Regional Stake Conference

Today, 07 May 2017 the North American Northeast region had a conference. I set up the conference in the webcasting system and at 8:30 a.m., I connect the Vidu system and as far I as I know it connected and everything was fine. As the morning progressed towards the start of stake conference, the buildings were starting to come up and they told me that they had the Tabernacle Choir and not seeing the feed from stake center.

I looked over and realized that the VIDU until was in a ready state. So I attempted to start the broadcast and the Vidu unit would not connect. So I feel back to using PVC because I didn't know what the issue was. That worked fine.

I then decided to reboot the Vidu and when it came back up it said that the system wasn't ready. I even tried to attach to the Vidu unit and it wouldn't connect. The not ready state of the Vidu unit stayed that way until I rebooted it after the conference was over. Once I rebooted it then, it came to a ready state. I didn't attempt to connect to it afterwards, but I expect that I would be able to connect to it.

I didn't call SLC for this as I was just trying to get stake conference going. So I'm wondering if anyone else had an issue today?

Thanks
Terry

harddrive wrote:Today, 07 May 2017 the North American Northeast region had a conference. I set up the conference in the webcasting system . . .

Was your stake originating the regional stake conference? Normally, those regional conferences come over the Church satellite system, and the webcasting system is not used.

I will leave it to others to help determine why your VidiU did not connect, but one of the first things we do when we originate a stake conference broadcast is check for a return signal ourselves after we start transmitting. That way, if necessary, we are on the phone with the GSC before anyone else even knows there is a problem.

I'm not sure of the problem, but historically, attempting to webcast a regional conference has been problematic as the system is strained by so many stakes attempting to webcast at once. The fact that everything worked after the conference was over suggests that might be a factor.

You might want to re-read the regional conference instructions. The last one that happened in our stake, it was expected that each building would have their own opening exercise. If the building needed a web connection, it would be a direct connection from SLC and not a webcast.

We used the webcasting system for the first 30 minutes and then the rest of the time was from SLC. So my stake president gave his message and then the broadcast from SLC. I didn't realize it early enough to determine why I wasn't connecting, so I called it and headed to personal video conference (PVC) to do the message from the stake president.

Thanks

Russell, are you talking about the letter from SLC or something on this forum?

harddrive wrote:We used the webcasting system for the first 30 minutes and then the rest of the time was from SLC.

Meaning all of the remote sites changed their feed?

Either way, if a large number of stakes are attempting to webcast at the same time, it could be an issue. Even if they didn't attempt to webcast the SLC portion, you still have a large number trying to webcast the opening.

harddrive wrote:We used the webcasting system for the first 30 minutes and then the rest of the time was from SLC. So my stake president gave his message and then the broadcast from SLC.

Ah, this would represent a change of instructions from previous regional stake conference broadcasts if that was the direction your stake received.

Because stakes involved in regional stake conferences have consistently had trouble accessing the webcasting system, I am beginning to wonder if there may be something that causes those stakes to be disabled on regional stake conference Sunday so that the system is protected for those stakes who need to webcast but who are not part of the region.

harddrive wrote:Russell, are you talking about the letter from SLC or something on this forum?

He and I are talking about the letter from SLC to the stake president announcing the regional conference and outlining how the first 30 minutes are to be handled by the local stake.

I read that letter and it says that the stake president is to address the stake before SLC addresses us.

harddrive wrote:I read that letter and it says that the stake president is to address the stake before SLC addresses us.

The last letter we received said that if the conference is held in multiple locations, a counselor or assigned high councilor would preside and conduct, present the business, and then provide the talk before the broadcast begins.

It may be that the instructions have changed, and if they have, arrangements need to be made for webcasting support of stakes involved in the regional conference.

lajackson wrote:The last letter we received said that if the conference is held in multiple locations, a counselor or assigned high councilor would preside and conduct, present the business, and then provide the talk before the broadcast begins.

Ditto.

I'd like to know how the current letter reads.

Let me see if can get a copy from my stake president.

harddrive wrote:
I didn't call SLC for this as I was just trying to get stake conference going. So I'm wondering if anyone else had an issue today?

We had a regular stake conference that we were broadcasting and we had major issues. We ended up on the line with support for over an hour before we finally got things resolved using a brightcove stream that HQ setup for us.

I looked at the system and it looks like I never even had my system connect from teh beginning because there is nothing in the logs. So it looks like a problem from the beginning, but could be wrong.

Thanks.

jonesrk wrote:We had a regular stake conference that we were broadcasting and we had major issues.

I am so grateful that, at least so far, we have never had a stake conference on the same weekend as a regional stake conference broadcast.

I agree that I haven't had a weekend where a regional conference was going on. I was using the east server This morning.

harddrive wrote:I was using the east server , , ,

And apparently, so was the rest of the world. Some have found success by switching to a different server farm, and that may have helped you this morning if you had realized you were not connected.

On the other hand, it may also have been that the Portal was overloaded, as well.

I believe that it was over loaded. That is why I dropped back to Personal Video Conferencing and that worked like a champ. So I took a gamble and after hearing the stories on this forum, the next time our stake has a regional broadcast, I will not even try the webcasting system because it isn't designed to handle a large load that uses for one of the regional conferences.

harddrive wrote:I will not even try the webcasting system because it isn't designed to handle a large load that uses for one of the regional conferences.

It is actually ironic, because the regional stake conference should not make use of the webcasting system at all, only the Church satellite system. (Unless the instructions to stake presidents letter has changed.)

Just and update. I reached out to a couple of other stakes technology specialist in the Washington DC area who were part of the regional stake conference. One of them told me they used the church's webcast system and it worked "splendidly." I'm waiting on another one to report to me.

So those of you in the North America North East area, how did you do the 1st 30 minutes of stake conference? Did you webcast it, us PVC, a 3rd party or just do it at each building?

If you used webcast, how was your experience?

Please respond because I need to do what I can to make this best for my stake.

lajackson wrote:It is actually ironic, because the regional stake conference should not make use of the webcasting system at all, only the Church satellite system. (Unless the instructions to stake presidents letter has changed.)

We have a regional stake conference coming up in November. Our stake was recently split, and the new stake now uses a seminary building as its stake center. There isn't a satellite dish anywhere in new the stake. Assuming a satellite dish isn't installed before now and November, I'm planning on webcasting to the new stake. The parking lot is rather small in the new stake's building, so I wouldn't be surprised if I need to webcast to two of their buildings. If they feel the need to use our other building, then we're up to three. Thankfully, the FM Group has given us all decent internet speeds.

It will all be up to the church's CDN.

Hagothsen wrote:Our stake was recently split, and the new stake now uses a seminary building as its stake center. There isn't a satellite dish anywhere in new the stake. Assuming a satellite dish isn't installed before now and November, I'm planning on webcasting to the new stake.

The new stake (and for that matter your stake) will have access to a URL to get that broadcast direct. I'd use that rather than trying to webcast.

For one, the new stake will need it's own opening to take care of stake business. Secondly, unless the instructions have changed, it specifies that the opening is to be done locally for each building. I believe all of the stake that have come here complaining about problems with their regional conference are those who've attempted to webcast from the stake center rather than using the direct URL.

harddrive wrote:So those of you in the North America North East area, how did you do the 1st 30 minutes of stake conference? Did you webcast it, us PVC, a 3rd party or just do it at each building?

It would also be helpful to know what the broadcast directions were to the stakes in the region. So far as has been revealed pertaining to regional conferences, each meeting location in a stake should have its own stake presidency member or high councilor presiding, do its own music and prayers, the presiding officer conducts the business in each location, the presiding officer (usually) briefly speaks, and then everyone joins the regional conference on the Church satellite system, or uses the URL obtained according to the instructions for the conference.

Have those instructions changed?

russellhltn wrote:The new stake (and for that matter your stake) will have access to a URL to get that broadcast direct. I'd use that rather than trying to webcast.

Splendid news! Thanks! We didn't get a direct URL last time, our feed was only via Satellite.

Hagothsen wrote:Splendid news! Thanks! We didn't get a direct URL last time, our feed was only via Satellite.

The instruction sheet I got in early 2016 gave indicated how to obtain the URL if needed. I don't think it's issued automatically. It should be available no less than 2 weeks prior to the broadcast.

I'd suggest you tactfully ask your stake president for a copy of the instructions rather than rely on word-of-mouth. If you've ever played The Telephone Game as a kid, I think you know what happens.

As lajackson indicates, it would be nice to know if instructions being given out now are the same as we have received in the past. Going back and re-reading what I had, it specifically states that stakes "should" be using the private URL instead of trying to stream it from one meetinghouse to another.

russellhltn wrote:

Hagothsen wrote:Splendid news! Thanks! We didn't get a direct URL last time, our feed was only via Satellite.

The instruction sheet I got in early 2016 gave indicated how to obtain the URL if needed. I don't think it's issued automatically. It should be available no less than 2 weeks prior to the broadcast.

I'd suggest you tactfully ask your stake president for a copy of the instructions rather than rely on word-of-mouth. If you've ever played The Telephone Game as a kid, I think you know what happens.

As lajackson indicates, it would be nice to know if instructions being given out now are the same as we have received in the past. Going back and re-reading what I had, it specifically states that stakes "should" be using the private URL instead of trying to stream it from one meetinghouse to another.

Utilising the recently installed webcast system, we had our very first Regional Stake Conference earlier this year.

During the first 30 minutes, the webcast system was used to transmit to the other meeting houses (In the Stake), then going over the private URL for the Regional Conference session. As far as I can recall, I (As the STS) applied on behalf of the Stake President, for the private URL. This URL was passed to the other meeting houses in the Stake.

The instructions we received, indicated that the main part of the conference wasn't to webcasted to the other meeting houses.