Tech Forum

I'm trying to put together a short troubleshooting guide to send to any remote stakes/buildings/people who attempt to connect to the webcast feeds we originate from our building. I want to include some basic, common troubleshooting steps based on problems that are commonly seen.

Can you all help me flesh out the content? Here's what I have so far:

Basic troubleshooting steps:
Before the broadcast:
1. Make sure you are running the latest version of Microsoft Windows Media Player
2. Make sure you have a wired connection to your church router.
3. Unplug the any wireless access points from your system in order to preserve the bandwidth for the broadcast.
4. Do a speed test using speedtest.lds.org. Pay special attention to both downstream speed and latency number. (need numbers here that are ideal for a "high" broadcast)

If:
- You hear audio but see no video
- You hear audio but the video is choppy

Close the stream and reconnect. See if you see any difference.
If the problem persists after 2-3 reconnects, inform the originating building to see if others are having the same issue and the webcast needs to be restarted.

If:
- You cannot connect to the stream. (you get an error from Windows Media Player)

Check the URL you are using to make sure it is valid.
Ensure the webcast has started on the originating side. You will not be able to connect until the webcast has been started by the originating stake.

What other common problems and common resolutions do you see?

It is sometimes helpful to have a separate network connecting where you are doing a broadcast, a 3G connection, someone's phone hotspot, etc... so you can see the broadcast without the upload on the same network.

If you are having issues with the stake broadcast, you can check the church feeds, http://stream.lds.org/webcast/ and http://stream.lds.org/webcast2/ If you check these and still have issues, it could indicate a local issue rather than a stake broadcast issue.

Many of you may already be past the basics but for the newcomers I thought it would be good to let you know that there are new training video clips now available at this link http://tech.lds.org/wiki/Meetinghouse_Webcast_training to help you get started.

Even for the more experienced webcasters you might find some good reminders before your next event.

Happy webcasting!
Troy

Great videos. Very professional - and I need to get one of those tripods that were shown in the video! They are slick.

However - my original request was for more actionable checklist-type items that might happen on the receiving end. For example, during our Stake Conference yesterday, one building had trouble getting audio through the webcast. Took 1 or 2 reconnects to get audio stable. (And before you ask, yes all the hw was set up correctly) The other building had no audio issues the whole time.

With the four webcasts I've done to date, we've not had any problems at the sending end - all the issues seem to occur at the receiving end. The only troubleshooting step that seems to accomplish anything is to reconnect media player to the webcast.

Hopefully - as we consider a future roadmap for webcast - we can choose something with a little more stability and adaptability at the receiving end. I'm tempted to try using PVC as I know that video stream is less fragile than the meetinghouse webcast stream seems to be.

I have used some of the great information in this thread to help create a few documents for the Church Web Cast team. I could use some more of the extensive experience that is out there. These are the documents I am helping with.


WebCast Troubleshooting Guide

WebCast Troubleshooting Tips

WebCast Terminology

I am looking for help with compiling WebCasting Troubleshooting Tips and Guides. This is a LDS Tech 2012 Project. Please go to the following thread

https://tech.lds.org/forum/showthread.p ... oting-Info