problems with webcast today

We had to restart our stake conference broadcast 3 times today. Not good. We meet all of the requirements listed on the webcast requirements page, and we haven't had this issue in the past.

We also noticed that the Church's test stream has been down today. Is this coincidental, or were there issues all around today? It would be helpful for us to know this so we can troubleshoot properly.

Thanks.

Sorry to hear you were having problems. It sure hurts the spirit when that happens. Can you be a little more specific about the details surrounding your webcast? Were you using a Webcast Communicator box or the Meetinghouse Webcast software? Was it the upload stream that needed to be restarted? Were you able to restrict access to the WiFi and/or other internet usage in the building during your webcast?

Thanks for your questions.

- we are using the communicator box and not the software
- we didn't technically restrict wi-fi but asked all members to disconnect from wi-fi. Regardless, the box has an Ethernet connection and I did some upload/download tests and our connection didn't seem to be suffering at all. I think we had upwards of 5Mb upload. At the same time, would love to learn how to restrict wi-fi access
- yes it was the upload stream that had to be restarted

jglanfield wrote: - yes it was the upload stream that had to be restarted

Make sure that your webcast communicator is well ventilated. We used to have our communicator installed on a shelf in our satellite cabinet and found that it was overheating, which caused reliability issues. Having good air circulation around the communicator completely resolved the issues.

Thanks for that suggestion. I would expect that if air circulation were an issue that this would be an ongoing problem. This is our 3rd or 4th broadcast and the first time we've had issues. But it's a good point and I'll be sure to add it to our list.

I'm still curious as to why the webcast test stream was down the same day (maybe it's still down?).

jglanfield wrote:Thanks for that suggestion. I would expect that if air circulation were an issue that this would be an ongoing problem. This is our 3rd or 4th broadcast and the first time we've had issues. But it's a good point and I'll be sure to add it to our list.

You are probably right. However, in our case, we had done more than a few successful webcasts with our communicator before this problem manifested. When it did manifest, the top of the device was quite hot. There was no dust accumulation on or in the device, which I suspected at first. By simply moving it out of the cabinet and making sure that no one set anything on top of it and that there was space around it, when in use, it hasn't gotten that hot again and has been very reliable.

danpass wrote:

jglanfield wrote:Thanks for that suggestion. I would expect that if air circulation were an issue that this would be an ongoing problem. This is our 3rd or 4th broadcast and the first time we've had issues. But it's a good point and I'll be sure to add it to our list.

You are probably right. However, in our case, we had done more than a few successful webcasts with our communicator before this problem manifested. When it did manifest, the top of the device was quite hot. There was no dust accumulation on or in the device, which I suspected at first. By simply moving it out of the cabinet and making sure that no one set anything on top of it and that there was space around it, when in use, it hasn't gotten that hot again and has been very reliable.

I can add a 3rd witness to this situation. We were successful several times before the overheating issue started with us. I run a fan on our system each time now and haven't had an issue since.

JohnShaw wrote:I can add a 3rd witness to this situation. We were successful several times before the overheating issue started with us. I run a fan on our system each time now and haven't had an issue since.

I'll add my voice to the rest. I once used a "loaner" Webcast Communicator and during extensive testing found that it would consistently go about 30-45 minutes into a webcast, then lose the upload stream. I suspected a temperature problem, so I removed the lid to do some IR scanning while webcasting. The problem was, without the lid it would run indefinitely without glitching, so that's how we ended up using it during the conference.

Don't know if this was the cause of your problem or not, but it's certainly worth looking into. These were built without any kind of positive ventilation, so I suspect just a little bit would make a big difference.

You might also want to drop a detailed note to webcastfeedback@ldschurch.org with the date/time of your conference, your unit number (or webcast URL) and details surrounding the problems you were having. They keep a pretty extensive set of logs and can see if there was anything peculiar happening with your webcast from their end.

jglanfield wrote:We had to restart our stake conference broadcast 3 times today. Not good. We meet all of the requirements listed on the webcast requirements page, and we haven't had this issue in the past.

We also noticed that the Church's test stream has been down today. Is this coincidental, or were there issues all around today? It would be helpful for us to know this so we can troubleshoot properly.

Thanks.

Just my 2 cents worth. Last Sunday a lot of the Church sites went down or were having problems. Could this be a factor?

Biggles wrote: Just my 2 cents worth. Last Sunday a lot of the Church sites went down or were having problems. Could this be a factor?

That's really what I'd like to know. Regardless, the comments about overheating have been helpful and we will definitely note that for our next broadcast. Thanks!

I'm glad that I'm not using the webcast communicator. I was using the software, but I have also dumped that.

I prefer to use personal video conferencing (PVC) from the church. I have found it very stable and it handles the fluctuation of the Internet a lot better.

Just my two cents worth

You use PVC for stake conference broadcasts?

Yes, I do use PVC for stake conference broadcast.