Tech Forum

During this April, 2011 General Conference, local units are invited to participate in a pilot for viewing General Conference live over the Internet. This thread is for questions, comments, etc. from pilot participants and other interested community members.

starkjs wrote:During this April, 2011 General Conference, local units are invited to participate in a pilot for viewing General Conference live over the Internet. This thread is for questions, comments, etc. from pilot participants and other interested community members.

I tested our internet connection using the broadcast over the Internet for a test and then one year our satellite dish went down and so I was able to show the 4 session at my meeting house using my laptop and the Internet. It worked great. The only draw back was that we could only see the general session and not the Priesthood session. Although, I understand that the Priesthood session is actually webcast and the bishop has to call in to get the URL.

Also are you looking for stakes that want to participate? If so, I think I can recommend that the Suitland Maryland Stake would be willing to participate. We are looking to do webcasting in June, so it would be a good test anyway.

Thanks for letting me know and when I get the information, I will pass the idea to my stake president.

I hope the stream is (or will eventually be) HTML5 compatible. Being able to stream General Conference to an iPad2 and then use its new video mirroring to feed a VGA or HDTV projector, along with feeding the audio system from the iPad2's headphone jack, seems like compelling option. It remains to be seen whether the composite AV cable will support the iPad2's video mirroring.

@Harddrive, This is great information. We would love to have your stake participate in the pilot test. Any interested location can send an e-mail to starkjs@ldschurch.org in order to sign up. Please include the following:

·Contact Name
·Unit Name
·Unit Location
·E-Mail
·Phone Number
·Calling
·Has your congregation previously viewed conference live over the Internet?

For this conference, we are also streaming priesthood session using our adaptive bitrate technologies. @jbh001, Unfortunately, this is a flash-based stream, which excludes iOS devices.

starkjs wrote:Unfortunately, this is a flash-based stream, which excludes iOS devices.

Would this format be compatible with some of the Western Digital "live" model media players?

I've noticed that the recently archived streams of conference available at lds.org are higher in video definition than regular satellite broadcasts.

Does anyone know what resolution the test Internet feed of General Conference will be in?

michaelfish wrote:I've noticed that the recently archived streams of conference available at lds.org are higher in video definition than regular satellite broadcasts.

Does anyone know what resolution the test Internet feed of General Conference will be in?

I checked with my stake presidency and they have given us the ok to proceed to move forward. So I sent out a message to my people to see who will participate.

Now, one of the things that we are looking at doing in the near future is to connect our clerk computers to the closed circuit TV system. This way we could actually watch conference over the Internet because we will have everything in place. So we could, except for the priesthood session, do all sessions and other satellite broadcast when that is completed.

So it will be interesting to see what happens with this.

michaelfish wrote:I've noticed that the recently archived streams of conference available at lds.org are higher in video definition than regular satellite broadcasts.

Does anyone know what resolution the test Internet feed of General Conference will be in?

To clarify, there are two ways to view conference:

1. Archived files: These are downloadable files that are at one set resolution.

2. Streaming player: One can view conference "on-demand" (after conference has aired) or live using the streaming player. This player uses an adaptive bitrate technology that changes quality based upon your Internet connection. This streaming player supports up to 1080p, which is much higher than regular satellite broadcasts. The audio is also in stereo, but most chapels only have mono audio systems and can not take advantage of this.

For the test Internet feed of General Conference, the streaming video player will support up to 1080p.

Hope this information helps!

RussellHltn wrote:Would this format be compatible with some of the Western Digital "live" model media players?

Right now, the Western Digital TV Live media player is limited to streaming only specific content. Users are not able to use this device to view the live stream on conference.lds.org. Devices such as the Roku, Boxee, and GoogleTV are able to access the live stream. Right now, we recommend the Western Digital Media Player for those downloading conference files and viewing on a delayed basis and are exploring different options for viewing live streams.

harddrive wrote:I checked with my stake presidency and they have given us the ok to proceed to move forward. So I sent out a message to my people to see who will participate.

Now, one of the things that we are looking at doing in the near future is to connect our clerk computers to the closed circuit TV system. This way we could actually watch conference over the Internet because we will have everything in place. So we could, except for the priesthood session, do all sessions and other satellite broadcast when that is completed.

So it will be interesting to see what happens with this.

To clarify, priesthood IS available for streaming over the Internet for congregations that request access in advance. More information will be sent to pilot participants.

Hope this information helps!