A practical guide to sharing your simchah on screens near and far
Not all Internet filters allow users to access YouTube, though some will open a specific link for a specific time if your guests request it. So while Zoom has become a mostly kosher option for virtual meetings and participation, not everyone on your guest list may be able to participate if you stream via YouTube.
Also, in contrast to Zoom, participants can’t see each other. While this is a plus for some (see the Zoom downsides), it meant that when Mrs. Schwartz went to say mazel tov and thank you to her guests, she had no idea who or how many people she was talking to. The account holder — in this case Vigan — does receive a record of IP addresses that accessed the link, but once it’s down, it’s down.
Chaim Rosen of L’Chaim Studios Lakewood touts livestream.com as the way to go if you’re livestreaming a wedding. It’s a solid platform with many features, and it’s been in use for many years pre-corona to allow elderly grandparents — and in one memorable case, a hospitalized mother — to participate in their children’s wedding. Rosen absolutely recommends livestreaming over options like Zoom, which he says, became popular because of our unfortunate familiarity with distance learning. But Zoom was not set up for livestreaming of this type; its fundamental feature is remote meeting collaboration.
When Rosen livestreams a wedding, he sends out an exclusive link to the baalei simchah, and they forward it to their guest list. As he walks around videoing the wedding, he has a designated technician making sure everything is working properly. And each stage of the wedding (badeken, chuppah, etc.) is posted as a separate video, so those who joined late can go back and view them afterward.
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