Tech Forum

I am a newly called STS in Sweden and today we had the very first webcast in our stake (a fireside).

We used the Wirecast and set up the event in advance with five distant units listed as receiving sites (each with a listed assistant). There were also a few member who were given the event code to view from their homes.

The event itself worked great. Each of the assistants could join the stream in the configured receiving sites and those streams worked great, but none of the members joining through the event code could access the stream.

The members trying to view on personal devices could log in to portal.ldswebcast.org and enter the code under "Find a broadcast". When searching with the code the details for the stake fireside showed up along with a button (link) to join the webcast. The link lead to a site like the ones the configured receiving sites could view. A video started playing with the tabernacle choir along with a text stating "Waiting for Broadcast". However, the stream never started.

When running a test earlier we tried accessing the test stream both through configured sites and with the event code. During that test when we joined the stream via the event code we saw the same MoTab video playing for a short while while the stream was buffering. However, now during the real event the stream never started for those joining via event code. It just kept playing the MoTab video with the statement "Find a broadcast" indefinitely. We tried manually changing the video quality, setting the "Low bandwidth mode" toggle to "on", refreshing the page, or simply just waiting for an hour without ever getting past MoTab.

Is there anything in the setup of the event which needs to be done in order to enable joining the event with the event code?

Please help! We have a webcast stake conference coming up in two weeks...

Ok, so I just spoke with GSC and apparently this was a known global issue, not just affecting us.

dbentham wrote:Is there anything in the setup of the event which needs to be done in order to enable joining the event with the event code?

No, and I have never had this problem before. In fact, we used only the event code for a regional fireside broadcast with an Apostle to over a dozen locations in various stakes just three weeks ago.

It affected our stake conference webcast today. Only we were not even able to get to the "awaiting broadcast" choir music. The page just kept loading and reloading and reloading again. Because of it, our service member groups around the world were not able to participate. The event page at the portal showed every group who tried to log in with the event code and that they were connected, but none of them were actually connected.

Hopefully the problem will be fixed before your stake conference. But I would test and double test after Tuesday, April 11. There is no better way to get a small amount of sleep before a stake conference webcast than to have actually run a successful test.

And who knows what will happen after the Tuesday upgrade.

As a troubleshooting tip for rannthal, I provide the following.

Yesterday, it appears that the five-digit event code was treated as a broadcast location, but without the statistical gathering. The first time I tried it, it made several attempts but did not load, and I eventually clicked on the Exit button. The next time I tried to access it, I received a message that the broadcast location is already in use and not available, even though it tried to load the site with the same results as at first.

As for "it did not load", I received the image of the Savior, the box then went blank as if it was going to provide the stream, and then the website reloaded with the picture of the Savior again. The same thing repeated over and over until I clicked on the Exit button. Firefox (latest version) over Windows 10.

The rest of the broadcast was normal, except that we could only send to the specifically registered locations identified during the event reservation.

There was a problem with the cloud provider. We are working with them to figure out what happened and to get it fixed.

I'm sorry for all the inconvenience that it caused. We are just as frustrated as you. This should not happen.

Is there any update on this issue? We believe we are seeing the same problem and we have stake conference this weekend. We will need the webcast working for that.

rmorgan wrote:Is there any update on this issue? We believe we are seeing the same problem and we have stake conference this weekend. We will need the webcast working for that.

Accessing the stream with the five digit code was working for us during our last test (Thursday last week) so it seems to have been resolved with the update earlier last week.

When did you see the same problem? We also have stake conference this weekend and you're making me worried that it stopped working after our last test...

dbentham wrote:

rmorgan wrote:Is there any update on this issue? We believe we are seeing the same problem and we have stake conference this weekend. We will need the webcast working for that.

Accessing the stream with the five digit code was working for us during our last test (Thursday last week) so it seems to have been resolved with the update earlier last week.

When did you see the same problem? We also have stake conference this weekend and you're making me worried that it stopped working after our last test...

I carried out a Full Test last evening, with one person using the 5 digit code. He had no problem with receiving the webcast.

Crashed yesterday after half hour working. Hope it is working in two weeks!

Viewing at home worked fine during our Stake Conference this past week-end. We had 19 members connecting from home due to illness or other circumstances.