Webcasting without video

I thought the Teradek VidiU would keep pushing sound if the video failed. Perhaps it does if there is poor video. But apparently not if the video goes away completely.

I was forced to troubleshoot failing video during stake conference this morning, and at one point while I was wiggling wires the video went black long enough for the encoder to drop from Live back to Standby. (The video was black only for about three seconds.) In the excitement, I did not notice that that the encoder had stopped until four minutes later, when the buffer ran its course, and the receiving sites sounded the alarm.

All I had to do was punch the encoder back on, but I sure wish I had noticed it drop before we lost four minutes of our general authority speaker.

As for the video, it is time for the FM Group to step up. And they will need to do it within two weeks if we are going to watch general conference in the stake center building.

Gotta love technology. It is an impressive looking rack, but on the inside it is hiding some pretty deep secrets.

What was lost? The digital stream to the Teradek, or the analog video to the conversion device (if used)?

If the digital stream to the Teradek is interrupted, I could see it halting. Without it, there's nothing to encode. Loss of analog inputs would be less of a disaster.

Bottom line, the takeaway lesson is to always check the encoder after doing anything.

russellhltn wrote:What was lost? The digital stream to the Teradek, or the analog video to the conversion device (if used)?

If the digital stream to the Teradek is interrupted, I could see it halting. Without it, there's nothing to encode. Loss of analog inputs would be less of a disaster.

Bottom line, the takeaway lesson is to always check the encoder after doing anything.

We were still doing. I was wiggling wires trying to find a loose one, so technically the picture went black for a couple of seconds within the AV rack before getting to the conversion device and ultimately the VidiU.

lajackson wrote:I was wiggling wires trying to find a loose one, so technically the picture went black for a couple of seconds within the AV rack before getting to the conversion device and ultimately the VidiU.

It may depend in part on how the conversion device handles it, but I'd imagine that between it and the Teradek, bad things happen when the sync goes wonky.