the spring of 2020) early in July and are now using the hardware and basic software to broadcast on their Facebook page.

There are a number of YouTube posts by experts commenting on Mevo gear but in my experience the most useful are from a tech store owner named Mike Shu. Here is a link to his comments about the Mevo Start from May 25, 2020.

We aren’t saying that Mevo is for every parish and every application but we do believe that for parishes with limited financial and personnel resources this is one of the best ways to live stream worship and events through the major social media network accounts and the parish website’s live stream capabilities. The basic package is ready right out of the box with the ability to do a whole lot more depending on the user’s motivation and desire to expand their knowledge of and skills with using the products. This is not a replacement for, or a different version of Zoom meeting software which has a different application. Zoom usage has been hugely successful in the church in general and a great boon to our diocese. However with a little effort and some downloaded software you can use the Mevo Start as a webcam to stream to Zoom. Here is an instructional video from Mike Shu describing how to do this. He does highlight a glitch that was present when using MAC, but works well with WINDOWS.

For those of you that practice due diligence (and so you should), and do product research on the internet, there are some criticisms out there. Expanded use of Mevo requires a subscription to Vimeo Pro (aka Producer) at a cost of $24 CAD per month payable a year in advance, and the on board microphone on the Mevo Plus is not up to the same high quality as the video sensor (which is a Sony 4K). However, there are numerous other options for audio which can be accessed even by those with limited experience in live streaming and sound reinforcement.  And, it is important to remember that the on board microphone on the Mevo Start is a big improvement.

Since the creation of the Joint Case Study, amazon.ca, the Canadian distributor for Mevo, Amazon.ca have added the Mevo Start to their catalogue which is our recommended device for parishes looking at a low maintenance, high quality live  streaming option. Here is a direct link. As of this update on October 9, 7 more parishes in the D of NW have purchased Mevo Starts.

Mevo have moved forward with the Beta test for their upcoming software which will support more than one Mevo Start camera. We will update our information about this multi-camera functionality as it becomes available.

The Reverend Tellison Glover, Director for Mission and Ministry Development and the staff support for the Parish Development Grants Committee urged parishes looking at submitting applications for PDGs to support their parish social media and live streaming presence to consider directing grant proposals to the purchase of Mevo hardware, software and Vimeo subscriptions. All of the PDG applications have been processed and a number of parishes will be looking to purchase MEVO Start packages for their live streams. Diocesan comms will keep folks updated on that progress.

IMAGES

• Regan Gorman providing information about Mevo live streaming hardware and software. In his right hand he is holding the Mevo Plus with the Mevo Boost and in the foreground on a stand is the Mevo Plus
• A view of the nave during the info session
• Rector of 'Epiphany' the Reverend Stephen Rowe is at the lectern while we see Zach Groves who can control all aspects of the camera's movement and focus from a mobile device.