Satellite Policy questions

Hi,

My Stake has two locations with Satellite receivers.

At a broadcast Stake Conference over the weekend I learned the hard way that one unit was not working properly. The only way we got any of the meeting was to use a computer. That is not a good choice when the conference has been underway for 30 minutes.

My local FM Group rep tells me that the Stake is only authorized for one satellite receiver and that he can not get the receiver replaced.

Where do I find the actual policy so I know what to expect.

Thanks,

I would have the Stake President talk to the Area authority. I've never seen the exact policy, but I'm sure factors such as traveling distance and perhaps the seating capacity of the Stake Center building may weigh into it. I know there's stakes with more then one. I find it hard to believe that you'd have a second one if it had never been authorized.

Our stake has 9 buildings and 1 doesn't have a satellite. It was because of proximity to another building which was the stake center. They also do not have a font for the same reason. It was during building construction that those decisions were made... typically not an FM decision in my observation.

4 of the 5 buildings in our stake have satellites. The 5th building used to have one (a pretty sloppy retrofit), but it was removed some years ago - my guess is that it was because of proximity to other buildings. We are a geographically large stake, though.

The way I've seen things work - I think a lot has to do with the Stake President's will to push something through. Make sure he is aware of what is going on and ask whether he's OK with it. He may take it up with FM himself. It seems to me that once a FM has made the large investment for satellite installation, they'd want to continue the small cost of maintaining it. I've seen similar things happen with fonts in new buildings (mentioned above). They seem to be only building one font per stake now - but we have gotten exemptions for the two new buildings we've built recently because of distance to other buildings.

Even if your building gets its satellite removed, most church events are now broadcast on LDS.org. If your Stk Presidency approves (and if you trust your building's internet connection) you could begin using a computer and projector for these events.

The old policy was that if a meetinghouse was within 30 minutes of another building that had a satellite system, the meetinghouse would not receive a system. Some exceptions were made based on whether or not the new building was going to be a stake center, and on population growth issues (members in the new building would not fit into the old building for a broadcast). But that was the basic old policy.

When a satellite receiver failed early last year in a building in another stake, they were told to plan to stream broadcasts from now on. I am a friend of the person who was told this. I do not know the other circumstances in that stake, availability of other buildings, etc. My friend was of the impression that a new receiver would not be ordered.

An advantage, he said, is that the broadcasts are now in stereo. Of course, the building sound system still does not support that. A disadvantage is that he has to set up a different laptop for each language.

This is his own personal opinion, but he feels that the Church would like to move away from satellite systems and use Internet streaming. I am sure there are cost advantages. There are other disadvantages. But times are changing.

Again, this is his own personal opinion.