At NLE Resources, we field inquiries from rabbis, educators, and nonprofit professionals asking us all sorts of questions.
One particular question that we have been asked on more than one occasion is, “I’m looking for a way to livestream my shiurim and events. I’m not a ‘tech-geek’ and I am looking for an easy and simple way to allow my students and congregants to always attend the shiur—even if they are sick or traveling for business or pleasure. What sites or services do you recommend?”
Below, are five suggestions that our readership of rabbis and educators from around the globe will benefit from knowing about. Much thanks to Hillel Fuld and Nir Ben Yona Shein for helping us assemble this list.
- Ustream: This company, founded in 2007, provides video streaming services to more than 80 million viewers and broadcasters. It also claims to be the “leading HD streaming video platform.” While you will have to pay a nominal fee to use Ustream, you may decide that it best suits the needs of your small or large organization. You can read more about it here.
- Livestream: This site used to be called Mogulus and is similar to Ustream. It is a live streaming video platform that allows users to view and broadcast video content using a camera and a computer through the internet. Click here to see how OurJewishCommunity.org is using this site.
- Spreecast: This site is used by the likes of ESPN and offers a free service for individuals who want to try out the platform for non-commercial use. That said, while your shiurim and events will be archived and accessible for seven days after the live event was broadcasted, this version will expose your viewers to ads. To that end, you can read more about pricing options here that will provide your viewers with ad-free viewing.
- Google+: Recently, Google released its Google+ Hangouts “On Air” feature, which lets users broadcast to the Google+ network, YouTube and any other website where the video is embedded. Using Google+ is easy and will allow any rabbi or educator to embed all of the shiurim on his or her organization’s website. To learn how to do so, see here. For an example of how this will look, see Rabbi Dovid Miller’s use of it featured on this NLEResources.com page. You can also see how ELI Talks is using the Google+ platform by clicking here and here.
Keep in mind: even if you go with a site that will charge you a monthly fee, you can try and recoup this charge by turning to your congregants and students and asking them to dedicate the online learning in the memory of a loved one or an upcoming anniversary. See the Torch Torah Channel as an example of this idea.
We hope that you’ve found this roundup helpful. We’re always happy to hear from you and help you move your organization in a positive direction. Hatzlacha!
