Last night and this morning I came across two articles on major news sites referring to the use of webcasts for funerals. A webcast means the ability to take live video from cameras and convert the information so that anyone with a web browser can sit at their computer and view the activity. You will find links to the articles below.
Perhaps at a later time I will more thoroughly organize my thoughts about webcasting. For now, here's a couple of things to think about if you find the concept fascinating.
* In offering a webcast to families, you make a very complicated promise. Family members will get notified across the country and they will expect to see the show. As with any technology driven process, things will go wrong. You and your staff will need to know how to troubleshoot problems in order to keep the broadcast going. Maybe your internet goes down in the middle of the funeral or someone unplugs something accidentally or the webcasting service has trouble with their servers or maybe you're serving a military funeral for someone killed in the gulf war and the system gets overwhelmed with viewers. Someone on staff will need to handle those things while the funeral director is trying to run the funeral. Not impossible, but this stuff is not foolproof and requires technical know how.
* Lighting, camera angles, zooms and pans, you have just entered the broadcast video business. It will take training (or hiring a couple people from the local cable company) to end up with a broadcast that looks professional. I think the novelty of a single camera pointed at the podium while the minister speaks will get old in a hurry. Thing is, most people know what a television broadcast is supposed to look like. It will take training and practice to produce a broadcast with the same level of professionalism you provide in the running of your funerals. The two ought to match up in quality.
* Permissions: Check with your legal professional and learn what privacy concerns a webcast may trigger in your state. Participants in the funeral may have the right to refuse having their image broadcast around the world.
* It will take some serious equipment to do a really fine job. Certainly you can prop a few cameras on stands in the parlor and run wires along the floor and manage to webcast the funeral. Most directors I know would not want the clutter and the mess in the way. In that case, you will need ceiling or wall mounted remote cameras and a central control booth. That will take some money.
These are a few devil's advocate thoughts in relation to webcasts. I would suppose in some parts of the country (Silicon Valley and other technology centers for instance) you would find a true competitive advantage and financial reward for putting together webcasts for families. In those instances, where engineers work with colleagues from all over the world, demand might justify the installation and operating expense. For many though, a big distraction which will add operating cost for very little return. Above all, if you decide to head in that direction, experiment and practice A LOT!!! Broadcasts don't just happen. Good broadcasts (such as you see from the local television station) require many skilled people. Make sure you take the time to develop a few skills of your own or a minor technical glitch could turn into a major customer service failure.
ABC Online: Online Funerals a Growing Trend?
Engadget: Irish Undertaker Offers Webcasts
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Follow up thought: When we start to see families themselves come in with video cameras and later post the resulting recording on YouTube.com, then we will know we have some demand for the service. If you have an anecdote about a family doing this at your funeral home, please tell the story using the comments link just below. I would love to collect a few of those stories and watch how the need does (or does not) unfold.
I did look quickly on YouTube.com to see if a funeral video popped up. I did not happen to see one in the first few pages of search results. If you know of one, post the link in the comments so I can take a look. Thanks.
We regularly have families video visitations and services. Our Filipino and Eastern European clients do this on most funerals.
When asked why they reply they wanted a permanent record of the funeral and to send the video to overseas relatives. I am sure some of these are sent via the web. We are talking about at least 50-70 funerals a year that are videoed. I have offered to get a professional in to video but this seems to be an assigned family member job or at least not something they would pay for.
Posted by: Bob Smith | March 14, 2007 at 06:50 PM
We have been webcasting mainstream ministries since 1997 and I would have to say that there is a learning curve so you can feel confident in what you are doing. If the webcasting service that provides these services are worth a grain of salt they will take all the time needed, to help, educate, and be there in a time of need. As with the funeral industry and their passion to serve people in need, there are people out here looking to serve them as well.
Webcasting is one of the most powerful tools available in all of communications and the most affordable.
The late Dr. Jerry Falwell told me this, Since we have been webcasting, and at the time that was only about two years, we have reached more people in those two years than we did in 25 with satellite television. In 1998 it was technically difficult to pull off one of the largest webcasts known to date and that was the Billy Graham Tampa Bay Crusade. Noone had done it or even thought of it. Today you will be hard pressed to find television ministries not webcasting. Today it is 1000% easier and the quality and streaming bitrates only continue to rise.
The same goes for the funeral home. They can buck it all they want, the ministries did, but the need soon outgrew the misconceptions. It is inevitable that there will be a camera in the majority of funeral homes throught the country and every country for that matter, at least in military towns and cultured cities like San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Va. Beach, all throughout southern Florida, Texas, Washington DC and so on. When a funeral happens here, it should be seen by the families and friends that knew the person, whether 30 miles from home or 3000.
The future will expect the home to have it and the public I believe will demand it as we move toward the future. We will come to a time in the future that anyone without one will be an antique and probably not doing much business and the general public worldwide wont remember a time without them.
I have dear uncles and aunts that I grew up with that if they die, I probably would never have the extra money to attend, but I would love the opportunity to see my family and listen and watch as the eulogize them.
I think it is an excellent idea. Countries like England, Australia, Canada, the US, Ireland, Spain, and others i have not found yet obviously find it a good idea too.
Getting back to the technical, in 11 years of webcasting, we have spent years educating our clients, the technology is simple. We have installed everything from start to finish if a client really has zero experience with computers. But if you know how to use a computer, you can be taught to click a few buttons and name a file. The hardest part is saving a file and uploading it to a server if the family wants it on demand. Takes about 2 minutes. As far as catostrophic failure, in 11 years of business we can count on one hand anything that went wrong and when it did it was fixed with a phone call. So is there a possibility of a bad storm knocking out your internet on either side of the webcast. There is always a possibility of technical difficulties, but if folks use a good reliable service, instead of trying to figure it out on their own or go with a fly by night server farm with zero support, then the funeral home industry as well as all industry will be fine and the potential is overwhelming. It really is easy folks
To close, thirty days ago, we were looking at taking on some new clients, something we havent done in 5 years. I had been talking to someone who had mentioned someones funeral they wished they could have attended, and a light went on, I see the light has been on for a few years in the funeral industry. A hand full of businesses recognize the potential, but in our experience and from our perspective we only see them looking at short term and try to make too much money from it too fast. Webcasting is the most affordable media available and the most powerful. Every home can afford it and could give it away if they so chose making it a value added service, or they can charge a premium for the service and make the profit on it. After investigating the subject further, we have chose to expand our market to the funeral home industry, I have not met too many people that say they would not attend an online funeral if it was impossible for them to attend in person. This will not replace people, I think this is a fear, that people are just going to stay home. COME ON! if you are willing to watch a funeral on the Internet, surely if you could be there you would or why watch at all? makes no sense. People in time of grief will move mountains to be at people's funerals, this is for those whose mountains just didn't move.
I would be happy to answer any questions anyone might have.
Sorry my response is longer than your article.
I am sure you saw April 1, 2008 article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23898318/
Posted by: Dale Ficken | April 06, 2008 at 05:08 AM