Low Latency Remote Monitoring for Your Church's Broadcast Mix

Remote controlling your console is easy.

As long as you're on the same network or within wifi distance, you can connect an iPad or a laptop and remote control the aux send or groups being sent to your broadcast mix.

A bigger hurdle is listening to it with low latency.

Luckily, listening to your stream and adjusting the mix with low latency is a lot easier now thanks to Waves Stream.

Waves Stream is a plugin service that lets you narrowcast your church's broadcast mix and hear it in almost real-time - anywhere over the internet.

You can use your phone, a tablet, laptop, or even put it inside your digital audio workstation (DAW).

How does it work?

To use the Waves Stream plugin on your mix, you've got a few options. You can send it to a computer with your console, either over a USB or some other digital audio networking device.

Then if you have any host for Virtual Studio Technology (VST) plugins, whether that's a Digital Audio Workstation, Waves Super Rack Performer, or Live Professor, you can load the Waves Stream Send plugin and send your mix to anybody over the internet.

It could be in the same room, or across the world. It doesn't matter. This even works on OBS if you're running a PC, so you won't necessarily need another computer.

After you've found your plugin host of choice, load up Waves Stream Send and hit the power button. This generates a URL you can share with anybody around the world. You could even take a picture of it with your cell phone, and suddenly you can monitor through your wireless device.

After you click the link or scan the QR code, it'll send you to a web page that will stream your mix in low latency and high quality.

A few things to keep in mind:

If you end the Waves Stream, you will need to generate a new link.

So if you're not quasi-local and can't take a picture of the QR code, what I recommend is setting up a Google doc, Notion page, or a shared Apple note so you have somewhere to paste the link to.

That way everybody knows where the link will be to listen to the broadcast.

Only one person can listen at a time.

Waves Stream isn't meant to be a low-latency radio station where lots of people are listening in.

That's pretty much all it takes to get set up.

After you've hit go, the button will pop up and pulse until it shows that somebody has logged on and is listening to your stream.

Boom - you're now sharing your broadcast mix in almost real-time.

I have a video walking through how to setup Waves Stream step by step.

If you want to see a video demonstration of me setting up Waves Stream, check out this video:

I go over exactly how to set this up inside of Studio One and show a little bit of what this plugin can do.

Now, we're all thinking about it: Is it worth having another subscription?

I'm a big fan of just buying plugins and not worrying about paying monthly. However, this service requires servers and ongoing maintenance, so it's set up as a subscription.

You can get it standalone for $8.99 a month, or $88.88 a year. It's also available in the Waves Ultimate or Essential subscription.

Here's the real question: Is it worth paying about $90 a year to listen to your stream at low latency?

I think absolutely yes, and here's why.

If you're a sound volunteer, or even a sound professional, and you want to do a great job, you have to be able to hear stuff clearly to make great decisions.

As much as we would like to, you just can't do this in a room with a big PA system. Even with super good noise-canceling headphones, this is still a hurdle to overcome.

My Honest Opinion:

I think you should do it.

For a one-year subscription, it might cost you the same amount in 100-foot mic cables to go from the sound booth to someplace quiet where you can set up a headphone amp, and then mix remotely.

That's totally doable.

If you've got lots of cable and space and don't mind keeping your person in one spot, that's not a problem.

Go ahead and do that.

But if you want to save time and energy and make it so they can use whatever device they want, wherever they are - this might be a great option for you.

Another option might be Dante or some other digital audio networking device you can set up in a room someplace. But then you're going to have to use some proprietary hardware or another computer to be your digital-to-analog converter.

If you've already got that gear sitting around, sure; go ahead and use that.

But if you don't, the Waves Stream subscription is probably going to be worth it for you.

Now, if we're already subscribing to a service, we've got to ask the question - are we being a good steward by subscribing to an upgraded bundle like the Waves Essential subscription and making good use of our money?

Wave's Essential subscription is $149 a year, and it also includes Wave's Stream. In addition to that, it has five plugins that I think are super helpful for church services. They do things that most consoles don't do internally, so if you have a way to go back and forth with plugins - I'd recommend signing up for it.

Recommended Plugins

The first one I'd recommend is Waves Tune Realtime. This plugin is an absolute no-brainer. 

If you've heard a broadcast and heard pitchy vocals that sound great in the room, but they just sound a little bit off on the stream; it's an easy fix to get those vocals locked in and sounding natural without being distracting. It's not because you have bad singers. It can just be distracting to hear a hyper-focused vocal on a phone that's just a little bit out of tune. Waves Tune Realtime helps keep things sounding clean and consistent, even when your singers may not be completely on their A game. 

The next one that I like to use is Waves F6. It's really helpful for taming the high mid frequencies on vocals in a dynamic way; so they don't lose any clarity and don't hurt when people get very high and loud. 

Next up is Waves Silk Vocal. This kind of does the same thing as Waves F6 but with a couple of extra bells and whistles. It'll do stuff on the low end and the top end for your "s and t" sounds. It's just kind of an overall easy button for making your vocals sound polished, in a fast and effective way.

Number 4 is Wave's Vocal Rider, which (in my opinion) will transform the way the spoken word is heard at your church. It has all the blessings of compression with none of the artifacts, and you'll be amazed how you understood people without it after you've tried it for a little bit.

I know I was.

Finally, if you're doing a broadcast and want to make sure that your levels are up, Wave's Loudness Meter is great for making sure your LUFS, or Loudness Units Full Scale, are locked in. WLM helps keep your volume consistent between the music and speaking portions of the worship service for your online audience. This is a big problem for most churches, and this plugin does a great job of keeping your sound at a consistent level.

All five of these require about $29 each to buy their respective license. So that's about $145 in total. In my opinion, you might as well just upgrade it to $149 to rent them for an entire year.

Add to that Waves Stream service, and I think you've got a pretty good deal.

Now, I know everybody doesn't want another subscription, but I think this one fits the bill for less than $3 a Sunday.

That's half the price of a cup of coffee nowadays. 

No... I'm not saying to skip the coffee. But you get the point.

Conclusion

Waves Stream is something worth looking into if your console can run plugins in and out. If you want, you can literally mix your broadcast mix inside of your car.

Should you do that? Probably not, but being able to make changes to your mix anywhere the internet is available is a powerful tool. Not to mention being able to run Virtual Sound Check remotely over the internet - there are many possibilities and opportunities to use Waves Stream. I am excited to see how this will be used in the future.

If you want to help support Attaway Audio, you can click any of the Waves links attached to this blog post. When you click through and purchase any of these plugins, it generates a small commission for me at no additional cost to you. It's just one way you can say thanks for letting you know about all these great plugins, and the ways to use them to make your church easy to mix and sound awesome. :)

Remember; it's all about the low end, avoid the sound tech solo, and nobody leaves church humming the kick drum.

Stay safe out there, Sound Ninjas!
James