how old is our satellite system???

I had to call SL today about our satellite system and not getting a signal anymore. We have reset the power a number of times with no change.

I guess if you have a blinking red light, there is a correctable problem with the unit but if it is solid like it is for our, they said it has failed and I need to contact our local FM group to get it replaced.

I have been in my present ward for close to 30 years and can't remember if we have ever replaced the hardware inside or not. I was just wondering how old this equipment is and how many steps are we behind in technology here.

It is a Wegener Communications device model DVR (no, it is not a digital video recorder)395 MPEG-2.

It can't be that old. The church not-so-recently went to digital encryption so the hardware has to support that.

The manual here seems to indicate it can't be much more than 10 years old. (The first edition of the manual was in 1997.)

Good luck with the debugging.

Edit: Page 20 in the manual would seem to verify that a solid red light is indeed very bad.

oregonmatt wrote:The manual here seems to indicate it can't be much more than 10 years old. (The first edition of the manual was in 1997.)

The Church started installing the digital receivers about that time or a little before. The manual was not available when the receivers first went in in our area. We have not had a receiver last this long, however. All of ours that were installed in the mid-90s have since been replaced.

You are fortunate if you are getting your first red light replacement. Call the FM Group right away, though. The receivers are custom made for the Church. We missed a general conference getting one replaced because they were installing receiver in all of South America and could not manufacture them fast enough. I don't think you will have that problem, though.

Ok, so SL is going to send us a new reciever. Will it be the same manufacturer as the broken one (Wegener)?

What improvements should I see over this older one?

I noticed that there are two devices, one slimmer than the other but both similar model numbers (DVR395 and DVR396). Will I be getting both?

jworth wrote:Ok, so SL is going to send us a new reciever. Will it be the same manufacturer as the broken one (Wegener)?

What improvements should I see over this older one?

I noticed that there are two devices, one slimmer than the other but both similar model numbers (DVR395 and DVR396). Will I be getting both?

I would recommend that you contact your local FM (Facilities Management) group and inquire as to the replacement schedule of these receivers. The FM group has the responsibility to replace these items and they should be able to advise you which model you would be getting and when.

We cannot speak for your local FM group. All we can do here is relate what has happened to others and that may not reflect upon your particular circumstances.

jworth wrote:Ok, so SL is going to send us a new reciever. Will it be the same manufacturer as the broken one (Wegener)?

What improvements should I see over this older one?

I noticed that there are two devices, one slimmer than the other but both similar model numbers (DVR395 and DVR396). Will I be getting both?

Your mileage may vary, but new installations/replacements I have seen have been the Wegener Unity 500IP (without the ethernet port). It is a newer design than the DVR39*, with some improvements. Unfortunately, it only has one audio pair (at least in the units I have seen).

rmrichesjr wrote:Unfortunately, it only has one audio pair (at least in the units I have seen).

Does it have "blanks" that suggest that additional pairs can be added?

RussellHltn wrote:Does it have "blanks" that suggest that additional pairs can be added?

In this post (http://tech.lds.org/forum/showthread.ph ... #post18567), you indicated you thought three additional audio units could be installed. The manual shows a cover plate on the rear panel that _MIGHT_ be able to accomodate additional audio units. I have never seen additional audio units installed.

rmrichesjr wrote:In this post (http://tech.lds.org/forum/showthread.ph ... #post18567), you indicated you thought three additional audio units could be installed. The manual shows a cover plate on the rear panel that _MIGHT_ be able to accomodate additional audio units. I have never seen additional audio units installed.

You would have an additional audio unit for another language. Our buildings all have English and Spanish capability on different audio channels, with the same primary video.

Techgy wrote:I would recommend that you contact your local FM (Facilities Management) group and inquire as to the replacement schedule of these receivers. The FM group has the responsibility to replace these items and they should be able to advise you which model you would be getting and when.

We cannot speak for your local FM group. All we can do here is relate what has happened to others and that may not reflect upon your particular circumstances.

Already done and it should be here in a week.

You're one step up on us. Our stake was created about two years ago, and we were told we couldn't get satellite facilities because it was going to be installed in our new stake centre as soon as it was completed. Then policies changed, and we were told we didn't qualify for a stake centre anymore and that there was no plan to give us any more buildings until we had enough units in existence to fill them. How exactly we were to create these units with nowhere to put them and at least a five year (probably more like ten if history holds true) turnaround on buildings, nobody seems to be able to explain. Physical facilities still tell us there is no plan to give us satellite facilities because it will go into our stake centre when (if) it is created. No dates or even forseeable plans on that yet. But every time there is a broadcast, we get told to go to the stake centre and watch it over our satellite feed, as all the units in Australia have satellite now. It takes some time to persuade somebody to post out a dvd with the broadcasts each time, and in some cases they still won't send one as it is a live broadcast that they have been instructed not to record. We end up having to split up and send everyone to the nearest stake centre with satellite facilities, which means our attendance count for each meeting is zero and kinda defeats the purpose of having a stake training meeting / conference. Splitting the stake into three chunks is counter productive in unifying a stake and getting everyone on the same page. It seems we are in a no man's limbo that nobody wants to deal with, and they have dropped the whole stake into the too hard basket. If you have a satellite facility in your stake and people on the end of the phone line are willing to talk to you about it, be grateful!