Can't get audio sermon to play

Oh, it looks like you don't directly use SermonSpeaker to show the sermons. At least kuc.ca/index.php/connect/sermons isn't a SermonSpeaker output. It's a regular article.

For SermonSpeaker you need to create a new menuitem pointing to a SermonSpeaker menutype. Eg the "Sermons Lists". This will give you an output like this: kuc.ca/index.php?option=com_sermonspeaker
The sermon detailpage like this: kuc.ca/index.php?option=com_sermonspeake...&id=5-sermon20171126

The player doesn't work there because the file referenced in the sermon ( kuc.ca/images/sermonnov262017.mp3 ) doesn't exist.

As for the plugins, SermonSpeaker will try to load each SermonSpeaker player plugin in their order. The first one that is capable of playing the sermonfile will do the job. The others skip.

Flash is a client thing. So this needs to be installed in the browser so it works.

Thanks for this helpful reply. I now have a very basic setup working for one sample sermon. I will next add some missing details and upload more sermons. Eventually I may add video.

The main thing I needed to do was get rid of the menu entries that our web person had set up using our Joomla! theme's modules, and create new ones from inside SermonSpeaker (a very easy process, clearly described in your documentation).

I have tried it on three Mac browsers and two Windows 10 browsers, all latest versions on fully updated OS. For most, a message is displayed asking to have Flash turned on, but if you ignore it and just click on the sermon you get a working playback bar. For Firefox on Mac, initially I got a featureless black bar but when I clicked on it I did get a playback bar. I expect the detailed behaviour varies with OS and browser versions.

I am not a fan of Flash. By default, most browsers now disable it and discourage turning it on. I am about to see how the system behaves if I choose HTML5 instead of plugin. That should be better for tablets and recent systems, but maybe not compatible with old systems (I know some are still using systems 20 years old).

Thanks again for you prompt help. We will definitely be donating to your project.

I wish you and all SermonSpeaker users a blessed Christmas season.

You can use the HTML5 player or the JWPlayer one. Both don't need Flash but the former doesn't support playlists.
In the SermonSpeaker options, you can disable the player for list type views (eg sermons list). So the HTML5 player would work fine if you only display it for the sermon detailpage.

And yes, the display may differe depending on browser and OS, especially if you use the HTML5 player.

That reminds me, I need to write the HTML5 and Flowplayer players as plugins so they can be used this way as well.

Thanks for the good suggestions. We now have our web page (kuc.ca) working well with either HTML5 player or JWPlayer selected (with priority to HTML5), and the player only on the detail page. Use Plugin works, but pops up a request to turn on Flash player.

What advantage or disadvantage is there to using HTML5 vs JWPlayer?

The HTML5 player has no customisation. It's just the native HTML5 audio/video element. As such it highly depends on the device how it will look and behave.
The JW Player does a lot of additional styling and JavaScript around it. Eg it allows playlists and tracking.
If the HTML5 one works for you, I would stick with that.