Bitfocus Companion for Churches: One Button Panel for Your Whole AV System

The problem: every device has its own controls

A typical church booth has a streaming computer, a sound board, a projector or two, PTZ cameras, a slides computer, and maybe a lighting console. Each has its own software, its own remote, its own menus. Running Sunday means knowing all of them.

That’s why church AV often depends on one person. It isn’t that the gear is bad. It’s that nothing ties it together in a way a new volunteer can understand.

What Companion does

Bitfocus Companion is free, open-source software that lets you build your own button panel for your whole system. Each button can do one thing, or a whole sequence:

• “Pastor Wide” cuts OBS to the wide camera and recalls a PTZ preset.
• “Start Service” starts the stream and the recording, turns on the projector, and unmutes the pastor’s mic.
• “Prayer” switches to the prayer slide and dims the stage.

Buttons can also show what’s happening: a button turns red while you’re live, or shows which camera is on air. That feedback is what makes it volunteer-friendly.

Where the buttons live

• An Elgato Stream Deck or another control surface on the booth desk.
• Any tablet or phone, through Companion’s built-in web buttons page. An inexpensive Android tablet can become a touch panel. (See a touch control panel with an Android tablet.)
• Inside WorshipMetrics, in Present’s Companion tab. (See Companion buttons inside WorshipMetrics.)

What it can control

Companion connects to hundreds of products through modules. For churches, the useful ones usually include:

Gear	Examples
Streaming and switching	OBS, vMix, ATEM switchers
Presentation	ProPresenter, and WorshipMetrics Present through its command addresses
Cameras	PTZ cameras over VISCA and many brand-specific modules
Projectors and displays	Projectors that support PJLink and many brand modules
Audio	Many networked digital sound boards
Anything else on the network	Generic HTTP, OSC, and TCP commands

More detail: controlling projectors, PTZ cameras, and mixers with Companion.

Why it matters for churches

• Volunteers can do more. A button that says “Start Service” is something anyone can press. The complexity is built once, by someone who understands it, and then everyone benefits.
• It fits the three-seat setup. Each seat (director, slides, cameras) gets its own page of buttons. (See the three-seat setup.)
• It makes a complicated system easier without a custom control system. Many churches can build a simple, reliable control panel themselves. (See making church AV easy to run without hiring an AV company.)
• It costs very little. Companion is free. A tablet or a Stream Deck is the only hardware.

Getting started

1. Install Companion on the booth computer or a small dedicated computer.
2. Add connections for your gear, starting with OBS or vMix. (Guides: OBS + Companion · vMix + Companion)
3. Build one page for Sunday morning with the six to twelve buttons you use every week.
4. Label in plain words and test with someone who’s never run the booth. (See designing Companion pages for volunteers.)

How WorshipMetrics builds it in

WorshipMetrics Present works with Companion in three ways:

• A Companion tab that shows your Companion buttons right inside Present, found automatically on the church network by Tech Manager.
• Slides that press buttons: a slide can press a Companion button when it goes live, so the “Prayer” slide can also dim the stage.
• Buttons that drive Present: a Companion button can advance slides, go to a slide, black out, start a timer, or run a macro.

Details and setup: Companion buttons inside WorshipMetrics.

Using a Blackmagic ATEM? Splitting ATEM Mini jobs for church volunteers. See also Bitfocus Companion + ATEM.

The big picture: church livestream setup: what you need, OBS vs. vMix vs. ATEM, and a booth volunteers can run.