Saying farewell to a loved one is incredibly hard.
We rely on the ritual of a funeral or farewell ceremony – both to honour our loved one and also to support one another through this time of grief.
Regrettably, the Coronavirus has added an additional and heavy burden on families and friends at this time. Social distancing requirements currently allow only 10 family members and friends to attend a funeral ceremony.
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Private Or Public Live Stream + HD Tribute Video
1 Minute Media offer professional video production services so that family and friends, who are not able to attend your loved one’s ceremony, will be able to view the ceremony remotely.
We are a team of video production specialists with a decade of experience in event video production. Our team are honoured and committed to helping families and friends farewell their loved ones respectfully with the support of your broader community at home. Whether this audience is private or public is up to you. For the permanent tribute video you can decide if you would like components removed for your privacy, or other components added to your tribute. 1 Minute Media will respect your wishes at all times, and what is published for your loved one, is always up to you.
Did You Know That Approximately 90% Of Your Loved One’s Community Will View The Ceremony In The Days That Follow?
COVID-19 has shown us that two new services have emerged as extremely important to our farewell ritual. The live stream of your loved one’s ceremony has become an almost essential component for family and friends due to the COVID-19 restrictions. As a result of this, family and friends have come to realise how important it is to provide your loved one’s community with a permanent video tribute. We have seen that approximately 10% of people tune in to view the ceremony live, while as many as 90% will view the ceremony tribute video within the days/weeks that follow. Even family members who have been among the 10 attendees on the day have expressed to us that the permanent tribute video has offered them great comfort to view again and again after the ceremony.
The Importance Of The HD Permanent Tribute Video
In an example of one community’s appreciation of the availability of a beautiful permanent video, on 30 April 2020, 1 Minute Media live streamed the Funeral Mass of Father Patrick McAuliffe. Father Pat was the beloved Parish Priest of The Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Cabramatta for 40 years. The Most Reverend Bishop Anthony Fisher presided over the Service that only 10 parishioners could attend. Approximately 800 community members viewed our live stream of the Funeral Mass. Within three days, 9000 further community members had viewed Father Pat’s permanent tribute video that we provided on the same link within 24 hours of the Funeral.
We have found this to be the same viewing pattern for each live stream and permanent tribute video that we have produced during COVID-19, whether private or public.
1 Minute Media’s tribute video is a beautiful high definition edit of the Funeral Mass with additional coverage not included in the live stream. Importantly, this edited tribute version becomes a permanent record for family and friends for generations to come.
The Options For Live Streaming
There are two broad options to the live stream component of your loved one’s service or ceremony.
Option A: A Family Member Can Live Stream Using A Smart Phone Or IPad
An attendee can film and live stream your loved one’s service directly through a smart phone or Ipad. While this option should allow people who can’t attend the service to view the service in general, unfortunately it can be frustrating for viewers due to poor quality camera footage and sound quality.
For example a single phone or iPad camera can’t adequately capture the full ceremony details, such as an audio visual screen. The sound quality recorded at a distance from the celebrant/priest/pastor may not transmit or record clearly for those who are viewing live or later.
We’ve been informed that in the early stages of the Coronavirus shut down that mourners and also some funeral directors have tried this option. It’s understandable due to the sudden and unexpected regulations brought by the Coronavirus that loved one’s would try to live stream from a device, but in hindsight would choose not to do this due to the complications with quality.
This option generally doesn’t provide a beautiful, permanent video tribute.
Option B: Professional Live Streaming – Video Production By 1 Minute Media
This is the option that our 1 Minute Media team can help you with.
As experienced event videographers we are able to provide a team of at least two professionals to operate two high resolution cameras, with wide angled and zoom lenses, professional sound recording/transmission equipment, a mixer to directly feed audio-visual displays and a switcher to transition between the cameras and the audio-visual. Our team are considered in the government regulations as “workers” and won’t impact on your attendee numbers. We work with clergy/celebrant and families to ensure our services comply with the updated guidelines on social distancing as well as disinfecting all of our equipment prior and after filming.
Following the main ceremony we also offer you the option of recording your loved ones committal ceremony, for those who are restricted from attending, to view later. We don’t live stream this due to remote location reasons, instead we edit the filming with music and will upload this within 24 hours as part of your permanent video tribute.
What Are The Costs?
We understand that this is an enormously difficult time to farewell a loved one – due not only to social restrictions, but also to the economic hardship accompanying our societies efforts to contain the Coronavirus. We have considered this in our fees for our services and offer these to your family at approximately half the rate of our normal, large event live-streaming services.
Our fees are $1200+gst for live stream of the main service as well as the edited HD video tribute; and an additional fee of between $250 – $350 for the committal service (depending on the distance from the main ceremony).
What If My Live Stream Drops Out? Our Back Up Solutions
It’s very important to be aware that live streaming from some locations, such as more remote chapels, those that are a distance from, or with no direct NBN line, can be challenging. We provide portable Telstra 4G devices. However, some locations may not even receive reliable 4G. This may be due to complete lack of coverage, or it may be the volume of users in weaker coverage areas, such as many Zoom conferences, or Google Classrooms, occurring locally during COVID-19 shutdown. In these cases, our team will be monitoring coverage and will drop the streaming resolution to try to maintain streaming. However, sometimes drop out may still occur. We will try to switch to the back up link we’ve provided if we lose our stream. No matter what, our team will continue to record the full ceremony and will edit and upload a beautiful high-resolution video within 24 hours that will remain a permanent tribute to your loved one.
How It Works
1. Schedule
Our team are notified either directly by a family member, or through your Funeral Director, Clergy, or Celebrant. We will create two links with place-holder images, on Vimeo. We recommend Vimeo (Professional) due to it being a dedicated video platform, as it has proven more reliable than non-dedicated platforms, such as Facebook for video streaming and for retaining your permanent video.
2. Invite Links
The family or community member organizing the service will receive an email invitation with two links: the main service link and a back up link, should the network cause a live stream interruption. These links can be forwarded to your loved one’s whole community.
3. Live Stream: 10% – 20% Of Your Loved One’s Will View The Live Service
When the service begins, cameras begin streaming and recording. Approximately 10% – 20% of your loved one’s community will view the service live. Our team will reduce the resolution of the live stream as needed in order to maintain the stream. Sometimes due to high local network use the stream will drop out, especially if the chapel or church rely on remote internet sources. Our team will switch to your back up link in this case. We will always be recording the full service in high definition and will work around the clock to provide a beautifully edited version of your video within 24 hours.
4. Beautifully Edited HD Tribute Video: 80%-90% Views
Our team will replace the lower resolution live stream video with a polished HD video, with extra scenes such as Committal Ceremonies within 24 hours of the service. This updated version is extremely important and is generally viewed by a much larger audience than the live-stream. In our experience during COVID-19, the high res video is viewed at least 80% – 90% more than the live stream. This video of the service is accessible through the same email invitation and can be downloaded to share for generations to come.
If you have any questions about anything regarding these services, please don’t hesitate to contact me on 1300 905 205 or 0402 449 393.
Thank you
Kathy Moran
Co-Founder of 1 Minute Media
Phone me directly on 0402 449 393
