Live now: put your livestream on your website

The Live now block shows your livestream on any page of your website at your service times. Before a service it counts down (“Starts in 4:32”). At the start time, or a few minutes early if you choose, the player appears on its own. Afterwards it offers a Watch the replay link. Set it up once; it works every week without you touching it.

What visitors see

When	What the block shows
During a service	Live now, with the player in the page (or a Watch live button, if you choose that layout)
Just before, if you open early	Live now and the player, from the minutes you set before the start
Shortly before a service	A countdown, “Starts in 4:32” (or “Opens in 4:32”), and “Next live: Sunday 10:00 AM”
For a while after a service	Watch the replay, and when you are next live
The rest of the week	“Next live: Sunday 10:00 AM” and your message, such as “Join us online every Sunday”

The switch happens at the exact second the player opens (your start time, or earlier if you choose) and when your service ends. A visitor who is watching the countdown does not need to refresh: the page reloads itself when the player opens. Nobody’s sound starts on its own; a visitor presses play.

Set it up

1. Go to Website, open the page you want (most churches use the home page or a “Watch” page), and choose Add block → Live now.
2. Heading: what the section is called, such as “Watch online”.
3. Layout: Player in the page plays your stream on your website. Watch live button sends people to your stream on YouTube or Vimeo instead.
4. Stream from: choose YouTube or Vimeo. Resi, BoxCast and Facebook are listed as Coming soon and can’t be chosen yet; see “Coming soon: Resi, BoxCast and Facebook” below.
5. Stream address: paste your stream’s address. Use one that stays the same every week (see the table below), so you never have to change it. You can also paste a whole embed code from your provider; HoW keeps only the address inside it. If you paste a YouTube address with Vimeo chosen (or the other way round), HoW switches it for you.
6. Times are in (only if your church has campuses): leave it on your church’s time zone, or choose a campus if that campus streams on its own local time. See “Campuses in other time zones” below.
7. When you are live: add a row for each service: the day, the start time and how many minutes you are live. You can add up to 14 services a week, such as Sunday 9:00 and 11:00 and Wednesday 7:00 PM.
8. Open the player … minutes early: 0 unless you change it, up to 60. Set it to, say, 10 if your stream starts with a countdown video or music before the service; visitors can press play that long before your start time. See “Opening the player early” below.
9. Count down before each service: on by default. Start the countdown sets how long before the player opens it appears (60 minutes unless you change it; anywhere from 1 minute to a week).
10. Show the replay link for: how many hours after each service the Watch the replay link stays up (24 unless you change it; 0 turns the replay link off; up to 168 hours, which is a week).
11. Replay link: where Watch the replay goes, such as your sermons page (/sermons) or your YouTube channel’s past streams. Leave it empty to send people to the stream’s own address.
12. Message while you are not live (optional).
13. Press Done, then Save changes, then Publish. Use Preview first if you like.

Which address to paste

Provider	Address that stays the same every week	Plays in the page?
YouTube	Your channel’s live address: https://www.youtube.com/@YourChurch/live, or https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC…/live	Yes
Vimeo	A recurring event: https://vimeo.com/event/…	Yes

A single video’s address works too (a YouTube watch?v= or youtu.be link, or a Vimeo video), for a church that pastes this week’s link each week.

YouTube handles

Paste your channel’s handle address exactly as YouTube shows it, for example https://www.youtube.com/@FreeChapelOC. HoW looks up which channel that handle belongs to and shows Found: channel UC… under the address. That lookup happens once, when you add the address; your website never has to ask YouTube anything while a visitor is waiting.

If HoW cannot find the channel (a typo in the handle, or YouTube not answering), it says so under the address, with a Find channel again button. You can always paste your channel’s own address instead: on YouTube, open your channel, choose More about this channel, then Share channel → Copy channel ID, and paste https://www.youtube.com/channel/ followed by the ID, then /live.

Coming soon: Resi, BoxCast and Facebook

Resi, BoxCast and Facebook appear under Stream from with a Coming soon badge. They aren’t available yet because their players may set their own cookies or track your visitors (Facebook’s player sets Facebook’s cookies), and DCX Logic is checking with its lawyers what your privacy notice would need to say before HoW offers them. If you paste one of their addresses, HoW tells you “Facebook streams are coming soon. For now, choose YouTube or Vimeo.”

Meanwhile, most streaming services can also send your stream to YouTube or Vimeo at the same time; use that address here. YouTube is played through its privacy-enhanced (no-cookie) player.

The countdown

The countdown appears inside the time you set before the player opens (an hour unless you change it): “Starts in 4:32”, “Starts in 2:04:32” when it is more than an hour away, or “Starts in 2 days 3 hours” for a long lead. At zero the page reloads itself and the player appears.

Opening the player early

Many churches start their stream a few minutes before the service with a countdown video or worship music. Set Open the player … minutes early (0 to 60) and the block shows Live now and the player that many minutes before each service’s start time. It ends at the same time as before (start time plus the minutes you are live).

While the player opens early, the countdown counts to the moment it opens and says “Opens in 4:32” rather than “Starts in”, so nobody thinks the service itself starts sooner. “Next live: Sunday 10:00 AM” still shows your real start time. With 0 (the default) the player opens at your start time and the countdown says “Starts in”.

If your stream already shows its own countdown (many churches run a countdown video before the service), turn Count down before each service off so visitors don’t see two. The block then just says “Next live: Sunday 10:00 AM” until you go live.

For people using screen readers, the countdown is not read out every second; they hear “Live now” once when the player opens. Nothing on the block moves except the numbers.

Campuses in other time zones

Service times are in your church’s time zone unless you choose a campus under Times are in. Choose a campus when it streams on its own local time: a church in New York with a campus in Los Angeles that streams at 9:00 Los Angeles time picks that campus, enters 9:00, and the block goes live at 9:00 Pacific (noon in New York). The block then says “(West Campus time)” under the schedule so visitors aren’t confused. Daylight saving time is handled for each zone on its own.

A campus’s time zone is set under Campuses. If the campus you chose is later archived, the block uses your church’s time zone.

Good to know

• How exact is it? The block switches at the second the player opens, when your service ends, and when the replay link ends. Your website is checked against the clock on every visit.
• Services that cross midnight work (Saturday 11:30 PM for an hour is live until 12:30 AM Sunday).
• Changing your times takes effect when you publish the page, within about 30 seconds.
• Several streams on one page: add one Live now block per stream, each with its own address and times.
• Private streams: the address and times are public, as they are on your provider’s own page. If a stream must be private, use your provider’s own privacy settings.
• Limits: up to 14 services a week, each from 5 minutes to 6 hours long.

If something isn’t right

• “Not a YouTube stream address” (or Vimeo): the address isn’t one that provider uses for a stream. The help under the field shows the right form.
• “… streams are coming soon”: the address is from Resi, BoxCast or Facebook, which aren’t available yet. Use your YouTube or Vimeo address.
• The player is blank during the service: check that you are actually live on your provider, and, for YouTube, that your stream is public (not unlisted) and that embedding is allowed in YouTube Studio. For Vimeo, check that the event’s or video’s privacy settings let it be embedded on other sites.
• It went live at the wrong time: check Times are in, Open the player … minutes early, and the campus’s time zone under Campuses. Your church’s own time zone can be changed by the church owner in Settings → Time zone.

What DCX support can do

With your permission, DCX support can open a support session on your church to look at the block with you, check the address and times, and see why a stream is or isn’t showing. HoW keeps nothing about who watched.

How this compares with Planning Center

If you’re coming from Planning Center Publishing:

• Same idea: weekly default times and an address that stays the same every week (Planning Center’s recommended setup too).
• Providers: Planning Center supports “Youtube, Vimeo, Resi, Boxcast”. HoW supports YouTube and Vimeo today; Resi, BoxCast and Facebook are coming soon.
• No weekly episodes: in Planning Center you create an episode each week; in HoW the block runs on its own from your weekly times.
• On your own website: the block goes on any page of your church’s site, not a separate channel page.
• Opening early: Planning Center’s countdown minutes “start the stream a set number of minutes before the episode’s start time”; HoW’s Open the player … minutes early does the same, and HoW also counts down on the page (“Opens in 4:32”).
• Replays: HoW shows a replay link automatically for the hours you choose after each service.
• Campus time zones: each Live now block can follow a campus’s time zone.