Feb 14th NW Broadcast

[lajackson]

Of note, when talking to the GSC the engineering team had spun down a significant portion of the servers for the weekend, totally underestimating the weekend demand.

It would seem to me that every stake which normally uses meetinghouse-to-meetinghouse broadcast for a normal stake conference would need to use the headquarters URL for a regional stake conference broadcast to those same meetinghouses away from the stake center. So I don't see the theory behind a reduced workload just because it is a regional conference.

Of course, there may be some other factors considered in their decision.

[russellhltn]

It would seem to me that every stake which normally uses meetinghouse-to-meetinghouse broadcast for a normal stake conference would need to use the headquarters URL for a regional stake conference broadcast to those same meetinghouses away from the stake center. So I don't see the theory behind a reduced workload just because it is a regional conference.

I suspect they are different systems. Since it's cloud-based, it doesn't stress the church network like the older system did.

[lajackson]

I suspect they are different systems. Since it's cloud-based, it doesn't stress the church network like the older system did.

The new meetinghouse-to-meetinghouse system is no longer on Church servers. I think they spool up a commercial server farm for the weekend based on how many reservations are made by stakes holding conferences. So m-to-m is also cloud-based now.

[russellhltn]

Yes, the new m2m is cloud-based. I'm not sure what they're using for direct from CHQ streaming. It may not be using the same severs. So there was an expected reduction in server workload for m2m.

[danpass]

The instructions gave latitude for a councilor or assigned high councilor to preside and conduct in each location. It further stated that Prayers, hymns, speakers, musical number, etc should be provided in each location.

Those are not the instructions I received. But if those are the correct instructions, (and I have reason to believe that they are), I would agree that we need to round up a bunch of choirs and deploy counselors and high councilors to run individual meetings during the first 30 minutes before the broadcast.

And in that case, local streaming would not be needed on regional stake conference Sunday. Meetinghouses without satellite equipment would just use the URL from Church headquarters.

Our stake had a presidency member presiding at each of 3 locations. Each location had their own hymns, prayers, choirs and speakers for the local portions of the meeting. The stake center received the broadcast via satellite transmission and the other 2 buildings directly through the Internet stream provided by HQ. I had a conference call set up for audio backup, with the audio from the satellite transmission injected, but it did not become necessary for the remote locations to use it. I instructed the remote locations to have their computers connected to the stream by 9:30, 1 hour before the meeting broadcast began. They never experienced any problems. On the other hand, the satellite transmission had some issues with the video. Each time, the video would stutter for several seconds and then go black for about a second and then go back to normal. The audio didn't seem to be affected. This happened about 10 times. I don't know if this was due to an issue with our soon-to-be-replaced receiver or if it was the transmission.

[bspittle]

Our Stake Tech Specialists (and judging by the load failure, those of other stakes as well) were advised by global support to stream the satellite feed to our Internet stream receiving meeting houses. They were advised this when they called to receive the regional broadcast url to provide to our non-satellite/internet only chapels.

That's funny. Because the "Stake Conference Broadcast Instructions for Stake Presidents" specifically said to use the private URL to stream from SLC and NOT to stream from one location to another.

We were definitely told not to stream the satellite broadcast to other buildings. We were given a specific URL so remote units without a satellite connection could watch the broadcast.

[bspittle]

I agree totally with your remarks. Our stake tried to do a local webcast for the first 30 minutes (a couple of units are 3-4 hour drive from the Stake Center) and it completely failed. I was not expecting that. I was so confident going in based on our last experience that I did not have an audio backup plan since it was only 25-30 minutes in total. Very embarrassing to have 8 remote meetinghouses with nothing to listen to for 30 minutes. Less learned about audio backup.

[russellhltn]

The stake center received the broadcast via satellite transmission and the other 2 buildings directly through the Internet stream provided by HQ. ... They never experienced any problems.

Which certainly suggests that whatever crippled the webcast system, didn't affect the CHQ 2 MH system. So there's some separation of resources.

[lajackson]

Very embarrassing to have 8 remote meetinghouses with nothing to listen to for 30 minutes.

As it turns out from having now read the actual instructions, they should have had one of the stake president's counselors, or a high councilor to listen to, along with their own music, prayers, and other local programming as directed by the stake president.

Two posts before yours, danpass explains how wonderful it all works when the proper directions are followed.

[bspittle]

Our Stake is not an average Utah Stake and the travel distances make it important for us to use the webcast technology for all Stake Conferences, especially those in the winter. I've confirmed that the intent of the instructions was not to preclude a webcast. Most units in our stake are a 1.5-2 hour drive to the Stake Center. For such a short meeting, the webcast was considered by the Stake Presidency as an ideal solution as there are 13 wards and branches. We did book the event well ahead of time so counted on the resources being available.