1st Webcast Stake Conference

Using the Church Webcasting System, YouTube, etc. Including cameras and mixers.
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cmaire-p40
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1st Webcast Stake Conference

#1

Post by cmaire-p40 »

Hello, I am from the Hingham Stake in Massachusetts.

I thought I would post this recap of our first Stake Conference using Meetinghouse Communicator, this weekend. We had a number of issues getting to this point, which I will mention briefly, but a few outstanding issues that really interferred with the quality of the experience for our 2 other unit buildings reception of the conference session.

We purchased 3 new HP Pavillion DV6t laptops with Windows 7. We have a professional grade audio and video system that gave us audio and video. We purchased a Dazzle adapter. I had a Dell Lattitude D620 laptop with Win XP as a backup.

The Meetinghouse Webcast (MW) would not register audio on the Dell WinXP and the HP Win7 through the Dazzle, the MW did recognize the audio through the external mic port only on the Dell.

So we used the Dell with WinXP.... We broadcasted the meetings and test without adjusting the Windows Media Encoder.... When I did adjust it, it crashed the Dell and the HP. So we stuck with the Dell and restarted without touching Win Media, and opened MW and it worked. We had OK reception on Sat and Sunday a better broadcast at the units. Fortunately Sat was only a test. Sunday we had some spotty audio where it seemed that MW was modulating the audio highs and drop during the low sounds. Our sound technician, which he is by trade and had his own set up for audio and video, attempted to give a flat line sound feed and video was clean. And our Internet connection was fairly high in the stake center. The 2 receiving units experienced buffering and dropped sound and the delay of the bradcast was 50 second to up to 5 minutes, which was fine since it would start up where it left off.. but sometimes it showed video but with broken sound,that they think was too low to hear they said.


Also we had a conference call set up to have a backup audio and another conf call for technical communication between units during the conference. We also had ooVoo.com set up, but not logged into, in case we needed to switch but that also dropped on occasion during our 1 day test on Sat... so we didn't want to bring that in the mix.

So we did it, and now have to learn the following....

Is there any technical reference for production of a webcast, (Internet connection speed, audio signal and how long should it last before the application cuts out) We found it lasted under 2 hours on Sat. On Sun we decided to stop the webcast and start it again at the intermediate hymn, so we wouldn't run into the 2 hour issue during the Stake Pres talk. Unfortunately they missed a few talks audio after the Intermediate hymn when we re-started. And I think it would have stayed constant if we had just left it alone. (live and learn?)

I feel like we need to find if we are sending it in the most compressed manner to the MW server... and do we need a faster Internet connection at the receiving buildings. Also I would like to get MW to work with Win7 on the new laptop. Are there settings that need to be changed on the sending and receiving laptops ? Any suggestion what to look at?


We are planning to expand this to more buildings we have a large geographic area including 2 island, but now have 6 months to test and improve the system. Any hints would be greatly appreciated. I am researching this online under the keywords webcasting, webstreaming Win7 Media encoder settings.... any others to look for?

Thanks for reading, I hope there are some of you with more experience that can help Hingham lift some of the audio fog we experience with Meetinghouse Webcast this weekend.

Thanks,

Craig
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aebrown
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#2

Post by aebrown »

cmaire wrote:Is there any technical reference for production of a webcast, (Internet connection speed, audio signal and how long should it last before the application cuts out)
The technical reference is on the wiki at Meetinghouse Webcast. The connection speed specifics are in Meetinghouse Webcast Requirements.
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cmaire-p40
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#3

Post by cmaire-p40 »

We read that and followed it, still had problem. I will try an even lower speed setting, next time. That makes sense, I think we will try upping the connections at the locations as well.

Thank you.
russellhltn
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#4

Post by russellhltn »

You might also test your connections to make sure you're getting the throughput you need. I'd also talk to your ISP to see if you aren't running into some kind of cap during the 2+ hour stream.
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bbeachem-p40
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Cannot get Media player to open the Webcast URL

#5

Post by bbeachem-p40 »

I can run the Meetinghouse Webcast SW Ver 2.1.0.1 just fine (see my video in the tool and such), but any time a launch the URL provided in the tool I get the Windows Media Player error:
"Windows Media Player cannot find the file. If you are trying to play, burn, or sync an item that is in your library, the item might point to a file that has been moved, renamed, or deleted."
I've tried this on several different computers with various Windows OSes (XP, Vista, Win7, Server2008) and various firewall settings (even Windows firewall OFF) and I cannot get past this error.
I cannot even get the URL to work on my local machine hosting/sourcing the video and audio. All the system tools in the Webcast software indicate video/audio and system checks are okay. HELP?????
SheffieldTR
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#6

Post by SheffieldTR »

Craig,

I might have missed it, but I don't see anywhere where you tell us what speed you streamed at and what your test of your bandwidth showed to ensure enough "headroom" on the webcast. That is the first thing I would be suspect of. Secondly, What kind of broadband do you have, DSL, Cable, fixed wireless, etc...? What did your pre-test on a Sunday show? Tests on Thursday night or Saturday are nice but not representative what you might experience on a Sunday.

Those are all things I would suspect before I would begin to think that the MHW Communicator was having problems. Not to say they don't but that is where I would start looking.

I would recommend that you webcast (with permission of your stake president and bishop) a sacrament meeting or two to validate some of the issues that you have run into.

Good luck and let us know what you learn.
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