Recordpub.com - Technology brings funerals closer to home: Green's Family Funeral Home in Mantua offering webcasts of services

By Diane Smith

Record-Courier staff writer

MANTUA — One morning at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., employees gathered to attend the funeral of a friend who had worked with them for 15 years.

So they went to a computer to call up the Web site for Green’s Family Funeral Home, which arranged services for Marian Bayless of Deerfield.

There, they could find a collage of photos of their friend set to music, her obituary, and the broadcast of the funeral that took place hundreds of miles away.

Funeral Director David Green said since he began webcasting funerals, they have been viewed by loved ones serving overseas in the military, a daughter in Arizona, and families with a loved one who was in the hospital at the time of the service.

“I can’t get over the response on it,” Green said.

Green said his funeral home is the only one he knows of in Ohio that broadcasts video footage of funeral services the way he does. A funeral home in central Ohio offers them, but the webcasts are password protected, which limits access.

Green said he didn’t want to do it that way because funerals are generally public events. He also said many grieving families can’t immediately think of everyone who might want to see the funeral.

The videos are broadcast live, and also can be viewed 90 days after the service or longer. Green, who confesses to being computer illiterate, has friends as far away as Germany watching the remote services to give him feedback.

The webcasts are archived for at least 90 days, and so far, none have been removed. Archived footage also is kept on file by the funeral home. Two cameras are used to back up the webcast, and if there is a technical problem, the service should be back online within a day.

“Within 24 hours of a live broadcast, we get a response from a family member who tells us they want a copy of it,” Green said.

Children and members of the public, as well as the casket, are kept out of the video footage unless the family requests otherwise. Instead, the camera, tucked off to the side, focuses on what is happening at the podium, and all speakers and singers are aware of the video camera in advance.

The cameras also have been taken into two area Catholic churches, and the priests officiating the service were excited about the technology, Green said. They also explained that it was OK to photograph children who served as altar servers in the Mass, because their parents had previously signed a release permitting them to be on camera.

Families can be somewhat hesitant when they first hear of the technology, but eventually warm to it as they hear it explained, Green said.

“Then they say, ‘How much does it cost?’” he said. “When I tell them it’s free, they’re stunned.”

Green works with Timothy Peterson of Video-Gift, a company that makes videos as memorials or for special occasions. Peterson also is responsible for updating the funeral home’s Web site, www.greenfamilyfuneralhome.com.

Peterson’s company also puts together a scrolling collage of photos, a service that has become commonplace at many funeral homes.

If families do want a DVD keepsake of the service, Peterson charges $25. The DVD is personalized and comes in a custom case with the obituary printed on the back.

“We wanted to give them something they could be proud to put with their DVD collection,” he said.

FuneralRecording.com provides the webcasting technology to Green. The Utah-based company was the first to stream audio services over the Internet and uses Flash Media Player, which is used in the majority of computers.

“Amazingly, Mr. Green’s rural funeral home is in the top 10 percent of hits for their web site,” Peterson said.

Green, seeing the emotional power of the video, said he plans to offer videotaped messages to military families in Portage, Geauga and surrounding counties at Christmas and patriotic holidays starting this fall. Messages to loved ones in the armed forces will be available for viewing by the military on the web site.

Peterson said the tributes are not too different than the cardboard photo collages families have put up for years.

“This is the technology we live in,” he said.