Solutions by Prayer

Discussions around receiving, originating, and holding Church broadcasts and conferences in meetinghouses including schedules, setup, equipment, and support.
Post Reply
michaelfish
Member
Posts: 421
Joined: Sun May 10, 2009 4:44 pm
Location: Gilbert, AZ USA

Solutions by Prayer

#1

Post by michaelfish »

I'm friends with several Stake Technology Specialists in my area and we occasionally talk about our set-ups for broadcasting stake conferences and our challenges to maintain the Spirit and have flawless stake conferences. We all have testimonies that Heavenly Father wants us to succeed and sometimes we share our experiences when He has helped us find solutions to our problems, or has just taken over and fixed the problem for us. We all feel that He wants us to succeed and He is there to help us.

I want to share two examples and experiences with you.

A few years ago, the Phoenix East Stake had been assigned a General Authority at their conference and the satellite room had been in need of revamping for years. For several weeks prior to the conference, we planned and rewired the old configuration which for decades, had been used for ASL, live Spanish translation, VHS and DVD duplication, camera, remote control and distribution (from both the stand Satellite room to the building), etc. Although we thoroughly tested our upgrades on the Saturday a week prior to the conference, about a half-hour before the Sunday session their SlingBox failed, and no amount of rebooting, reconnecting or rewiring would bring it back up. We even tried factory resetting the box, but we couldn't connect.

In the middle of our frantic frustration, there was a knock on the door. It was my 85 year-old mother. She asked how it was going. The frustration on our faces was obvious, and then she asked if there was anything she could do to help (...right...). I politely responded "No, we'll figure it out" and closed the door. A few seconds later she knocked again, poked her head in and asked “Did you say a prayer?” We dropped everything (despite the urge to keep working the problem) to offer a prayer and ask for help.

My mind was racing and during the prayer but I realized (was inspired) the laptop we had for the hymn lyrics on also had the Webcast Communicator program installed. Immediately after the prayer we attached the video dongle and connected the cables. The laptop recognized the video and audio inputs, and we initiated a stream. I was very nervous using the same laptop for streaming and the hymns, especially since I had not had success with the Webcast Software on this machine before.

With-in a few minutes, the other building was receiving the stream. I looked at my watch and we had a couple of minutes to spare. I could hardly believe that our problem had been resolved so smoothly and perfectly. The rest of the conference broadcast was flawless.

Then last Wednesday, I had the same sort of experience. A differenct stake had been upgrading their conference equipment with HD cameras and a new HD video switcher. The STS had been plagued with problems, trying to get everything to work together and find solutions to overcome problems in the new set-up. The Stake Presidency wanted a mock run-through Wednesday evening to demonstrate that everything was working, but despite efforts from the previous nights, he couldn't get everything working all at the same time (1080i/p and frequency miss-matches). He called me for help and Tuesday we met. I identified several problems, made some suggestions and we came up with a plan. The STS set out to purchase various adapters and some other equipment in hopes that it would solve all of the problems.

We met the following evening (Wednesday) to swap out the parts and hope to have a working system. We met just a few hours before the deadline with the Stake Presidency. Before diving in, I suggested we pray for help. When the prayer ended, we worked together and were amazed to see each connection recognized and each unit successfully pass the new HD signal to the next device - all the way to our remote building. The meeting with the Stake Presidency was a success. They were all thrilled at the HD quality in the remote building.

My STS friends and I often speak of how Heavenly Father helps us with the challenges of our callings and we acknowledge his helping hand and share our stories. We know he wants to help us with our callings and work out problems with technology to have His Spirit present in our meetings, so don't forget to pray!
User avatar
sbradshaw
Community Moderators
Posts: 6245
Joined: Mon Sep 26, 2011 9:42 pm
Location: Utah
Contact:

Re: Solutions by Prayer

#2

Post by sbradshaw »

Thanks for your testimony!
Samuel Bradshaw • If you desire to serve God, you are called to the work.
User avatar
joshua.drewlow
New Member
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Jan 28, 2015 2:14 am
Location: Switzerland

Re: Solutions by Prayer

#3

Post by joshua.drewlow »

Thank you for sharing your wonderful experiences! I had similar experiences too. Currently I'm serving a fulltime mission in the Ukraine Kyiv Mission and we not long ago had a General Authority coming. We planned a really simple setup to stream to other parts of the mission. Before the meeting everything crashed, nothing seemed to work anymore. After a quick and intense prayer it worked out somehow, even we didn't change something. Amazing huh?!
Post Reply

Return to “Broadcasts and Conferences”