Frustration showing online media

Showed a church training video from the online library yesterday to some of our leadership. We have this resource to use and it is frustrating to show because it pauses then starts up again and pauses then starts up again. I tried it out Saturday with my i-phone and it only pause momentarily twice which I could live with but Sunday five or more pauses. What is the answer to use these great resources? Will the Roku box take care of it or is there a better way?

I think Sunday is always going to be a bit iffy since that's the day everyone else is using the church servers as well as the local network.

One thing you can do is make sure you're using a wired connection and not a wireless to the device you are using.

Of course, the safest way would be to download the video prior to your class, then play it from your hard drive. As Russell pointed out, bandwidth on Sundays can sometimes be a bit iffy.

So what was the point of putting all the time and effort into putting wireless in our building if you cannot use it in the classroom to add another element to the teaching of a lesson or for training our leaders?

farwest wrote:So what was the point of putting all the time and effort into putting wireless in our building if you cannot use it in the classroom to add another element to the teaching of a lesson or for training our leaders?

I don't know that Sunday classroom video streaming was the only purpose for wireless in meetinghouses. It serves many purposes. In looking at the near term this would appear to be a valid concern but only if video streaming is the sole purpose for which it is being used. Eventually the server load issue may become manageable so that video streaming will become reliable on Sundays. Until then we have to be patient.

farwest wrote:So what was the point of putting all the time and effort into putting wireless in our building if you cannot use it in the classroom to add another element to the teaching of a lesson or for training our leaders?

Not knowing anything about your building, all I can do is speak about my own stake's buildings. Our stake center's ISP is Comcast and with a sustained download speed of ~20mb/sec can support several simultaneous streaming videos, normal clerk and bishop activities, a family history library, and have some left over for a few teens to post on Facebook during sacrament meeting. (Did I say that? ) In contrast, our "rock building" has Qwest DSL and because of its relative location, can sometimes reach peaks of 400kb/sec, but typically it can only sustain around 200kb/sec. That's just not enough for streaming video AND support all the other regular Sunday activities there as well.

The wireless was installed in our rock building, just like the others, to support the local leadership and members there. I'm sure the ISP's in that neighborhood will eventually be able to improve the available bandwidth to the Internet, but until then, all the users must share the line and use it prudently. They know that at least for now, streaming video on Sunday at church is out of the question, so they must still resort to "old school" tactics, like downloading the material at home and burning a DVD the night before.

farwest wrote:So what was the point of putting all the time and effort into putting wireless in our building if you cannot use it in the classroom to add another element to the teaching of a lesson or for training our leaders?

jdlessley wrote:I don't know that Sunday classroom video streaming was the only purpose for wireless in meetinghouses. It serves many purposes.

One such example might be to support the leaders using tablets or devices but can't afford a dataplan. WiFi is an affordable option for them.

There are multiple factors involved when trying to get media in the meetinghouse and making it accessible and easy to use. It's clear from this conversation that there won't be a silver bullet. We are looking at multiple options that will allow access to content and make it available to leaders and instructors. Please feel free to share what you are doing or ideas that would make accessing media in the Church more viable.

Currently, 70% of Church meetinghouses are connected to the Internet. As discussed in this thread, bandwidth varies from 400 kbps to 20+ mbps, depending on your location and local leadership. This makes it extremely difficult to provide any consistency in streaming delivery. We do stream live events so having our Ward Houses connected provides opportunities to many that have not had it in the past. No doubt additional work needs to be done to provide sufficient bandwidth in order for this to work on a more consistent bases.

Additionally we are working to test some solutions that would make access and setup easier for using media in training and teaching. One thought is to have a centralized media server and devices connected to TVs and projectors that would allow Live Streaming, VOD, and USB connectivity. We are always interested in hearing what you are doing to use and share media in your buildings. Please feel free to share your ideas and solutions.

I have seen many frustrated members show up just before their lesson or meeting expecting to show a video or some web site only to discover the bandwidth is insufficient or the web site is blocked. I personally have shown several videos in meetings and they were flawless. Of course, I did as Mikerowaved suggested and downloaded the video first. I download them at home and put them on my iPhone. It's then a simple connection using the right Apple cable to the projector or TV.

Ryan mentioned above that there are many factors going into this discussion. I have spent the last 2 years bringing LDSAccess wireless to all 9 buildings in my stake. Wireless coverage is at least 2 bars throughout the building. The expectation is that the church is developing online tools, training, etc that can be used to enhance lessons, improve experience of our members during sunday school and priesthood, and leadership training as well. Gone are the days of equivocating about what the church does and does not mean by pushing meetinghouse Internet. It is here... .

My problem is how to manage the expectations of availability and providing a positive experience to meetinghouses with varying speeds of Internet. (1) The church doesn't pay anyone to maintain the network. There will be random times that the church Internet will not work, I don't have Dual Internet feeds with dual routers running High Availability protocols in case one link goes down... there will be outages. Members MUST know that they should be able to plan to use these resources, but that they should be prepared to continue without if the need arise, without making a fuss about it, or distracting or taking away from the spirit by making such a big deal out of it. (2) Not everyone that wants to use these tools is Savvy enough to do all the things necessary to 'download ahead of time' in case an issue happens. (3) not everyone has a laptop with a projector, speakers, etc... the opportunity to use the online tools is not equal across the membership level when we rely on members laptops/ipads, etcc... BTW.. as a side note, the amount of time I've seen put into displaying a 2.5 minute Mormon message really started to get to me... How can I make this better? What can I do as an STS to give everyone better ability to use the resources.

1. DVD - Instruct members with free tools on downloading a Mormon Message and burning it to DVD (still pretty difficult)
--This allows members to use traditionally available audio/video equipment (tv's and dvd players) in their presentations - they don't really need to learn anything new, and vastly increases the number of members that can help troubleshoot if an issue arises.
2. ROKU - as a roku user in my home, I brought in my personal device to the building when my wife wanted to show a mormon message.. I wheeled in the tv... snap, easy
--Again, using traditionally available audio/video equipment... the roku interface to mormon channel is very easy to walk through and get connected to.
3. Media Server with content loaded connected to Roku... if online streaming doesn't work... I can connect to the content on the Media Server (difficult to maintain right now... new content distribution is the issue) - but if connected to the roku could help provide a single interface and work if the Internet is available or not
4. Cable kits available will make it much easier to use... converters, etc... that can be checked out from the materials center if you want to connect to a church device. etc...

Can anyone else fill in some other areas they're seeing success?

We have similar issues. Our ISP is CenturyLink (formerly Qwest), and they would only give us a business account at the business rate. Really expensive for bandwidth much slower than at home. We can just wait and hope for better service.

Interesting thread
I was to record Seminar Centennial conference but the recorder failed and on Sunday quite a number of seminary students are to watch it.
The Internet viewing (http://seminary.lds.org/history/centennial/eng/) will give drop outs and create sync issues between picture and sound.
So Any suggestions on how to download a copy of the conference?

They will probably add downloadable videos at some point.

Check this page later: http://seminary.lds.org/history/centennial/

hdarre wrote:I was to record Seminar Centennial conference but the recorder failed and on Sunday quite a number of seminary students are to watch it. So Any suggestions on how to download a copy of the conference?

Let me suggest two locations that are functioning. 1) https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/archive/ ... 2?lang=eng This is the Broadcast page in LDS.org 2) Mormon Channel in iTunes also has the full video and separate segments for playback and download. [typing the following in your web browser will open iTunes, on your computer, and open the Mormon Channel automatically: itunes.mormonchannel.org]

Thanks, that worked:)

I learned that they did have a server crash the night of the first broadcast of that Seminary Centennial broadcast. So many people wanted to see it online that it took the server down. However, I think many went to Mormon Channel and were able to see it that way.

All the downloads are up now, by the way.

Another tool is the Meetinghouse Library. For details and discussion, see this topic: Meetinghouse Library Project.