How a translated church service works

1 · Scan

People scan the code on the printed flyer or the projector and the page opens. Nothing to install — and the flyer carries a second code that joins your WiFi first, for guests who need it.

2 · Choose

They pick their language from your service's list. Captions start immediately; a tap adds audio for earbuds.

3 · Listen

The speaker just speaks. Every language streams live — phones, the projector caption wall, and room speakers, all at once.

Every room in the building, in every language

The main service — one mic, every language, with a printable join flyer and a projector caption wall.
Classes and groups — each class runs its own languages and its own speaker; people can join before class starts and connect the moment it begins.
The congregation speaks back — a phone can request the mic, one voice at a time, moderated from the presenter's screen. Speaking needs a secure connection, so a phone accepts your server's certificate once before its first turn.
Room audio — route any room's translation to a speaker, an FM transmitter, or a Raspberry Pi output box per room.
Private huddles — attendees can spin up a temporary translated group with a PIN and QR, gone when they're done.

See where every voice goes

The Room audio graph follows microphones through rooms and languages to the speakers they feed. See a phone take the floor, spot an output that needs attention, and test the room before people arrive.

Illustrative Room audio graph with three active rooms, 87 listeners, microphone and phone inputs, and four physical outputs. — Illustrative demo from beta.6 with sample activity. Explore the graph and test controls →

Yours, not rented — no platform, no subscription

Lithos runs on your own hardware — a laptop at the sound desk, a mini-PC in a closet, a Raspberry Pi. Your congregation's words go from your microphone to their phones over your network. The only outside service involved is the AI translation provider you choose, with your own API key and their per-minute pricing in plain sight on the operator screen.

Free for churches, schools, and nonprofits. Lithos is source-available under the PolyForm Noncommercial license — congregations, charities, and classrooms use it at no charge, forever.

Using it commercially — conferences, paid events, service providers — requires a commercial license. Get in touch.

Private beta — installers by request

Desktop builds for macOS (signed and notarized), Windows, and Linux for both Intel and ARM — plus a headless server for a Raspberry Pi or Docker — are running in a small number of congregations before the public release. To be one of them, email support@lithos.community with your congregation and the languages you need; you get the installers by reply and a person to write to through your first Sunday. The getting started guide shows what running a service looks like.