Tech Forum

We need to be able to broadcast an upcoming Stake Conference to 1+ ward buildings. According to our Regional Facilities Manager, he attended a meeting earlier this year where they discussed an upcoming church-sponsored broadcasting technology (e.g. software and hardware kit) that stakes could use for this and other similar purposes.

I've seen threads about others using slingbox and the like so has anyone (recently) heard or know of any church-sponsored technology for broadcasting? We have 1.5 MB DSL lines at each location and our Stake Center has a 756 KB uplink speed capacity. Our ward building have CAT 5e right to the pulpit so receiving an Internet-based broadcast is easy by attaching a laptop to a projector.

Thanks in advance,
Cameron

ccmichaelson wrote:We need to be able to broadcast an upcoming Stake Conference to 1+ ward buildings. According to our Regional Facilities Manager, he attended a meeting earlier this year where they discussed an upcoming church-sponsored broadcasting technology (e.g. software and hardware kit) that stakes could use for this and other similar purposes.

I've seen threads about others using slingbox and the like so has anyone (recently) heard or know of any church-sponsored technology for broadcasting? We have 1.5 MB DSL lines at each location and our Stake Center has a 756 KB uplink speed capacity. Our ward building have CAT 5e right to the pulpit so receiving an Internet-based broadcast is easy by attaching a laptop to a projector.

Thanks in advance,
Cameron

This offering from the Church was mentioned in an Online Tech Talk a few months ago; you can watch the video yourself here and see if it says how to contact the Church about using such offerings:

http://tech.lds.org/index.php?option=co ... 2&Itemid=1

ccmichaelson wrote:We need to be able to broadcast an upcoming Stake Conference to 1+ ward buildings. According to our Regional Facilities Manager, he attended a meeting earlier this year where they discussed an upcoming church-sponsored broadcasting technology (e.g. software and hardware kit) that stakes could use for this and other similar purposes.

I've seen threads about others using slingbox and the like so has anyone (recently) heard or know of any church-sponsored technology for broadcasting?

Being one of those who have posted about using Slingbox technology for local broadcasts, I was approached through private message by another STS who had been directed by his stake president to find a solution for simulcasting an upcoming stake conference. We have communicated by email and telephone to answer all his questions regarding my stake's experience using this technology.

He subsequently called the satellite support team on another matter and during his conversation mentioned that he was exploring the possibility of using a Slingbox to broadcast between buildings. He was told "Don't", because in November they are going to begin rolling out a hardware based solution that will provide better quality and have lower bandwidth requirements. This solution has already gone through beta testing.

Many stakes are looking for ways to broadcast between buildings. Successfull use of Slingbox technology has been discussed more than once in these forums. I recommend that as soon as the above information has been officially confirmed, that a moderator or administrator go back and edit these posts adding something to the effect that "the church has now made a better solution available for local broadcasts. Please see...". It would be unfortunate if someone made a decision based on the outdated information currently in these posts.

danpass wrote:...I recommend that as soon as the above information has been officially confirmed, that a moderator or administrator go back and edit these posts adding something to the effect that "the church has now made a better solution available for local broadcasts. Please see...". It would be unfortunate if someone made a decision based on the outdated information currently in these posts.

While I understand the advantage of what you are proposing, we as moderators try to make it a practice to not go overboard with editing the posts of Community users. I think most people would realize when a thread is interesting to them, that they should check the most recent posts in the thread to see if there are updates. I believe that is how forums should (and do) work.

I guess what I'm saying is that I think it would be just as effective for you the Community members to help us find those out-dated threads and to post updates to them (and even links to better resources when they become available).

This is a very "Grey" area and I am not sure how to address this. There is a product that is being developed and is very close to release. It is designed to enable the sending of a meeting, such as a stake conference, from one location to many. A lot of work has gone into the development of this product to make it both simple to use for someone that is not very technical, but also to provide a very good and reliable picture and sound. I don't feel like I have the freedom to "announce" when it will become available, here in this forum. There is a proper way of doing things within this organization and as you know this is not the announcement arm . If you have an event in the next 6 to 10 weeks then I would recommend that you spend as little as possible and try to refrain from buying anything for that event. It would be well worth your time to wait and see what is announced. There will be product sheets and specifications that can be reviewed before you purchase so most of your questions should be able to answered then. The upload speed mentioned at the beginning of this thread would be sufficient for this system to work.
I wish I could explain more, but I think you understand that doing so would be inappropriate at this time.

I understand the problems - but there is something I'd like to know and possibly take back to the Powers That Be:

When do most stakes hold their conference? I've only known my stake, but it's always held it's conference shortly after the General Conferences. Maybe that's just the way things worked out, but I wonder if it was to wait for "marching orders" from GC to set the tone. If that's true, then we're currently in a "wave" of stake conferences. Delaying announcement, even a "pre-announcement" could cause this solution to miss it's "wave".

tsheffield wrote:I wish I could explain more, but I think you understand that doing so would be inappropriate at this time.

Personally, I feel even your non-specific feedback is very welcome and once again validates the usefulness of this forum.

RussellHltn wrote:When do most stakes hold their conference? I've only known my stake, but it's always held it's conference shortly after the General Conferences. Maybe that's just the way things worked out, but I wonder if it was to wait for "marching orders" from GC to set the tone. If that's true, then we're currently in a "wave" of stake conferences. Delaying announcement, even a "pre-announcement" could cause this solution to miss it's "wave".

Our stake conference is shortly before General Conference. As I understand it, stake conferences are spread throughout the year. I assume this is is necessary to spread the load on visiting authorities.

So I really don't think there is much of a "wave" effect to worry about.

Alan_Brown wrote:Our stake conference is shortly before General Conference. As I understand it, stake conferences are spread throughout the year. I assume this is is necessary to spread the load on visiting authorities.

So I really don't think there is much of a "wave" effect to worry about.

Unless the "wave" really is before General Conference and RussellHltn needs to get his stake to jump on the bandwagon.

J/K...the only reason I say that is that ours is a few weeks before GC as well.

We're not behind the wave, we're ahead of the next one.