Broadcasting Sunday School

We have a lot of older members in the ward and several shut ins and we are wanting to broadcast Sunday School Gospel Doctrine to them. Has anyone else been successful in doing that and what did you use to broadcast?
Also, I know the handbook has said we shouldn't broadcast Sacrament Meetings from the Chapel, but it doesn't say anything about classes in other parts of the building.

Permission would have to come from the stake president. As far as the actual webcasting, it should be coordinated with your stake technology specialist (STS). The following items would be recommended:

• STS (or assistant) to schedule each webcast in advance
• Portable camera/camcorder that does not auto-power-off and can output video without the icons/menus normally seen on the viewfinder
• Tripod
• Your stake's Teradek VidiU webcasting device
• LAN jack in the room (webcasting via WiFi is not recommended)
• Necessary power/HDMI/LAN cables
• Ample upload bandwidth in the building to source the datastream (In some buildings, this can often be difficult to come by on a typical Sunday.)
• Ample download bandwidth at the receiving site(s) to receive the datastream
• A notebook PC, smartphone, or tablet is recommended to communicate with the Teradek device and monitor the health of the datastream.

From a technical standpoint, it's possible, but would require a weekly time commitment from the stake technology specialist, who may or may not attend Sunday meetings in the same building or during the same hour.

The other issue is that it's highly recommended to shutdown WiFi when sending or receiving a webcast. Members may not be too happy about that.

Thanks for the replies. We have tried a couple of ways to stream the classes and found that youtube live seems to give the best video quality. Do you know if anyone else has used that to stream classes?

I don't know of anyone streaming Sunday School, but YouTube Live has been my preferred streaming service ever since about 2015 for stake conferences. (Before it was available to the general public.) I went with the church's streaming service once I thought it was stable enough because using YouTube for stake conference meant bypassing the church firewall in all the buildings involved. Now with YouTube unblocked in the meetinghouses (at least for the "Managed" firewall filter level), my stake president has asked if I wanted to use it again. It certainly gets around the upload bitrate ceiling imposed by the church, which in all fairness, is probably there to keep the costs manageable for the Azure servers they lease webcasting time on. IMO, using the free YouTube service saves the church money that would have been spent on the Azure system (including numerous tests leading up to the event).

If you are willing to go with audio only (no video), the bitrate requirements for an audio stream are about 1-2% of the video rate. I've used Icecast very successfully even with WiFi active in the building (buffering easily handles the hiccups). See this post for a high-level view of the method. viewtopic.php?f=27&t=36519#p208530
The equipment is much cheaper, too, less than $100 worth of parts.

Jeremy - Thanks for the reply. We need to have video & audio for the sunday school classes. This is going to me more important perhaps in the future based on what's happening right now.

Sunday school should be more than just a teacher presenting, so if you plan to broadcast it, I would recommend a system like Google Hangouts or similar, where anyone can speak.

sbradshaw - when we used YouTube live the users were able to chat back and forth and ask questions. However, the teacher would have to have the laptop handy to see the chats. Using Hangouts Meet may be an option if it doesn't distract the teacher too much. The UI also seems a bit cluttered to me.

Mikerowaved wrote:Now with YouTube unblocked in the meetinghouses

I was told that the firewire allows YouTube, but enforces "Safe Search" which can be a problem for live streaming because the system does not know the content of the live stream and will sometimes block it. Not really sure if this is true, but it has made me hesitate trying to do a youtube stream through the firewall.

Well, we have tested using YouTube live and using the church Webcast system. The result was the YouTube live have the absolute best user experience. The picture was the very best and the sound was great. Using the church system the video had to buffer several times and the sound was a bit choppy. We also just recently used YouTube live for a funeral service during the covid-19 issues. Only the immediate family was allowed in the chapel and was all done under the permission of our Stake President. We simply used a HD Webcam mounted to a tripod and a Macbook Air Laptop, The sound was loud enough but I'm thinking that next time I'm going to try plugging in a Comtech unit for the mike input which should maybe help it be more clear and crisp.

mitchrichie wrote:I was told that the firewire allows YouTube, but enforces "Safe Search" which can be a problem for live streaming because the system does not know the content of the live stream and will sometimes block it. Not really sure if this is true, but it has made me hesitate trying to do a youtube stream through the firewall.

Yep, heard the same rumors, but never seen or heard of it happening for church-related webcasts.

Sunday School is being taught online in some wards using the Zoom or Webex facility. The coordinator/teacher works from his/her own home, and saints can see each other and participate online if they wish to do so or remain mute. This is not a 'public meeting' perse and no meetings have been held in chapels. However, it may be that church leaders have received instructions not to do this, or indeed to hold any online meetings save ward and stake council, bishopric etc.

In a time when our meetinghouses are closed, it seems wise to engage the Saints and uplift them where possible.

philipjameskitchen wrote:However, it may be that church leaders have received instructions not to do this, or indeed to hold any online meetings save ward and stake council, bishopric etc.

It is my understanding that the church encourages members to get together on their own, safely distancing, of course, i.e., electronically, to visit and have gospel discussions and other activities. It is also my understanding that wards are not to try to replicate sacrament meetings, Sunday School, priesthood, Relief Society, and other church meetings.

I happen to know that the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve have given specific instruction on this matter to General Authorities and area seventies, including area presidencies, who were instructed to share that information with stake presidents. There is a lot of instruction from Church headquarters flowing through priesthood channels.

And there has long been discussion from Church leaders about getting the water to the end of the row.