Webcast streams

[harddrive]

Use a camera that meets the church's standards and you shouldn't have any issues with video quality (assuming that it is well mounted/controlled)


All well and good, but in my experience (2 stake conferences and a priesthood leadership meeting with V2 of the webcast software) you should plan for a MINIMUM of 60 seconds delay when running the webcast.


Look at my timeline above. I was planning on that type of setup when I drew it. Each "Delay unit" is at least a minute (we have seen delays of 2 to 5 minutes near the end of a session)

You will have people sitting for a minimum of 2 minutes in buildings 1 and 2 while you wait for the webcast buffering delay.

Aaron Z

Aaron, thank you for the information and I will agree with you on the delay. However, as I stated, my laptop would already have buffered the other web server before the speaker is ready to go and it would be a matter of uncovering the projector at the stake center, switch the mixer to camera 4 and away we go. None of the other buildings would be connecting to the web server at the other building. it would all go through the stake center.

Again, I see the delay because it would be a delay from the other building to my laptop and then from the web server in the stake center to the other buildings.

it is something to try.

[kd7mha]

Aaron, thank you for the information and I will agree with you on the delay. However, as I stated, my laptop would already have buffered the other web server before the speaker is ready to go and it would be a matter of uncovering the projector at the stake center, switch the mixer to camera 4 and away we go. None of the other buildings would be connecting to the web server at the other building. it would all go through the stake center.

Again, I see the delay because it would be a delay from the other building to my laptop and then from the web server in the stake center to the other buildings.

it is something to try.

but because of the delay the speaker at the other location would need to start his talk at least "1 delay unit" before the stake center is ready for the stream (2 delay units from the other buildings perspective) you would have a "Live" speaker and a broadcast stream for aprox. 2 min overlap in the other building unless the other speaker is broadcasting from a classroom

[Aczlan]

but because of the delay the speaker at the other location would need to start his talk at least "1 delay unit" before the stake center is ready for the stream (2 delay units from the other buildings perspective) you would have a "Live" speaker and a broadcast stream for aprox. 2 min overlap in the other building unless the other speaker is broadcasting from a classroom

Exactly, you one of two problems:

1. A 2 delay unit break when switching between the speaker in building 1 and the one in building 2 (note this is NOT due to starting a streams, this is the delay between sending the stream and receiving it)
2. The speaker in building 2 speaking from somewhere other than the podium (not much point in having them there unless you want to save on travel)

If you really want to do this, look into another video transmission program to send the video from building 2 to building 1. That will drop your break between speakers from 2 delay units to just over 1.

Aaron Z

[Aczlan]

One other thing, there are 2 buffers, an uplink buffer on the servers in SLC (I believe that the servers in salt lake buffer about a minute of video before sending it out) and the buffer on each local computer (The length of this buffer will be different for each computer receiving the broadcast as it is based on how much video has been buffered by that computer and how long it has had to wait while the video buffered).
So, I would say that 60 seconds is the minimum delay between when the feed leaves building 1 and when it is seen in building 2.


Aaron Z

[harddrive]

One other thing, there are 2 buffers, an uplink buffer on the servers in SLC (I believe that the servers in salt lake buffer about a minute of video before sending it out) and the buffer on each local computer (The length of this buffer will be different for each computer receiving the broadcast as it is based on how much video has been buffered by that computer and how long it has had to wait while the video buffered).
So, I would say that 60 seconds is the minimum delay between when the feed leaves building 1 and when it is seen in building 2.


Aaron Z

Aaron in my few test that is exactly what I am find out. There is about a minute to a minute and fifteen seconds of delay. So to do that to another building would be two minutes.

[Aczlan]

Aaron in my few test that is exactly what I am find out. There is about a minute to a minute and fifteen seconds of delay. So to do that to another building would be two minutes.

How long did you let it run before testing? In my experience that buffering delay will get longer as the session progresses. Try running it for an hour then measure the delay. It will probably be at least 2 minutes for each delay unit.

Aaron Z

[harddrive]

How long did you let it run before testing? In my experience that buffering delay will get longer as the session progresses. Try running it for an hour then measure the delay. It will probably be at least 2 minutes for each delay unit.

Aaron Z

Ok, will have to give it a try.

[jbh001]

FWIW, we had stake conference webcast today and last night, and the delay was 90 seconds or more between the stake center and our building.

While what your stake president is hoping for is technically possible with other software like iChat AV, Skype, or other video conferencing software, it exceeds the intent of the current webcast offerings provided by the Church. I think it is worth noting that the Church has rarely even attempted this with General Conference, likely due to the complexity involved.

[Aczlan]

While what your stake president is hoping for is technically possible with other software like iChat AV, Skype, or other video conferencing software, it exceeds the intent of the current webcast offerings provided by the Church. I think it is worth noting that the Church has rarely even attempted this with General Conference, likely due to the complexity involved.

Complexity and risks. It is probably not worth the risk of having the transmission from the remote site interrupted during a talk in general conference.

Aaron Z

[lionelwalters]

While what your stake president is hoping for is technically possible with other software like iChat AV, Skype, or other video conferencing software, it exceeds the intent of the current webcast offerings provided by the Church. I think it is worth noting that the Church has rarely even attempted this with General Conference, likely due to the complexity involved.

It's entirely possible, and quite easy to achieve. ooVoo has a simple web interface that you could use (you can use that free at try.oovoo.com), but I would recommend WebEx (again, a free instance is available at meet.webex.com) as a comprehensive solution with low bandwidth overhead and no delays. If you're using a USB capture device, you can still use multiple cameras and audio sources. The full screen video view in WebEx shows the active speaker with the other participants in smaller windows below - which means there's no complicated process for switch streaming sites, just have the other sites muted until it's time for them to speak then it will automatically switch the video based on the site that is speaking. Although you can't do video overlays with WebEx, you can share PowerPoint and other documents as an alternative for displaying hymn lyrics, etc. But I think the benefit of being able to connect buildings with interactive video outweighs the limitation of having names and lyrics overlayed.