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Satellite disruptions this conference weekend?

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2013 11:36 am
by sammythesm
Today I got a fairly standard email from CHQ reminding me to test our Satellite equipment before conference this weekend. However, it also included this interesting note:
3. Some satellite transmissions may have temporary outages.
Satellite transmissions in the Southern half of the United States (identified in red below) and Hawaii may experience an outage between 11:25 am and 12:30 pm MDT lasting between 3 and 10 minutes on both days of General Conference.
We are dead center of the red band... (North Central Texas).

Even more interesting is the proposed solution:
Sites are strongly encouraged to have Internet streaming or audio backup solutions in place. If Internet bandwidth is sufficient, you may choose to use it as your primary broadcast method.
This is the first time I've seen this recommendation. I'm actually really thrilled by it. I can actually get better quality from the Internet than I can off satellite. Now, if the Church just created some idiot-proof set top box to replace the satellite box/dish, it would be the perfect long-term solution to this expensive satellite network. ;)

Out of curiosity, any insight as to why there would be this outage? It's at the worst possible time - right during President Monson's talk on Sunday Morning. It must have been something out of the Church's control.

Re: Satellite disruptions this conference weekend?

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2013 11:57 am
by russellhltn
sammythesm wrote:Out of curiosity, any insight as to why there would be this outage? It's at the worst possible time - right during President Monson's talk on Sunday Morning. It must have been something out of the Church's control.

Sun outage. In simple terms the sun goes behind the satellite so the signal gets lost in all the noise the sun creates. I don't think it can ever be avoided, but they could move conference to a better time of the year for the U.S. <grin>

I'm not sure as the Internet will be much of a backup. There'll be a significant shift in time switching between them.

Re: Satellite disruptions this conference weekend?

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2013 12:51 pm
by sammythesm
Does this happen every year or just once every few years?? I don't seem to recall this being a problem from year to year.

Re: Satellite disruptions this conference weekend?

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2013 1:16 pm
by russellhltn
It's a problem every year - but it may not fall on conference weekend every year. It just depends on exactly when conference falls on the "solar year".

If you watch, you may find a number of your cable channels are affected as well as many are distributed via satellite.

Re: Satellite disruptions this conference weekend?

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2013 6:00 pm
by Mikerowaved
If you are in the affected area, AND you have a decent broadband internet connection, you might want to use that to stream it for the entire session to avoid any "holes" during the satellite broadcast.

If your broadband is marginal, you might also want to consider shutting off the WiFi to the building during the broadcast to reduce competition for the available bandwidth.

Re: Satellite disruptions this conference weekend?

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2013 9:41 am
by lajackson
Mikerowaved wrote:If you are in the affected area,
Where can I find the satellite sun outage map? The email I received said "see red below" but there was no graph, chart, link, or anything to see.

And I am not sure which of the two satellites we are on to check it on the Internet.

Re: Satellite disruptions this conference weekend?

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2013 11:02 am
by danpass
lajackson wrote:
Mikerowaved wrote:If you are in the affected area,
Where can I find the satellite sun outage map? The email I received said "see red below" but there was no graph, chart, link, or anything to see.

And I am not sure which of the two satellites we are on to check it on the Internet.
I wasn't seeing the map either, until I enabled image/remote content display for the e-mail.

Re: Satellite disruptions this conference weekend?

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2013 11:26 am
by russellhltn
Yes, I had to enable showing images/enhanced content as well. But I've added the map below.

It's a very broad area. In some places it lowers the signal to noise ratio. If you've got a solid system, you'd never know it unless you're watching the receiver display. But if you've got a marginal setup, then you'll have a outage. I wish they'd put some numbers on the map so you'd have some idea if you'd be affected or not.

Re: Satellite disruptions this conference weekend?

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2013 3:39 pm
by lajackson
russellhltn wrote:I've added the map below.
It's a very broad area.
Thanks. That is the whole month of October? Does it start from the bottom up, or from the top down?

Re: Satellite disruptions this conference weekend?

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2013 5:19 pm
by russellhltn
lajackson wrote:Thanks. That is the whole month of October? Does it start from the bottom up, or from the top down?
Since the sun is headed south, I think the band it working it's way north. From what I remember, it seems to affect an area for about a week before the band move on. There's a similar problem in April conference - same thing but the sun it working it's way north.