Stake Conference With Visiting Authority

Trying to set up for Stake Conference and came across this question when setting up the webcast.

"Will a General Authority be attending remotely?"

I have no idea and my stake presidency isn't letting me know either.

Since being called as stake technology specialist everyone keeps telling me their horror stories of visiting authorities making outrageous requests. So, for the last 6 weeks I have been trying to prepare for every possible scenario that I can think of and this is a new wrinkle that I don't even know how to address. Has anyone had a general authority attend remotely? If he is remote, how am I supposed to do a broadcast with the Teredek?

Sounds familiar. I remember one stake conference when the visiting authority told me he wanted to connect his iPad to a projector. Luckily, he brought his own HDMI adapter, so I connected it to the projector. However, he did not tell me that he planned to show a video with sound, which he wanted to pass to the sound system. He got his video, but no sound. So he decided to place his iPad directly under the pulpit microphone to capture the sound.

chamfamdad wrote:I have no idea and my stake presidency isn't letting me know either.

There's your problem. I'd keep pressing them for an answer. You might want to focus on the stake clerk.

chamfamdad wrote:Has anyone had a general authority attend remotely? If he is remote, how am I supposed to do a broadcast with the Teredek?

You don't. You "produce" the webcast by using Zoom meeting. There's adapters you can buy that will convert a HDMI camera into a USB that Zoom can see as a webcam. You then connect the sound system (both input and output - no, it won't cause feedback).

On another laptop, you can set Zoom to output a RTMP stream that you direct to the Church Webcast.

russellhltn wrote:You don't. You "produce" the webcast by using Zoom meeting. There's adapters you can buy that will convert a HDMI camera into a USB that Zoom can see as a webcam. You then connect the sound system (both input and output - no, it won't cause feedback).

On another laptop, you can set Zoom to output a RTMP stream that you direct to the Church Webcast.

Thank you! These are the clues I am looking for.

If you have a General Authority presiding, a member of the Church Broadcast Planning and Events Support Team should email you (the STS) 30 days before your scheduled conference. That person will help you with everything you need to webcast the conference.

As the stake technology specialist, you will need to know the calling of the person who is presiding at the stake conference. It is either a Stake President conference or a General Authority conference. If one is presiding, you do not need to know the name of the General Authority, but you need to know his calling to properly set up the webcast. You will also need to know if he will be presiding from the Church Office Building or somewhere else. (Yes, it makes a difference.) You will need to know if the conference will be completely virtual, or if there will be a presidency and speakers at the stake center.

With that information, you will be able to begin planning the technical aspects of the stake conference.

I would suggest you read the other topics here at the Forum for ideas on the various technical methods of connecting everything together. One of them will work best for you. One method uses the Teradek encoder. Most do not.

lajackson wrote:If you have a General Authority presiding, a member of the Church Broadcast Planning and Events Support Team should email you (the STS) 30 days before your scheduled conference. That person will help you with everything you need to webcast the conference.

That was certainly my experience at our last stake conference. I'm under the impression they're trying to get the STS to do it more on their own as time goes on, but I would expect some contact if a GA was going to attend virtually.

russellhltn wrote:I'm under the impression they're trying to get the STS to do it more on their own as time goes on, but I would expect some contact if a GA was going to attend virtually.

They will let the STS do as much as he is able. And he is the one, of course, who has to connect all the physical dots and make it work. But my contact gave me some ideas I had never considered, and when my AV rack does not work as expected, he has been able to provide a workaround in every case. He is also expecting to run a full-up test with me once I get everything connected and working.

Of course, since OP is in Utah, I wouldn't rule out the possibility of a in-person visit from a GA.

It's possible the reason he hasn't gotten an answer yet is they're still trying to decide if it will be in-person or virtual.

russellhltn wrote:Of course, since OP is in Utah, I wouldn't rule out the possibility of a in-person visit from a GA.

Our visitor this month lives on the other side of the world. Interesting time challenge, but they have worked it out.
And I finally got a technological solution working for our stake this afternoon, as well.