We used this method when we first started with live sound from temples, and had problem after problem. Complaint after complaint from listeners. So we learned from our mistakes and warmly advise you, dear reader, don't do it. Yes, it's the cheapest option. But you get what you pay for.
First and foremost, when the sound system is turned off, you hear nothing on the live webcast. So during the day, during noon arati, etc, or when devotees are singing non-amplified bhajans, the web visitor doesn't hear anything. Visitors come to your live page 24 hours a day, from different time zones around the world. The instinct of the visitor is to click on "live sound" when they visit the temple webcam and hear the ambient live sound from that temple.
If your temple is anything like ours, most of the day there is no amplified sound. But there's ambient sound. Visitors expect to hear the arati bells ringing, the Prabhupada CD playing softly in the background, the devotees chanting japa, the devotee kirtaniya leading noon arati... Whatever you would hear if you were physically present in the temple room at any given time of day. For those living far away from temples, this is the next best thing. Virtual temples. Visitors expect the live experience. (I can't stress this enough. We've received dozens of complaint emails from people who thought the live sound was broken, because it was hardly ever working, in their experience. In other words, most visitors to your live webcast will log in from time zones around the world at times other than your temple morning program, when it's convenient for them. Their lunch break. Their evening. Which may be in the middle of the day at your temple. Or at night. The visitors expect to hear live sound that matches the picture. Ambient temple room background noise is fine. That's what they expect when there's nothing going on.)
Secondly, the temple sound system volume settings are constantly changing. You have no remote control over the levels during your broadcast. We used to employ this method. During the first two years of the Alachua temple webcast we had avalanches of complaints with the sound volume being too high, too low, at various times of the day, because of dozens of people having access to the temple sound system... pujaris adjusting the volume of the bhajan CDs, etc. The kirtan would be too loud, the lecture too low... We would have to drive to the temple from our office twice a day to adjust the volume of the webcast.
Last but not least, the "buzz" effect. We used to have all sorts of problems with ground loop hum introduced from poor electrical grounding in the temple building. Connecting to the temple sound system almost always meant a low hum or buzz over the top of everything we broadcast. And we invested in top-of-the-line ground loop eliminators, hum removal filters, etc. Nothing fixed it until we just completely got rid of the connection to the temple sound system and set up our own, independent microphones broadcasting 24/7/365 directly to the Internet. (We currently employ suggestion #2 above, using overhead choir mics, the Presonus Inspire, into a Firewire enabled laptop computer that is permanently connected to the Internet. Our laptop is enclosed in a ventilated, locked cabinet installed in the temple room. We have a permanent fixed IP address on the Internet connection at the temple, and are able to access the broadcast laptop from anywhere on the Internet. We could be sitting in China somewhere and control the volume on the Alachua temple webcast.)
Finally, don't be tempted to do the opposite. I.e. provide pre-recorded music on your live feed when there's no kirtan or lecture going on in the temple room. I write this from experience. Some webcasts still do this. It has the same effect on the visitor. Complaint after complaint that the live sound is "broken" because the visitor sees a devotee sitting in the temple room doing soft kirtan, and they're hearing a loud festival kirtan recording that doesn't match the picture. Or there is nothing going on in the temple room and they're hearing a lecture or kirtan... they write and complain that the sound is different from the live picture, and is there something wrong with their computer? Why aren't they hearing the "live sound"?
If you would like to offer pre-recorded lectures and kirtanas from your temple, we recommend you do so on a separate, dedicated audio stream with its own link. Let the live sound link be just that: live.
Back to Krishna.com "How to set up streaming audio from your temple" tutorial...