Broadcast for last 90 mins of stake conference

Using the Church Webcasting System, YouTube, etc. Including cameras and mixers.
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Mikerowaved
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Broadcast for last 90 mins of stake conference

#1

Post by Mikerowaved »

My stake president received a letter regarding an upcoming multi-stake conference for the Utah North Area. In one section it reads:
During the first 30 minutes stake and district leaders will provide a short spiritual message of their choosing and a musical number by a stake choir. In other locations, a counselor or a member of the High Council may be assigned to speak.
My SP has asked that we webcast the first 30 minutes from the stake center to our other buildings, then switch to the broadcast for the remaining 90 minutes.

This is not exactly what the above quote is asking for, but I'm good with it if that's his desire. My mind then flashed back to horror stories here in the forum of stakes doing something similar, only to have their webcasting reservations get cancelled by the church leaving their overflow buildings completely cut off for the first 30 minutes. (See THIS from 2016 and THIS from 2017.)

Is this something we can expect again? Further down in the letter it states:
Each meetinghouse should use the URL rather than streaming the broadcast from one location to another.
Webcasting the broadcast is not our intention. Do they shut off webcasting to these stakes to prevent this from happening? I would like to carry out my SP's wishes, but not at the expense of having our first 30 minutes cut off. Maybe I'll put a call through to the church tomorrow and see if I can get any official word.
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russellhltn
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Re: Broadcast for last 90 mins of stake conference

#2

Post by russellhltn »

As I understand it, the underlying problem has been a large number of stakes (many more than usual) will attempt to steam all at the same time and end up crashing the server. Even if you attempt to stream just the beginning, you're going to be right in the thick of things. The pre-conference broadcast may start off fine, but as more and more stakes start their feed, it may crash at close to the top of the hour.

If they haven't changed the form letter: (emphasis added)
If the conference is held in multiple locations, a counselor in the stake presidency or an assigned high councilor will preside *and conduct* in each location in order to handle the local Church business. Prayer, hymns, speakers musical numbers, prelude and postlude music should be provided in each location.


While the letter doesn't state it strongly enough to dissuade people, I think it's trying to encourage the pre and post part to be local to each building so that no streaming is necessary.
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lajackson
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Re: Broadcast for last 90 mins of stake conference

#3

Post by lajackson »

It sounds as if the instruction letter has become more friendly. The last one I read over a year ago specifically said not to stream the local portion of the conference.

It is understandable that a stake president would want his entire stake to hear his message. One option is for the stake to use a setup other than the Church-provided one. Another option is for the stake president to trust that his counselors (and even a high councilor or two, as needed) will relay the specific message he desires to share at the remote location.

Our stake president has taken the position that it is not his stake conference. He usually does not assign his counselors a topic, but rather tells them to rely on the Spirit. Their sole function is to preside, present the business of the conference (sustaining and releasing), and present a brief spiritual message to those assembled in that location. It would be similar to when the high council speakers are sent out to speak in sacrament meetings, with a topic or not, and also present stake business to the ward or branch because it cannot wait until the next stake conference.
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Mikerowaved
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Re: Broadcast for last 90 mins of stake conference

#4

Post by Mikerowaved »

russellhltn wrote:If they haven't changed the form letter: (emphasis added)
If the conference is held in multiple locations, a counselor in the stake presidency or an assigned high councilor will preside *and conduct* in each location in order to handle the local Church business. Prayer, hymns, speakers musical numbers, prelude and postlude music should be provided in each location.
Thanks, I missed that part which was further down in the letter.
lajackson wrote:One option is for the stake to use a setup other than the Church-provided one.
Yep, that thought did cross my mind.
lajackson wrote:Our stake president has taken the position that it is not his stake conference.
Sounds like a wise man. Might have to suggest some of these options to my SP and gently quote him some of the excerpts from the letter.
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Re: Broadcast for last 90 mins of stake conference

#5

Post by russellhltn »

Mikerowaved wrote:Might have to suggest some of these options to my SP and gently quote him some of the excerpts from the letter.
You might also want to point out the difference between "leading edge" and "bleeding edge" and that you'd rather wait until other stake report success in streaming the opening. As uplifting as it might be to hear the stake choir and hear the stake president's talk, failure will have a detrimental effect on the spirit. (Heck, just hearing a organ played in a bit-constrained stream has me gnashing teeth.)

Perhaps something to suggest would be to go ahead and stream, but not show it to the membership. Let someone in each building watch to see if it would have been successful. Since it wouldn't be watched, you can keep the production simple. The real test would be to see if the stream was OK.
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Re: Broadcast for last 90 mins of stake conference

#6

Post by Mikerowaved »

russellhltn wrote:As uplifting as it might be to hear the stake choir and hear the stake president's talk, failure will have a detrimental effect on the spirit.
This is very true and my biggest concern.
russellhltn wrote:Perhaps something to suggest would be to go ahead and stream, but not show it to the membership. Let someone in each building watch to see if it would have been successful. Since it wouldn't be watched, you can keep the production simple. The real test would be to see if the stream was OK.
Great idea. I have enough BW to view the stream myself and can easily see if it fails.
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Re: Broadcast for last 90 mins of stake conference

#7

Post by Mikerowaved »

Update! The original letter was retracted and a follow-up letter said the broadcast would provide prelude, 2 hours of conference, and postlude. Stakes will NOT be responsible for the 1st half hour of the meeting.

For us, the Sunday following the broadcast is our regular stake conference so I'll be setting up the webcasting gear for that anyway. (D'oh!)
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Re: Broadcast for last 90 mins of stake conference

#8

Post by russellhltn »

Mikerowaved wrote:Update! The original letter was retracted and a follow-up letter said the broadcast would provide prelude, 2 hours of conference, and postlude. Stakes will NOT be responsible for the 1st half hour of the meeting.
Cool! That actually simplifies things. At least I know that's what I'd prefer.
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Re: Broadcast for last 90 mins of stake conference

#9

Post by russellhltn »

Mikerowaved wrote:Update! The original letter was retracted and a follow-up letter said the broadcast would provide prelude, 2 hours of conference, and postlude. Stakes will NOT be responsible for the 1st half hour of the meeting.
I hope that's the plan going forward. To have to set up a stake conference that is both local and broadcast is a lot of work and takes a number of "moving parts" to switch things over. A straight broadcast is simple in comparison.
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Re: Broadcast for last 90 mins of stake conference

#10

Post by lajackson »

russellhltn wrote:A straight broadcast is simple in comparison.
Because we never have tried to webcast the local portion of the conference, all of them have been simple broadcasts for us. At the appropriate point, the satellite is turned on and the lights are turned off.

I hope they keep the change. At one point, the regional conference replaced one of the two stake conferences during the year, and so stakes needed to be able to conduct business. But since they became additional conferences a few years ago, there really has been no need to do that.

I think the change is an excellent one.
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