Audio Streaming Solutions for Houses of Worship

In this article, we’re going to cover how to set up an audio stream for your house of worship, so that you might reach people in their time of need. We will start by providing you options that let your congregation gather in the safety of their own vehicles in your parking lot—specifically, short-throw FM transmitters and networked solutions. Finally, we’ll cover ways to stream your service across the Internet as a whole, so you can reach your parishioners in their own homes.

Localized Broadcasting Solutions

Our first option involves FM transmitters with a short throw, which allow congregants to listen to your sermon from the safety of their own cars while ensconced in your parking lot. This transmitter works with your sanctuary’s mixer.
Rolls makes an FM transmitter called the HR70, which is more popular than ever right now. Why? Because throughout the country, people are driving to their house of worship’s parking lot, tuning their FM radio to a free channel, and listening to sermons. You can use this transmitter for this very purpose: post a sign in your parking lot telling parishioners over which station you’re broadcasting and tune your transmitter to that station.

Rolls HR70 FM Digital Transmitter

In talking to people at Rolls, I learned that most of the phone calls they’ve gotten in the last few weeks concern this little device.
The transmitter offers RCA inputs, while most mixers have XLR or 1/4" balanced outputs. So, you’ll need the appropriate adapter cables, or a balanced-to-unbalanced signal converter, to make the connections work.
The transmitter offers a radius of about 150' around the antenna, but people have gotten a lot more mileage out of the system. It depends on how you set it up.