The streaming, recording, and re-watching of Death Care memorial events is becoming more and more a staple of what consumers are now expecting from their Death Care event professional.  And much like any new technology there are bound to be breakthroughs in how that service is provided as we move forward.

Earlier this week we received a press release from streaming company OneRoom informing us that they have released a “major upgrade to their streaming platform”.  The press release goes on to say that the new breakthroughs are “built around how people actually watch, revisit, and engage with online services today”.

OneRoom continues by saying, “(this) next-generation streaming experience, give(s) families a keepsake they will return to, and funeral homes a service they can charge for with confidence”.

According to OneRoom, these features work together to deliver a more modern and impactful way to experience a service online.  Here are some of the items that this new platform can provide:

 

● Chapters split the service into sections that follow the order of service, making it easy to jump to parts like tributes, readings, or reflections

● Key Moments provide short highlights from the most emotional or memorable parts of the service, making them easy to revisit

● Captions and Spanish translation for accessibility and silent viewing

● Subscription platform allows families and guests to self-manage access to the recording at any time in the future, retaining the full interactive experience

 

Both Brady Cox, OneRoom CEO and Justin Whatley, OneRoom’s Chief Revenue Officer, had prepared comments in the press release about these new features.  Here’s what they said:

Cox:  “Streaming has earned its place as a core part of the funeral experience. This release gives homes a professional, polished service
they can stand behind, and families a way to return to the people, words, and memories that meant the most.”

Whatley:  “It’s not just about remote access.  You are selling families an experience that they will value the next day and in the future. This release unlocks that value, both emotionally and commercially.”

You can experience OneRoom’s new guest experience by clicking here.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  What I would call the “Guest Experience” of watching a streamed service online continues to improve and this enhancement by OneRoom, especially the ability to watch and re-watch certain segments without viewing others, would be something I would make use of.

My father died 48 years ago and there was no recording of his service.  I was married in 1988 and we have a VHS tape of the event.  My mother died 14 years ago and we have a DVD recording of that service.

Neither of those are an “easy use” to watch in this day and age.  However, from my point of view as I think of this newer technology, the online streaming experience, especially using the “Chapter” splits would make watching the events easy and enjoyable — as simple as calling it up on my mobile phone screen.

And, strictly from a business perspective, although I don’t know exactly how it is done, OneRoom’s ability to have client families extend their access to the streaming platform of their memorial event, brings about something that has been hard to find in the Death Care business —  that is the potential for a monthly subscription platform for your services that could bring in ancilliary revenue.

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You can’t read the newspaper or hear the television news without hearing of some new technology that is moving Artificial Intelligence forward.  Well, if you are keeping up with Death Care on a daily basis, you will also notice that technology is moving forward fast and furious to help funeral service professionals everyday.

The latest news that I heard was livestream technology company OneRoom and its innovation to solve “long-standing music copyright risk” during recorded services.

You can learn of OneRoom’s new innovative technology here.

According to a press release from OneRoom that we received this week, “For years, funeral homes have faced a legal risk when recording and sharing services that include copyright music. It’s a well-known issue within the industry, one with no clear solution, until now. OneRoom’s new built-in Music Copyright Protection feature removes the exposure entirely, making recorded services safe to share while preserving the integrity of the experience.”

Again, as noted in a statement in the press release, International Cemetery, Cremation, and Funeral Association (ICCFA) General Counsel Poul Lemasters says this about the issue, “Once the live event and stream are over, then the licenses no longer cover any additional publication if the music is part of the service. This means that if you choose to record the service and post it on your site, the music must be muted, because neither license allows a recording and playback of copyrighted music”.

The press release from OneRoom goes on to say, “OneRoom’s Music Copyright Protection solves that. Music plays in full during the livestream. Then, in the recording, only copyrighted songs are muted, everything spoken remains untouched. Guests watching the service can see a discreet on-screen message showing the song title and artist, with a link to listen on YouTube.”

Brady Cox, CEO of OneRoom made this prepared comment in the press release, “This has been a known risk in the industry for years, but no one had solved it.  We’ve built a solution that’s respectful to the experience, no effort for the funeral home, and includes a playlist with links that keeps the experience whole for guests, so they can still listen to the music. It’s compliant, and it takes the worry off the table.”

The feature will roll out to existing OneRoom customers over the coming months. There’s no setup required and no extra cost.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  As I alluded to in the first paragraph of this article, technology is rapidly moving forward in the Death Care space.  As a provider of Death Care news, I get press releases almost every day of some new technology feature available for Death Care providers.

I find myself thinking that the disposition of the dead human body is pretty much the same — burials and crematations, with a few other options now available.  However, the technology to help funeral service professionals handle the different tasks of caring for that person and also for providing the services and communication that survivors find necessary is changing every single day.

I’m a firm believer that the way funeral homes and cemeteries acquire, serve, and retain future clientele is changing drastically.  And, technology will be a big factor in how you do those things. . . . . it might even be that those that can capture the “technology savvy” consumer will have a leg-up on the competition when it comes to market share.

My advice, especially for the older, more traditional funeral directors like myself. . . .is that you cannot afford to put your head in the sand when thinking about technology.  My hunch, is that if you do, your competitors may zoom right past you.

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