Gremlins in the Meetinghouse Webcast software
Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 3:43 pm
Hi there,
I'm hoping someone can assist or put me in the right direction for some help on this strange issue. We're a very small stake in numbers so along with serving in the stake presidency, I fill in as the stake technology specialist (for computer-related technologies). We're spread across a fairly wide geography so we've been exploring using webcast in a limited fashion to cut down on travel.
Just under a year ago, our stake experimented with using the Webcast software to broadcast a funeral. After a week of thorough testing, we saw some audio/video sync issues that ended up manifesting themselves in the broadcast on the day. The video was delayed by the expected minute or so, but the audio lagged behind that a further 2 or 3 minutes (so the first 2-3 minutes of the broadcast were silent). When I spoke to the folks at the GSD, they were at a loss to explain the issue so we had to just live with it this time.
A year and some sporadic testing later, we finally felt confident to try it again. We sought approval from a visiting Seventy to webcast a fireside he was to preside at. Again, I spent hours at the chapel testing and retesting to make sure everything worked. I was pleased to observe that the sync issues did not appear in any of the testing this time. I tested streaming from the host chapel, other chapels and from home; I tested receiving from the host chapel, other chapels and from home. Everything worked perfectly and consistently!
Then last night I got to the chapel two hours prior to the fireside to set things up. I was quickly satisfied that everything was looking great from the sending end, but then I set up a receiving terminal. Despite a week of consistently perfect results, the sync issues appeared just as they had a year ago. I tried stopping and restarting the stream, but this resulted in the receiving ends being unable to connect to the stream again after it had stopped (even up to 5 minutes later - the sending end appeared to be sending fine, but the receiving WMP could not find or connect to the stream)! I had to create a new event ID for it to even stream again, but still the sync issues persisted. I tried changing the upload speeds (our buildings have 20/1mbps connections, but because we never achieve these optimum speeds, all my testing had been using the 100kbps setting, which had yielded the perfect results I've mentioned; I increased it to the 200kbps setting this time), then tried using a different PC to initiate the stream. By this time I was running late for a meeting with the visiting authority, so despite my efforts to fix it at my end, I had no success and the result was a very embarassing and less than effective webcast experience.
I'd love to speak with someone who specifically supports the backend of this service, and perhaps run some tests with them. We want, of course, to use the Church's supported product, but something needs to be fixed if this is going to be the consistent outcome. Any thoughts or contacts would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
Lionel Walters
I'm hoping someone can assist or put me in the right direction for some help on this strange issue. We're a very small stake in numbers so along with serving in the stake presidency, I fill in as the stake technology specialist (for computer-related technologies). We're spread across a fairly wide geography so we've been exploring using webcast in a limited fashion to cut down on travel.
Just under a year ago, our stake experimented with using the Webcast software to broadcast a funeral. After a week of thorough testing, we saw some audio/video sync issues that ended up manifesting themselves in the broadcast on the day. The video was delayed by the expected minute or so, but the audio lagged behind that a further 2 or 3 minutes (so the first 2-3 minutes of the broadcast were silent). When I spoke to the folks at the GSD, they were at a loss to explain the issue so we had to just live with it this time.
A year and some sporadic testing later, we finally felt confident to try it again. We sought approval from a visiting Seventy to webcast a fireside he was to preside at. Again, I spent hours at the chapel testing and retesting to make sure everything worked. I was pleased to observe that the sync issues did not appear in any of the testing this time. I tested streaming from the host chapel, other chapels and from home; I tested receiving from the host chapel, other chapels and from home. Everything worked perfectly and consistently!
Then last night I got to the chapel two hours prior to the fireside to set things up. I was quickly satisfied that everything was looking great from the sending end, but then I set up a receiving terminal. Despite a week of consistently perfect results, the sync issues appeared just as they had a year ago. I tried stopping and restarting the stream, but this resulted in the receiving ends being unable to connect to the stream again after it had stopped (even up to 5 minutes later - the sending end appeared to be sending fine, but the receiving WMP could not find or connect to the stream)! I had to create a new event ID for it to even stream again, but still the sync issues persisted. I tried changing the upload speeds (our buildings have 20/1mbps connections, but because we never achieve these optimum speeds, all my testing had been using the 100kbps setting, which had yielded the perfect results I've mentioned; I increased it to the 200kbps setting this time), then tried using a different PC to initiate the stream. By this time I was running late for a meeting with the visiting authority, so despite my efforts to fix it at my end, I had no success and the result was a very embarassing and less than effective webcast experience.
I'd love to speak with someone who specifically supports the backend of this service, and perhaps run some tests with them. We want, of course, to use the Church's supported product, but something needs to be fixed if this is going to be the consistent outcome. Any thoughts or contacts would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
Lionel Walters