Funeral Webcasting Brings Families Together

Funeral webcasting is becoming increasingly popular in small towns, big cities and around the world. Thanks to new funeral software, it's now possible to attend a funeral from anywhere in the world. 

Often families would receive that fateful call that a relative or friend has passed away. From that moment on, life gets turned upside down. Nothing but questions come to mind and all efforts focus on arrangements that need to be made. Out of town relatives and friends feel they need to drop what they're doing, and find a way to attend the funeral and to be there for the family. Unfortunately, that's not always possible. Sometimes illness, financial constraints, family or work responsibilities prevent the bereaved from attend a funeral.

In my case, I received a call from my college friend letting me know that her mother had passed away. I was leaving for a business trip to Colorado the next morning for a meeting that was months in the making. There was no way I could miss it. Yet, at the same time I was heartbroken for my friend and her family. I wanted to be there for her and at the funeral in New York. But, it just wasn't possible. My meeting was in Denver on Tuesday morning, her mother's funeral was in Long Island that same afternoon. I went to my meeting. My friend went to her mother's funeral. I sent flowers and a card. I felt awful. Now, visiting my friend, even years later, when her Mom is mentioned, I still feel a twang of guilt that I wasn't at her funeral.

Today, the internet is bringing people closer together and connecting friends, relatives and business associates in ways some never thought possible. Because of the push for new technology, software and other online applications, even the way people attend a funeral is now changing too. One particular type of funeral software even makes it possible to practically be in two places at once.

If a friend or relative can't attend a funeral in person, for whatever reason, this great technology called funeral webcasting can allow the person to attend the service anyway. With funeral webcasting, no matter where in the world you are, you can attend a funeral service from the comfort of your own home via the internet.
Mourners will be given the website address, a user id and password. Once they log on, they'll have the ability to view the funeral webcast live, streamed over the internet. But, that's not all. Should they not be available at the time of the actual funeral, they can still view the funeral webcast later.

Any funeral home can provide funeral webcasting. All they need is a simple set up with a video camera, a computer and funeral webcasting software. In minutes they'll be able to provide a service that, trust me, will be remembered for years to come. No longer will families miss their loved ones funerals because of the high cost of travel, poor health or other personal or work constraints.

The best place on the internet to learn more about funeral webcasting software is Frazer Consultants. This company has a solid reputation of developing high performing and reliable technology for the death care industry. For more information, please Frazer Consultants website or call 866-372-9372.

What You Need from Your Funeral Webcasting Provider

Thinking about offering funeral webcasting? As with any new product or service your funeral home may offer, selecting a funeral webcasting software company should be researched thoroughly before implementing. Nothing is more frustrating than partnering with a company or purchasing a product and then finding out the sales person left out a few important details. Or, that features you thought were included haven't even been added to that model or addition. Often not knowing what to ask or what to look for in the product or service is the problem.

To help get you up to speed on the latest in funeral webcasting, here are a few points you should consider when selecting a funeral webcasting provider:

1) Webcasting Equipment
Let's face it, not everyone was born with the technology gene. Few could decide one day to implement funeral webcasting, go out and buy the right equipment and software, get it all hooked up and be ready to use during a service later that day. Having said that, not only should you be sure the funeral technology company you're considering provides you a detailed list of what funeral webcasting equipment is needed to get started, but also that they can give you specific instructions on how to set it up too.

2) Software Support
No matter how comprehensive an instruction pamphlet may be or how detailed the menus on a software program are, until you've sat down in front of it and tried it out, you never know what kind of questions you may have. Therefore, partnering with a company that lets you preview the software and one that also has twenty-four hour a day, seven days a week support is important. What happens when you have an early morning funeral and have a funeral webcasting question? Submitting a help ticket just isn't going to cut it at that point.

3) New Versions or Discontinued Technology
Currently, there are over ten funeral webcasting providers within the profession. Did you know that nine out of ten use the same outdated backend technology? They use the old windows media encoder that is scheduled to be discontinued fairly soon and is not even available for download on Microsoft’s website anymore. Be sure to find out what kind of technology your provider is using so there are no surprises later. Look for a company using the newest Microsoft expression encoder.

4) Comprehensive Editing Features
Finding a funeral webcasting authority that offers features that no other company offers will help ensure you have selected the most innovative software. For example: editing capabilities that allow you to crop the beginning or the end of the video and add captions to the funeral webcast are not standard features in most funeral webcasting software programs. In fact, only one company offers these two important benefits.

5) Top Notch Distribution
Another major component to successful funeral webcasting is the backend server technology that a provider might use. Currently, to our knowledge, there is only one company that uses a tier one content delivery network. That means worldwide global distribution at unbelievable speeds.

Keeping up with technology can be challenging, but following these simple guidelines should help you breeze through selecting a funeral technology provider to implement funeral webcasting -- no matter what your technical abilities.

The industries leader in funeral webcasting is Frazer Consultants. As the only provider using the newest Microsoft expression encoder, a tier one content delivery network and the most complete, top of the line editing features, and the most personalized online player that creates an unbelievable experience for your families, Frazer Consultants stands apart from the crowd. Shouldn't your funeral webcasts do the same?

For more information about funeral webcasting, visit the premier place on the web Frazer Consultants.

Producing Video Tributes In-House, Versus Outsourcing

As a funeral home, you have two choices on how you want to produce your video tributes. Do them yourself in-house, or hire an outside provider. Ten years ago, hiring your video tributes to an outside provider was probably more common than it is today. As technology has progressed and companies like Frazer Consultants have appeared with an all-in-one-suite that makes the DVD production so easy, it doesn’t really make sense to outsource anymore.

There are several factors on why it makes more sense to produce your video tributes in-house, verses outsourcing. I’ll step through each and every one.


1. Cost: Most outsourced providers charge between $100-$200 dollars and limit the size of the video to 20-30 photos. If you go above and beyond the standard number of photos, they charge you an additional per photo charge. If you produce your video tributes in-house, you might be looking at a cost of around $15-20 and you can do as many photos as you wish. Not to mention, you can also produce as many additional copies as you want at no additional charge.

2. Time and Convenience: Do you think it is really more convenient to outsource your video tributes? Not exactly. Think about it, most out sourcing companies require you to scan in all the photos, email the photos, download the completed video, and then burn the disk. If you are going to complete all those steps, why not just put together rest of the video yourself? Matter a fact, I’d argue with anyone that putting the video tribute together is the easy part. The hard part is meeting with the family, collecting the photos and scanning the photos. Also, what happens if the family brings the photos in at last minute? There is no way possible an outsourced solution provider is going to be able to create a tribute video in time.

3. Quality: This is a big one. Over the past couple weeks I have posted a few other blog posts about tribute videos. I had two separate out sourced solution providers comment that funeral homes are not capable of producing the same kind of quality. My reply was, post an example of your tribute video and let’s compare. Out of the two solution providers, guess how many of them posted an example? Zero!

The truth is, the list could go on and on about why you should do your own tribute videos in-house. But I’ll rest with the top three main points above. If you’re looking for the ultimate tribute video software that creates the highest quality video tribute, in short amount of time, and at an affordable cost, look no further then Frazer Consultants all-in-one-suite the Tribute Center.

Printing Funeral Stationery on Demand

Creating personalized funeral stationery on demand is what leading funeral homes are doing. Shouldn't your funeral home keep up with the times as well?

Pre-printed funeral stationery is a thing of the past. As times change, new opportunities to enhance a life celebration are created. Providing client families with the next generation of personalized funeral stationery is one great option. Thankfully, with new technology, all things are possible and they're easy too!

With print-on-demand funeral register books and funeral stationery, you get the best of everything. Personalization has never been easier. Cutting edge funeral software programs provide death care professionals with over 450 themes to offer. Because of this, funeral stationery can be easily personalized to any interest, hobby, occupation, or religious background. Using simple to use, menu driven software templates, just a simple stack of blank perforated stock and a printer, in minutes you can create register books, prayer cards, thank you cards, funeral programs, bookmarks, funeral candles and more.

Client families will be extremely pleased at the selection, quality and keepsakes created. So, not only is this a win for the funeral home and the office staff, but it’s a win for the families you serve as well.

Still on the fence? If your funeral home has been thinking about changing from traditional pre-printed stationery for the new, blank stock print-on-demand system, here's why you're headed in the right direction:

1) With pre-printed stationery, you're truly limited in choice and options for true personalization.

2) Pre-printed stock is an inventory nightmare. Funeral homes are constantly running out of one theme or another and need to rush orders to get in time for the funeral.

3) Families want more. There's a reason the buzz word for death care professionals in 2011 is personalization -- it's what families want.
With the new year unfolding, now is the time to say good-bye to your old, outdated funeral stationery, and get started enhancing the level of personalization you provide.

With Frazer Consultants new Tribute Center software, makes printing-on-demand so simple, your families will thank you time and time again. For more information about the ultimate in funeral stationery and the latest generation funeral software, visit Frazer Consultants.

The Future of the Funeral Tribute Video

Ten years ago displaying photos on a picture board was the standard for a funeral. However, in today’s world, if that is all you are still doing, you are being left behind. For the last several years we have seen what I call the first generation of funeral tribute videos. But I think just around the corner we are going to start seeing second generation tribute videos.


The first generation tribute video consisted of photos, music, intros / endings, scenic video clips, and personalized captions. However, the second generation tribute video is going to a whole new level. With the number of cell phones hitting over 4.6 billion in 2010, and 19% of those are what we call “smart phones”, which are photo and video enabled, I think you see where all this is headed. The second generation tribute video is getting ready to be a whole lot more personal with short 30-60 second live video clips of the loved one. Extending this theory is one of the hottest items for the 2010 Christmas season, “The Flip” video camera. It’s a small flip style video camera that can be stored in your pocket or purse with ease. With products like this, you can see that we are not far off from the second generation tribute video.

Another big factor pushing the second generation tribute video is Facebook. The problem in the past with all this digital content is that it was extremely hard to keep organized. Imagine when someone passes away, trying to find all those photos and videos in a very short amount of time. Well, we are now at a point, you can just log into the loved ones Facebook account and save the digital media to create the ultimate tribute video.

With all the above in mind, does your current Tribute Video Software allow short video clips of the loved one to be imported? If the answer is no, you should highly consider looking at the Tribute Center by Frazer Consultants. Frazer Consultants does not only think about the tribute videos of today, but are working hard to keep you ahead of the curve tomorrow.

Frazer Consultants Tribute Center is an all-in-one-suite that allows you to complete tribute DVD’s, personalized funeral stationery, and funeral webcasting.

The Power of a Funeral Tribute Video

When looking at ways to personalize the funeral or memorial service, the one thing you should not forget is the funeral tribute video. In my opinion, the funeral tribute video is one of the most powerful healing tools for all friends and family who are involved. When the tribute video is done right, with photos spanning the loved one’s life and perfectly synced to music to make the photos come alive, you can create an unbelievable memorable experience for everyone involved.

To make the most powerful tribute videos, it all starts with the software. Frazer Consultants all-in-one-suite is called the Tribute Center. It allows you to create tribute DVD’s, funeral stationery, and funeral webcasting, at a click of a button. The power of this funeral software is unbelievable.

The Tribute DVD module will allow your funeral home to create the most amazing tribute videos you have ever imagined. Starting with Tribute Center’s Hollywood style intros that can take you through the clouds, over the top of a mountain, alongside a white sand beach, or on a serene journey through the forest. You set the healing experience that you want to take the family on right from the beginning.

The next step is to help the family select the most meaningful photos to include in the tribute video. Encourage the family to select photos that span the loved one’s life. All the way back to the most innocent and cute baby pictures, to the goofy and sometimes downright funny college photos. All you have to remember is this, there is really no right or wrong photo, whatever the family thinks will tell the life story the best.

Once the photos are selected, now it’s your job to bring the photos to life with the most perfect motion effects. This means panning the photos from top to bottom, from left to right, and zooming in or zooming out. When adding motion effects, remember that less motion is always better then more motion. You want to keep it soft and subtle. Only add motion where it makes sense and don’t overdo it.

When choosing music for the tribute video, choose a song that best reflects the loved one’s life. In most cases, the family will already have a few choices they have been thinking about. However, below I have compiled a list of most popular funeral tribute songs for your review:

Name of Song	Artist
Heaven Was Needing a Hero	Joe Dee Messena
My Heart Will Go On	Celine Dion
Wind Beneath My Wings	Bette Midler
Bridge Over Troubled Water	Simon and Garfunkel
Smile	Chris Rice
I Know You by Heart	Eva Cassidy
Have I Told You Lately That I Love you	Rod Stewart
Last Time by Moonlight	Enya
You Raise Me Up	Josh Groban
To Where You Are	Josh Groban
Remember Me	Josh Groban
You’re Still You	Josh Groban
For Always	Josh Groban
Smile	Josh Groban
In the Arms of The Angel	Josh Groban and Sarah McLachlan
Vincent	Josh Groban
When I Get Where I’m Going	Brad Paisley
You Can Let Go	Crystal Shawanda
Thank You	Jonny Reid
Until We’re Together Again	Tiffany Coburn
Mama	il Divo
Somewhere Over the Rainbow	Leona Lewis
Somewhere Over the Rainbow	Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s Version
A Living Prayer	Alison Krauss
At Last	Etta James
I Miss You	Avril Lavigne
So Far Away	Carole King
Yesterday	The Beatles
Time	Alan Parsons Project
I’ll Stand by You	Carrie Underwood
I Believe	Diamond Rio
One More Day	Diamond Rio
I Don’t wanna Miss a Thing	Aersmith
Livin’ Without You	TmobileTerrorist
Saying Goodbye to You	Karina Long
I Want You to Live	George Canyon
If I’d Have Known	Dillon J. Woods
Without You	Mariah Carey
Memory	Barry Manilow
The Twelfth of Never	Johnny Mathis
All Things Must Pass	George Harrison
If Tomorrow Never Comes	arry Manilow
If I Should Love Again	Barry Manilow
Together Forever	Barry Manilow
Answer	Sarah McLachlan
I’ll Find you	Katie Giguere
Holes in the Floor of Heaven	Billy Kirsch and Steve Wariner
The Dance	Garth Brooks
The Living Years	Mike and the Mechanics
Lullabye (Goodnight My Angel)	Billy Joel
I’ll Be seeing You	Jimmy Durante

The last step of creating a tribute video is putting it on a medium that can be shared and remembered for years to come. The Tribute Center software allows you to burn the DVD at one click of a button. Also, you are able to share it on your website with another click of a button. This allows friends and family to come to your website to watch the tribute video at any time.

Frazer Consultants Tribute Center is the leading funeral software for tribute DVD’s, funeral stationery, and funeral webcasting. For more information about funeral tribute video software, please visit the website or call 866-372-9372.

Funeral Webcasting: Is there really a difference between all the providers?

The short answer to that question is, ABSOLUTELY 100% YES! Currently, there are over ten funeral webcasting providers within the profession. Did you know that nine out of ten use the same outdated backend technology? They use the old windows media encoder that is scheduled to be discontinued fairly soon and is not even available for download on Microsoft’s website anymore. Don’t believe me? Read for yourself at this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Media_Encoder

So, when you start funeral webcasting, do you want to start with old technology or start with a company that is already on the latest and greatest? There is only one company that is currently using the newest Microsoft expression encoder, and that is Frazer Consultants.

Frazer Consultants is offering features that no one is. Currently, they are the only company that offers editing capabilities that allow you to crop the beginning or the end of the video. They are the only company that allows you to add captions. Frazer Consultants even allows you to personalize the online player to over 450 different themes that match any interest, hobby, occupation, or religious background.

Another major component to successful funeral webcasting is the backend server technology that a provider might use. Currently, to our knowledge, Frazer Consultants is the only company that uses a tier one content delivery network. That means worldwide global distribution at unbelievable speeds.

For more information about funeral webcasting, visit the premier place on the web at http://www.frazerconsultants.com/WebcastingSoftware.aspx for more information.

Funeral Stationery: Print-on-Demand

If your funeral home has been thinking about changing from traditional pre-printed funeral stationery for the new, blank stock print-on-demand system, here is why you are headed in the right direction. First, if you offer pre-printed stationery, you are already limited in choice and options for your family in order to offer true personalization. Second, if you have a lot of pre-printed stock at the funeral home, you already know what an inventory nightmare it is. You are constantly running out of one theme or another, trying to rush orders to get in time for the funeral. Say good bye to the old, and let’s get moving with the new.

Say hello to print-on-demand funeral register books and stationery. You get the best of everything! Over 450 themes to choose from so that you can personalize to any interest, hobby, occupation, or religious background. You no longer have will have an inventory nightmare, just a simple stack of blank perforated stock. Not only is this a win for the funeral home and the office staff, but it’s a win for the families you serve as well.

Let’s face it, you’ve heard it a million times, personalization, personalization, personalization. You can truly do it now with ease. With Frazer Consultants new Tribute Center software, it makes print-on-demand so simple, you’ll be sitting around the office wondering what to do with all that time (ok, I could be stretching it a bit, but compared to the old system, you will definitely save a lot of time and frustration). Your families will thank you for the level of personalization that you can provide.

For more information about the ultimate in funeral technology and funeral software, visit Frazer Consultants.

Funeral Register Books and Stationery Packaging

Today, many funeral homes have some sort of funeral stationery package that they offer their client families. The most common funeral stationery package consists of one register book, one hundred memorial folders, fifty thank you cards, and four keepsake bookmarks. Some funeral homes decide to also package in other items such as a tribute video or funeral candle as an additional keepsake for the family.

The first thing we need to look at is how do we offer funeral stationery packages to the family? One of the biggest funeral stationery companies in the profession (I won’t name names) thinks the best way to package and sell is by the good, better, best scenario.

What this means, is that you will create three levels of stationery packages and display those packages on the wall in accordance to those levels. Typically, the only thing that is different in the three levels is the quality of the register book. For example, one might have three books in the “good” package, three books in the “better” package, and three books in the “best” package. In theory, 90% of your families will pick out the “better” package. The only reason you have the “best” package, is to help move the family up one level from the lowest package to the “better” package. Sounds good, right? Not exactly, let me explain…

In a normal retail environment this “scheme” is used daily. Most of the time, it works like a charm. However, in the funeral profession, I’d say stay away from it. Not only stay away from it, but I’d run from it as fast you can. I think the goal of the funeral home is to try and simplify the arrangement process, not make it more confusing and cumbersome. By offering a good, better, best selection, you are no doubt making things more confusing. You are having the family make one more price decision where it isn’t necessary.

Let’s look at the real reason why a funeral stationery company might want to sell the funeral home on a good, better, best solution. The reason why, is because then the funeral stationery supplier can justify selling you the higher end funeral register book at a very high cost. For example, the low end book might cost you $15, the middle book $30, and the high end book $60. Imagine if that salesman can talk all his clients into buying the $60 book 10% of the time. Huge margins for him / her, while in return the funeral home suffers.

So in the end, what does a good, better, best funeral stationery package offer your funeral home? Nothing, just the opposite, it brings in another pricing decision for your families, it creates more unnecessary choices, and it confuses everyone.

Offer simplified funeral register book and stationery packages:
If 90% of your families are choosing the middle package to begin with, why not offer simplified pricing? Put three to five books on the wall and tell your family to pick which one they want. Tell them each book cost the same, it doesn’t matter which one you pick.


Where does the real value come from in a funeral register book?
Do you think the value of the book really has anything to do with the “outside cover”? The answer to that is, no. If you want to add real value to the book, look at how you create the inside of the book. Start adding more of the life story by adding more photos, family history, favorite recipes, etc. Start theming the register book to the loved ones favorite interest, hobby, occupation, or religious background. Do all those things and families will not only find more value, but they will buy additional books from you.

Choose Frazer Consultants for the most cutting edge funeral technology, their new Tribute Center will make producing the most personalized funeral register books and stationery easier then you have ever imagined. Don’t believe me? Check out this training video.

To take your funeral home to the next level with funeral register books and stationery, look no further than the leading funeral personalization and technology provider in the funeral industry, Frazer Consultants. Join the revolution, surpass your competitors, and impress your families by creating lasting memories that will never be forgotten.