Webcasting help offered
Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 4:23 pm
For any of those who need help with the new webcasting system, I am here to help. If any of you have questions, I will do my best to answer them to the best of my ability.
Why should you trust him, you ask? Well let me tell you a little story.
I'm an STS for the Payson Utah Mountain View Stake, and I had an experience in broadcasting our stake conference with the new webcasting system.
Last weekend I had our stake conference. We have had 2 successful webcasting sessions before. We had tested the system. We had all our camera and mics setup and people in place. I implemented a backup plan and set it at ready. Everything was ready to go and I expected a successful conference. In fact I was so confident that we would have a successful session that we were going to use the new players at our receive sites to view the sessions.
The reason I was so confident that we were going to have a successful conference is because I work on the webcasting project for the church. I touch it almost daily. I know the in and outs of the system. I have been through every nook and cranny of the portal. I know what works and what doesn't. I know what settings on the VidiU are best, what laptops are best, and what to look for on the player for the receive sites.
We were going to have a successful conference............until it happened. The Internet.
We had tested many times before and it all checked out. But that Sunday the net went down 4 times within the first hour and the last hour I felt like I was carrying the system and keeping it running with duct tape and wire because of the frailness of the network that Sunday.
The system itself worked great, the servers came up, that encoding was working, players were playing, the stats were working. The system was working. Everything was working except for one thing......the Internet. The backbone of the entire thing and the one thing that I could not control.
Even though I worked on the webcasting project and know everything there is to know about it, I still had a less then happy experience with webcasting. Why, because sometimes things happen that are not under your control.
Looking back, I could have tried a few more things pre-hand to ensure that had the bandwidth dropped, we could have kept going and heard what was being said. But that is hind-site, I'll do it next time.
Now, I tell you this story not as to whine and complain about the system; like I said the system worked fine, but to say that even though you know everything there is to know about something and know how to make it work, things can still go wrong. I also tell you the story to say that I understand how you feel, I know the pain, I've been there and done that and am still doing it. I eat my own work.
So if any of you have any questions about the webcasting system or something seems funny after reading the instructions and documentation that the church has provided for the new system, ask away. I can help relieve some of the frustration and fear and doubts of working with the new system. You will find that once you understand it, it is quite easy to work with.
As an STS we are asked to do things that out in the world people go to school for and get degrees with. I understand your pain; it can be overwhelming. So there is no stupid question. We are all here to serve to the best of our ability.
That said, I don't want to hear any complaints or whining. That does not do any good and in fact causes contention. I'll not have any of that and it will be ignored. But for those who are frustrated and need some answers I am here to help you to the best I can. I may not be able to answer all questions about equipment, what to get and pricing and all that stuff, but I can answer questions on how to setup up your event, the best settings for VidiU, the player on the receive sites and testing the system with your stake and some advice base upon how I set things up for my stake.
Ask away.
Why should you trust him, you ask? Well let me tell you a little story.
I'm an STS for the Payson Utah Mountain View Stake, and I had an experience in broadcasting our stake conference with the new webcasting system.
Last weekend I had our stake conference. We have had 2 successful webcasting sessions before. We had tested the system. We had all our camera and mics setup and people in place. I implemented a backup plan and set it at ready. Everything was ready to go and I expected a successful conference. In fact I was so confident that we would have a successful session that we were going to use the new players at our receive sites to view the sessions.
The reason I was so confident that we were going to have a successful conference is because I work on the webcasting project for the church. I touch it almost daily. I know the in and outs of the system. I have been through every nook and cranny of the portal. I know what works and what doesn't. I know what settings on the VidiU are best, what laptops are best, and what to look for on the player for the receive sites.
We were going to have a successful conference............until it happened. The Internet.
We had tested many times before and it all checked out. But that Sunday the net went down 4 times within the first hour and the last hour I felt like I was carrying the system and keeping it running with duct tape and wire because of the frailness of the network that Sunday.
The system itself worked great, the servers came up, that encoding was working, players were playing, the stats were working. The system was working. Everything was working except for one thing......the Internet. The backbone of the entire thing and the one thing that I could not control.
Even though I worked on the webcasting project and know everything there is to know about it, I still had a less then happy experience with webcasting. Why, because sometimes things happen that are not under your control.
Looking back, I could have tried a few more things pre-hand to ensure that had the bandwidth dropped, we could have kept going and heard what was being said. But that is hind-site, I'll do it next time.
Now, I tell you this story not as to whine and complain about the system; like I said the system worked fine, but to say that even though you know everything there is to know about something and know how to make it work, things can still go wrong. I also tell you the story to say that I understand how you feel, I know the pain, I've been there and done that and am still doing it. I eat my own work.
So if any of you have any questions about the webcasting system or something seems funny after reading the instructions and documentation that the church has provided for the new system, ask away. I can help relieve some of the frustration and fear and doubts of working with the new system. You will find that once you understand it, it is quite easy to work with.
As an STS we are asked to do things that out in the world people go to school for and get degrees with. I understand your pain; it can be overwhelming. So there is no stupid question. We are all here to serve to the best of our ability.
That said, I don't want to hear any complaints or whining. That does not do any good and in fact causes contention. I'll not have any of that and it will be ignored. But for those who are frustrated and need some answers I am here to help you to the best I can. I may not be able to answer all questions about equipment, what to get and pricing and all that stuff, but I can answer questions on how to setup up your event, the best settings for VidiU, the player on the receive sites and testing the system with your stake and some advice base upon how I set things up for my stake.
Ask away.