LAN Party as a Youth Activity

Just wondering if anyone has every done a
LAN party for a youth activity (specifically young men),
and what there experiences were with it ?

I imagine that the cultural hall would be the only place
large enough to house all the computers, but was
wondering if anyone experienced any problems
with adequete power and cooling when hosting one
in a church building.

Now some people might think that an old-fashioned
fragfest might encourage violence and not be really
appropriate for a youth activity - but we do have
Church Basketball.

- Atticus Ewig

It has been done, but the case I'm aware of was done by someone else, so I don't know any details. Power would be a significant concern, the stake center where I attended previously had only two power circuits (15 or 20 amp each) for the entire cultural hall. Depending on how many machines you would have, you may need to bring in power from elsewhere in the building. In that case, make sure the cords you use are up to the current you'll be pulling through them.

Given the tone of the comments about video games in the past couple of general conferences, I'm not going anywhere near the appropriateness issue. Besides, that's not a technical issue.

I think it would be a good idea. You could have them help set up the LAN and teach them some skills in the process. Maybe there is a LAN merit badge by now...

rmrichesjr wrote:Given the tone of the comments about video games in the past couple of general conferences, I'm not going anywhere near the appropriateness issue. Besides, that's not a technical issue.

Teaching computers, networking, etc. is an excellent activity for the youth. As far as having a lan party where games are played, leave that up to your leaders.

Tom

A LAN Party is an AWESOME idea. I took 3 computers to the chapel and took 2 apart for the Young Men to put it together again and see inside the housing and explain each component and their purpose. That was to lead into a LAN Party in the same night, but because of time, it had to be done another time which I didn't get around to doing it.

With regards to power, it definitely needs to be done in the culture hall. Using the power points from the Stage I knew there will be plenty of power to power up enough PCs for a LAN Party. I thought of the power points on our stage simply because all bands that play in our chapel have plenty of power to power up their amps and run their gear.

If I was in the Young Mens again, I would definitely finish off the activity I planned which included a LAN Party. The games I had in mind were car racing games (V8 Supercars, big in Australia) and EA Sports games. Never shooting games though or strategy games like War Craft.

Originating from Tech Center (ie the Microsoft, Boeing, Nintendo, Sierra area) A LAN party was very fun for us and usually we just brought our own computers.
We did have a LAN party up at the Stake center once which we had 3 XBoxes (12 people). That didn't take too much power, but considering that the Family History Center has 12 computers on 2 outlets I don't think it would be too hard. Again just make sure you don't exceed the max for the circuit breaker or your LAN game might end in darkness.

Getting power for large activities can be a challenge. In the stake center I used to attend, all the outlets in the cultural hall and stage were fed by only two circuits. A few warming pans for a large dinner can pop the breakers. I seem to recall they had problems while using a couple dozen sewing machines for a service project. More than a couple of irons would have also caused problems.

One way to bring power to an under-powered cultural hall is to run (taped-down) extension cords from elsewhere in the building. I saw this done once for a big stage production using professional stage lighting hung from the basketball standards.

I'm told when the BYU Young Ambassadors do a show, they pull the cover to an electrical panel and clamp jumper cables onto the bus inside the panel. They can run huge loads off that. (Just don't tell the local electrical inspector or fire marshall.)

Another thought occurred to me. In the serving area (formerly known as the kitchen), there are usually two ranges presumably each powered by 240V, 40A. With a temporary breaker panel plugged into each of those, you could feed several 120V 15-20A circuits. The only catch would be the safety/chassis ground, because most range outlets I have seen only have three pins (L1, L2, N) with no separate safety ground. Does anyone know whether the range outlets in meetinghouses might be 4-pin with a separate safety ground?

thedqs wrote:Again just make sure you don't exceed the max for the circuit breaker or your LAN game might end in darkness.

Shouldn't have a problem beyond dark screens. Electrical code requires separate breakers for lights and plugs for just that reason.

A couple of days ago, I got news from the friend of mine who had done the big lighting and sound event with extension cords run all over the building to bring in enough power to the cultural hall. He said there is a four-pin 50A 240V connector commonly used in by the construction industry, and there are also spider boxes that split the power out into smaller circuits, all properly protected by breakers. He said for bringing in lots of power for an event, they are safer than any of the alternatives. They got one of the connectors installed in his stake center, another installed in a neighboring stake center, and two in a stake center across the river. He said the FM groups don't like them, but the stake presidents insisted, so they got installed.

We had a major event where we needed lots of power for television lighting- they added a breaker to the panel and left it there. I don't think there's a plug on it. I guess when they need it again they'll take the cover off and tap into that breaker.

RussellHltn wrote:Shouldn't have a problem beyond dark screens. Electrical code requires separate breakers for lights and plugs for just that reason.

I love worst case senarios: But it could be possible that on the 300 Amp breakter you have 15 20 AMP little breakers that go to the outlets and then you make those out (ie 300 Amps) but then you just go over and it trips the big one first. Anyway highly unlikely;)