Best Practices Guide

Use direct audio feed wherever possible. Connect your audio source via USB to your church's mixing board and select it as your input device in Pewbeam (Go to Settings > Audio > Microphone). This gives Pewbeam a clean, isolated signal from your pastor's microphone with no room noise, echo, or background chatter.
Create a mix bus on your mixer that carries signal from your input channels and route it out through an XLR cable to your audio interface. The interface then connects to your laptop via USB.

In simple words: Plug an audio cable from your sound mixer into your laptop's audio interface (which connects to your laptop using a USB cable) so Pewbeam can hear your service's sound clearly.
If direct audio feed is not available, position your laptop or microphone as close to the speaker system or pulpit as possible.
Use the Input Gain (microphone sensitivity) slider in Settings > Audio to keep your audio meter in the green to yellow range. Avoid clipping into red.

Use a wired ethernet connection where possible. Wired connections are more reliable and lower latency than WiFi, especially in venues where many devices are connected to the same network.
If your church's internet is unreliable, keep a mobile hotspot as a backup.
Test transcription at least 10 to 15 minutes before the service starts to confirm the connection is stable.
Mac users on Plus or Core plans can switch to offline transcription mode in Settings > Audio > Transcription Mode if there is no internet connection.

Start transcribing before the sermon begins so Pewbeam captures context from the opening prayer and any scripture readings.
Pre-load key verses into the Queue using Bible Search if you know the sermon outline in advance. This gives your team verses ready to display regardless of connection status.
Test your theme on the actual output display, projector or external monitor, before the service. Colors and fonts can look different on a projector compared with your laptop screen.

Use Manual mode for services where your team wants full control over what appears on screen. Switch to Auto mode for rehearsals or informal settings where hands-off operation is preferred.
Watch the Recent Detections panel even in Manual mode. It shows you what Pewbeam is picking up so you can decide what to send live.
Use Context Search by pressing Tab to switch modes if the pastor goes somewhere unexpected and Recent Detections has not caught up yet.
Your pastor can switch Bible translations out loud mid-sermon. If he says "give me that in NLT" or "switch to ESV", Pewbeam will follow automatically.

You can set up custom voice commands in Settings > Audio > Voice Commands for phrases specific to how your pastor speaks.

Use the built-in themes as starting points. Duplicate a built-in theme and customize the copy rather than starting from scratch.
Keep verse text large, high contrast, and on a simple background. Avoid busy images that compete with the text.
Enable Text Autoscaling in the Theme Designer Layout tab to ensure longer verses always fit within the display frame without splitting.
Always test your theme on the actual output before the service. Use the HDMI preview or NDI to verify how it looks on the real screen.

Close other memory-heavy applications before starting a service. Pewbeam runs a local AI server for verse detection and performs best with dedicated resources.
If the app feels slow, reduce the broadcast frame rate from 60 to 24 FPS in the Outputs panel.
Keep Pewbeam updated to the latest version. Updates from pewbeam.com/download or the in-app update prompt include performance and detection improvements.

If transcription stops, check the audio meter in the Live Transcript panel. If bars are flat, check your microphone or audio input selection in Settings > Audio > Microphone.
If a verse is not displaying, confirm the LIVE button is active at the top of the app.
If the background is not clearing after a verse is removed, use the BLACK button instead of LIVE to send a clean black screen to your output.
If NDI is not showing in OBS or vMix, confirm both devices are on the same network and NDI output is enabled in the Outputs panel.