Viewing Church broadcasts live over the Internet

[michaelfish]

Our Stake viewed the streamed broadcast of General Conference today (about 40 were there) and IT WAS GREAT! No problems what so ever. The picture appeared to be about 720i and the sound was incredible. The only thing that could be better would be a faster frame rate, but I understand what an incredible task this must have been for Jacob.

Koodos to Brother Stark!

When the speakers gave their talks, I output the sound to the building speakers, but when the choir sang I turned off the building speakers and output the sound through the organ speaker cabinets and also through a stereo Yamaha Stagepas 300 system hidden behind the white curtains on the sides of the choir loft. Every choir voice was crystal clear and the low, low bass notes of the organ sounded as if it was playing in our chapel.

I received several comments about how good the choir sounded and although the picture was fantastic, we had to turn on some lights to allow note taking, washing out the screen a bit.

Thanks! I hope others also have positive feedback.

[harddrive]

This weekend I watched conference using mostly my computer. I also had another friend in my unit who also tested.

I didn't watch all of the morning session on Saturday, but I caught the last 1/2 hour of it. When I brought it up and it came right up and it was a great picture and no jitter. This was on a computer that was hardwired using a FIOS (fiber connection) at 15 megabits/second down and 5 Megabits/second up.

I then decided to test wireless for the afternoon session. I decided to use my laptop wirelessly. It worked good. The picture was excellent, but I noticed a few drop out and when the speaker spoke and move quickly it would drop out. Other then that it worked great.

We then tried the priesthood session and we had a bit of a problem. One thing that needs to happen with that is that the actual feed needs to be started much earlier than 5 minutes to go. This way we can make sure that the computer is working and things get in sync before the actual service and we can make sure things work. We had the Adobe Flash crash on us when we tried to change from laptop to the projector. So we couldn't get the people to view it. However, we did take the laptops to the foyer and we were able to view it on the wireless and it worked good. You could tell there were a few drops. There also were on a couple of computers for at one point that seemed to have a difficult time staying in sync. It would repeat a statement, but this was like once or twice. One computer seemed to have to catch up, but once it did it showed well.

On Sunday, I watched it over the Internet on my laptop that was hardwired to my router. It worked terrific. There were no drops that I could see. The sound was great and everything worked great and I had a steady 2.5 megabits/second. I thought that with everyone doing Sunday's morning session, but it worked terrific.

I had a friend who did the afternoon session and here is what he said, [font=&quot]I saw only a couple of blips, those could have been caused by almost anything. Other than that, it flowed smoothly and the quality was great.

The one that had issues, I have asked him to send me his write up. I'm waiting on that and will post it.

For me the overall effect of what we did and what it looked like, it was a successful pilot. I believe that this should move to the next stage. This I can saw is something that I see coming in the future. Great work and the server seemed to be handle the load. With my stake putting the clerk computers onto the closed circuit TV system, I can see us using them as the receivers and totally lose the satellite system.
[/font]

[sgcurtis]

Not sure how I missed this post earlier, but this is a great capability. We experienced an added benefit during our last conference. We discovered at the start of the priesthood session that our closed-captioning was not working. (Our satellite receiver was brand new, and nobody noticed the issue during the general sessions.) We called SLC to get the streaming link for the ASL feed for the priesthood session and then set up viewing in a clerk's office.

Although he missed the first talk while we got things straightened out, the deaf brother was so excited to get the ASL feed, rather than the closed-captioning. For those who may not have seen it, the ASL feed shows an individual actually signing, with the video of the speaker up in the corner. This is much more preferable to reading the "ticker" in closed captioning.

We'll be working to make this the standard setup for our deaf members -- just not in a clerk's office. And we'll still need to provide closed captioning for the hearing impaired members who don't know ASL.

Just thought I'd add a note about how these technologies can truly bless the lives of members.

[russellhltn]

We discovered at the start of the priesthood session that our closed-captioning was not working. (Our satellite receiver was brand new, and nobody noticed the issue during the general sessions.) We called SLC to get the streaming link for the ASL feed for the priesthood session and then set up viewing in a clerk's office.

Sounds like you got bit by the bug in the Unity552 receivers. By default (meaning after a reboot), the unit will not pass though the Closed Captioning even though that's what's set in it's internal menus. You have to go into the menu and toggle it to display the captioning, wait a few seconds and then switch it back to "Pass Though". After working with one of their techs, the church is now aware of what codes they have to send to fix it from their end. (If the two codes are sent too quickly, it doesn't work.) So hopefully this won't be a problem going forward. (And hopefully a new firmware will fix that bug.)

the deaf brother was so excited to get the ASL feed, rather than the closed-captioning. For those who may not have seen it, the ASL feed shows an individual actually signing, with the video of the speaker up in the corner. This is much more preferable to reading the "ticker" in closed captioning.

Just a quick note, what's "preferable" depends on the individual. Generally, people who lose their hearing very early in life prefer ASL. Members who lose their hearing after their language skills have been developed prefer Captioning. Despite the use of "American" in it's name, ASL uses a different sentence structure making it more like a foreign language.

[Aczlan]

After working with one of their techs, the church is now aware of what codes they have to send to fix it from their end. (If the two codes are sent too quickly, it doesn't work.) So hopefully this won't be a problem going forward. (And hopefully a new firmware will fix that bug.)

Any idea when they found this out? We ran into this at General Conference and again in mid May for the Northeast Stake Conference broadcast. Both times it took at least 15 minutes to figure it out.
The first time they did it remotely, the second time, they had me do it through the interface, so I can now do it myself for future broadcasts.

Just a quick note, what's "preferable" depends on the individual. Generally, people who lose their hearing very early in life prefer ASL. Members who lose their hearing after their language skills have been developed prefer Captioning. Despite the use of "American" in it's name, ASL uses a different sentence structure making it more like a foreign language.

Good to know.
Does the ASL feed require a second receiver, or can that be run over the "normal" receiver?

Thanks

Aaron Z

[russellhltn]

Any idea when they found this out? We ran into this at General Conference and again in mid May for the Northeast Stake Conference broadcast.

We worked it out just after the April conference. From your experience, maybe the lesson wasn't really learned.

Does the ASL feed require a second receiver, or can that be run over the "normal" receiver?

ASL is a separate video feed. It requires a second receiver. Note that there's no Closed Captioning on the ASL feed (that I've been able to find).

[Aczlan]

We worked it out just after the April conference. From your experience, maybe the lesson wasn't really learned.

I was calling in during "off hours" (~9PM Eastern on the Thursday before General Conference and ~10:30AM on Sunday for Stake Conference), so it is possible that not everyone knows about the fix.

ASL is a separate video feed. It requires a second receiver. Note that there's no Closed Captioning on the ASL feed (that I've been able to find).

That is what I thought. I will mention it and see if they want to request it, or just keep going with Closed Captioning.

Thanks

Aaron Z

[starkjs]

Thank you everyone for the feedback! We will be having another set of tests later this year. This time, we plan on using a dedicated hardware device. I look forward to keeping you all in the loop.

Cheers,
Jacob

[harddrive]

Thank you everyone for the feedback! We will be having another set of tests later this year. This time, we plan on using a dedicated hardware device. I look forward to keeping you all in the loop.

Cheers,
Jacob

Jacob, I for one look forward to it. Again, I will ask you during the priesthood session to start the stream at least 15 minute before it is to begin. This way we can make sure that the computer we use will be ready and not miss any of it when there are 75 brethren in the room.

Thanks.

[starkjs]

Thanks-- I believe we are looking into adding exactly that functionality.

Cheers,
Jacob