Like many churches around the world, our local Uniting Church in Brisbane, Southside Uniting, quickly sought ways to maintain contact and support for our congregations while having to temporarily cease normal worship gatherings. Our website (ssuc.org.au) has links to our Facebook page and both have good information to help people connect with our ministry team. We commenced doing church on line on Sunday 22 March 2020, and this developed over the next few weeks. We encouraged folk to contact those who may not be internet-savvy and invite them to share in worship in their homes.

Initially we pre-recorded services and scheduled the webcasts at our usual Sunday service times using the Church Online platform. This provided for on-line interaction with our team while the webcast was screening. Worship songs were recorded in batches every few weeks and edited with captions. The equipment included Blackmagic Ursa Mini and small studio cameras, led fresnel lighting and a Sound Devices mixer/recorder. A weekly document with prayer suggestions and supporting activities was emailed a few days ahead as well as being published on our website. Later in the year we also produced a short weekly news item which was included in the pre-recorded service.

By 2021 we had switched to live streaming each Sunday, and once face-to-face worship became “the norm” the weekly news items were also screened during each worship service at our four sites. Live streaming continued throughout 2021, 2021 and into 2023, reaching those who are unable to attend or prefer not to until they feel comfortable. Most  weeks we use PTZ Optics and Blackmagic cameras, a digital stagebox mixing the venue mics split before the house mixer, and a wide range of BMD recorders and playout, router and switcher, all controlled via Skaarhoj surfaces