Recording Live Sermons

Live recording is Berea's core feature. Here's how to get the best possible transcript in any church environment.

Microphone placement

The single biggest factor in transcript quality is microphone placement. A few guidelines:

• Place your phone face-up on the seat or pew beside you, not in your pocket.
• The bottom microphone (near the charging port) is the primary mic on most iPhones — orient it toward the speaker.
• Avoid placing the phone in a bag or under clothing. Even thin fabric significantly degrades audio.
• Sitting within 10–15 rows of the pulpit will produce noticeably better results than the back of a large sanctuary.

Wi-Fi vs. offline recording

Berea uses Deepgram's streaming API for live transcription when connected to Wi-Fi or cellular. This provides the highest accuracy and the fastest transcript display.

When offline (or on a weak connection), Berea automatically switches to Apple's on-device Speech framework. The transcript will still appear in real-time, but accuracy may be slightly lower — particularly for proper nouns, scripture references, and theological terms.

After recording, Berea re-processes the audio through Deepgram's batch API regardless of how it was recorded. So even an offline recording gets upgraded to a high-accuracy transcript once you're back on Wi-Fi.

Pausing and resuming

Tap the pause button to pause the recording. This is useful during extended worship times, announcements, or breaks when you don't want to capture audio. Tap again to resume — both the recording and the transcript continue seamlessly.

Adding metadata

You can add a title, speaker, church, and scripture passage either before or after recording. This metadata is used by Berea when generating summaries and study materials — "Sermon by Pastor Tim Keller on Romans 8" produces a much more contextually accurate summary than an untitled recording.

Background recording

Berea continues recording if you lock your screen or switch to another app. The transcript display pauses, but audio capture and transcription keep running in the background.