Gadgetory

st. Monica's church has been serving the Los Angeles area for more than a century but it's their use of high-tech live-streaming technology that's now helping the parish reach people as far as Germany and connect distant family members for special occasions it isn't a substitute for coming to a funeral or coming to a wedding but it does keep the connection of people and for people that cannot do it it's a wonderful opportunity the church's first live stream on Christmas 2012 got 20,000 views now they stream a weekly Sunday Mass that gets around 2500 views they also show a mix of weddings and memorial services we've buried all kinds of different people of different lives of faith and stuff because we're the largest church in the city of Santa Monica so it's a place where people come over the years a lot of people have asked me if their there was the capacity to livestream the church has full cameras - around the Ulta and - under the reacquire loft they are either stationary or robotic so there's no camera people roaming around during somber events it's really unobtrusive so people don't feel like they're on camera they don't feel like something is intruded upon what is a very difficult day a volunteer director in a control room switches the camera view and adds graphics for the livestream broadcast it's not as easy as holding up a phone to Skype or FaceTime st. Monica's has considered everything from syncing audio to bandwidth for HD streaming some of the legal aspects you are going to have to consider are the consents for the people entering the church usually you need some kind of general sign posted letting people know that the mass is being filmed the church charges a small fee to cover the streaming costs for funerals and weddings but it says it doesn't profit from it in Santa Monica Lexus Avedis cnet.com for CBS News