Tech Forum

Hi All

My stake are wanting to use the Webcast system for stake conference. They have given me plenty of time as this won't be until November however i'm already worried as the internet uploads speeds seem way below what we need.

My first question is what should my expectation be of the quality etc given the upload speed of the connection will only reach around 300-400Kbps? Bearing in mind that it will be shown on a large projector screen.

The following link seems to suggest I'd need more like 50Kbps or more to get anything like good quality. https://tech.lds.org/wiki/images/6/6f/M ... de0209.pdf

And also here https://tech.lds.org/wiki/Meetinghouse_ ... quirements

Are there any test streams I can view that would give me an indication of the quality? e.g. a streeme of good quality, better and poor?

Is there anyway I can do some test broadcasts now to see how things are running?

Any points advise would be grate.

PS Has anyone done this webcast stuff here in the UK yet.

See https://tech.lds.org/wiki/Get_Started_w ... se_Webcast

The system basically has the stake center upload to a server in SLC and the other units download from SLC. So the stake center upload speed isn't shared per each viewer.

The best way to test is to create an event now and stream it. Have another ward building that will be receiving the broadcast receive your event and determine how the quality looks. If possible having multiple units do so at once will give you an idea of any buildings that may have problems.

Also, when testing the speed, you should probably use speedtest.lds.org as it will tell you the speed to the church servers. Since you're over in the UK, that could be a lower, more serious bottleneck.

When you do speedtest.lds.org - pay particular attention to the latency feedback. If your latency is high, you will have poor results with webcasting.

You might experiment with using PVC instead of Webcasting. PVC's video is much more adaptive and flexible when bandwidth fluctuates. The webcasting software's video feed is much more brittle and tends to break before it bends.

You could also work with your Stake President and facilites group to upgrade the connection if better service is available. Even with upgraded service you may still have a latency problem due to the distance to SLC, so you might want to bear that in mind.

The DSL connection at our building generally has the following speeds (per speedtest.lds.org):

Download Speed: 1626 kbps (203.3 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 358 kbps (44.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 125 ms
Jitter: 6 ms
Packet Loss: 0%

We haven't had any issues with the mid to lower quality settings on the V3 software (336K or 672K on the 4:3 setting depending on who is receiving).

Aaron Z

Just did a speed test and got the following results any comments on how good or bad this might be.

How good a pictures is the medium / low quality. I assume good enough to see and hear them clearly.

The results are from my home connection but its got to be in the ball park. If anything my upload at home is quite bit faster than the unit building.

Last Result:
Download Speed: 2473 kbps (309.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 710 kbps (88.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 180 ms
Jitter: 0 ms
Packet Loss: 0%

Our upload s around 380 or so... we successfully did a webcast for a Temple District, (12 stakes) at the low quality, It included a couple of youth Mormon Messages on DVD.... it went very well.

JohnShaw wrote:Our upload s around 380 or so... we successfully did a webcast for a Temple District, (12 stakes) at the low quality, It included a couple of youth Mormon Messages on DVD.... it went very well.

Kewl. I would recommend that you don't use more than 75% of the upload bandwidth, because then you start to run into issues. I'm really thinking that we want to start looking at PVC as an alternative to do webcasting of stake conference.