New Standard Webcasting solution

[drepouille]

When I was doing a webcast last Saturday, I had disabled the Wi-Fi in the stake center. As the sisters came into the chapel, we could see them checking their phones and tablets, and frowning.

We had such a high bandwidth available from Cox that we easily could have left the Wi-Fi enabled. We even had a second laptop set up just to receive the webcast, and verify the quality of the audio and video. Even at "high quality 4x3 video" we were not coming close to using up our bandwidth.

[lajackson]

When I was doing a webcast last Saturday, I had disabled the Wi-Fi in the stake center. As the sisters came into the chapel, we could see them checking their phones and tablets, and frowning.

One advantage to being able to disable WiFi through the Technology Manager site is that you can leave it on until just a few minutes before the webcast, then turn it off at the affected buildings. Then you can turn it back on right after the meeting.

Less frowning, but I still wouldn't risk having WiFi on during a webcast here, because we do not have the bandwidth to be all things to all members.

[drepouille]

I actually disabled the Wi-Fi from my home before anyone even arrived at the stake center. I can handle "Why is the wireless down?" better than "Why did you kill the wireless just before the meeting started?"

[lajackson]

I can handle "Why is the wireless down?" better than "Why did you kill the wireless just before the meeting started?"

Most of our complaints come from parents whose youth's devices have suddenly stopped working and they have nothing to play with during the meeting. (At least, giving them the benefit of the doubt, we assume the parents are complaining on behalf of their children.) [grin]

[danpass]

One advantage to being able to disable WiFi through the Technology Manager site is that you can leave it on until just a few minutes before the webcast, then turn it off at the affected buildings.

You may find it difficult to manage the firewall device with TM if you wait that long to disable the WiFi. When I started trying to disable the WiFi in each of 3 buildings, about 5 minutes before our last stake conference was to begin, the 881W firewalls were nearly non-responsive. Between the webcast streaming and the large number of active WiFi users, I think the 881W's were getting slammed. I kept getting timeouts in TM, using a wired connection, trying to drill down through the UI to get to the Disable All Access Points feature.

For what it's worth, all the firewalls had already been upgraded to the new configuration.

[lajackson]

You may find it difficult to manage the firewall device with TM if you wait that long to disable the WiFi. When I started trying to disable the WiFi in each of 3 buildings, about 5 minutes before our last stake conference was to begin, the 881W firewalls were nearly non-responsive. Between the webcast streaming and the large number of active WiFi users, I think the 881W's were getting slammed.

Good point. It did take me 10 minutes to shut down three buildings. And since you mention it, the firewall in the building with the most people (other than the stake center) did take the longest to respond.

[justincy]

I can handle "Why is the wireless down?" better than "Why did you kill the wireless just before the meeting started?"

Most of our complaints come from parents whose youth's devices have suddenly stopped working and they have nothing to play with during the meeting. (At least, giving them the benefit of the doubt, we assume the parents are complaining on behalf of their children.) [grin]

It's interesting to hear you guys say that. At out last stake conference (which was our first) I didn't hear any complaints about the WiFi being turned off. Does it occur frequently?

[johnshaw]

Most of our complaints come from parents whose youth's devices have suddenly stopped working and they have nothing to play with during the meeting.

This doesn't seem so hard to understand. Many parents I've seen in wards and stakes will purchase a cheaper tablet with no mobile plans for their younger kids/youth. They can have all the church apps, etc...

I inform our members, they always know that wireless will be turned off and I've not heard any issues with it. In the past there have been a few who bring in hotspots, etc...

[lajackson]

It's interesting to hear you guys say that. At out last stake conference (which was our first) I didn't hear any complaints about the WiFi being turned off. Does it occur frequently?

No. I only get it from a few complaining members with different priorities not related to the purposes of the meeting, who feel entitled to whatever it is they feel entitled to have access to at the moment. These are the same ones who text and surf during meetings where the WiFi remains active.

[russellhltn]

Most of our complaints come from parents whose youth's devices have suddenly stopped working and they have nothing to play with during the meeting. (At least, giving them the benefit of the doubt, we assume the parents are complaining on behalf of their children.) [grin]

Ah, the modern busybook. And it's not just for children. [grin]

It was interesting to look at TM's usage statistics for this past stake conference. It wasn't streamed and I'm not aware of any official use of the interrnet. But we still peaked at 11Mbit. About a typical Sunday.