How we did it - WW RS Dev and Testimony - 4 Languages

March 17th the Worldwide Relief Society Devotional and Testimony Meeting was held in Stake Centers throughout the Church. The instructions were to have a local opening followed by playing a prerecorded message. This would be followed by the sharing of testimonies. The local session is to be streamed using Zoom to those who cannot attend in person. Our stake has Korean, Spanish, and Samoan Wards with English speaking members all gathered in the chapel.

I have documented how we did it in the following document http://www.federalwaystake.net/Document ... onal-3.pdf as an aid to other stakes and the curious.

I am especially interested is learning how others held their session. Did you do anything novel or unusual? Please share.

Wow. All I have to say is that I hope I never have to follow in your shoes. That's a lot of work and equipment not provided by the church.

Ours was a simple English-only playback. I noticed our Epson projector is only 1280 x 800, so I stuck with the 720 resolution download instead of 1080.

I was disappointed in the audio quality of the presentation. It sounded like they used cheap mics. Too much "room" and not as clear as I'd expect.

Somehow I didn't get word this was going to turn into a testimony meeting. So a 40 minute playback turned into an hour fifty.

I know some stakes do testimony "from the floor", but in ours everyone goes to the podium. It does have the advantage of everyone being able to see their face and makes it easier for the leadership to quietly advise them when their testimony starts turning in a rambling blog.

I do want to figure out how to play presentations from a USB stick when working with our Android TV device. It would keep me from having to drag out a Win10 machine to set everything up. I don't want to risk streaming from YouTube. I've done it in the past for General Conference, but not so sure that a pre-recorded message would stay ad-free.

Russell,
Much of the equipment is Stake owned and obtained over many years. Other stuff is FM group provided. Yes there is some personal stuff but not as much as you would think. I can detail how to source this stuff if people are interested.

The website I posted the link to has the documentation on how we do things and you can see the clear evolution in technology from the guides there. This is to help our own team as well as others. We are very blessed by the church to have a relatively new system that was engineered and implemented well. All systems are designed to complement each other.

With three languages plus English we have layers of complexity that many other stakes don’t have to deal with. The key for us is common building blocks replicated for each language. This lets us scale without having to learn different setups.

Some sisters chose to bear their testimonies from the stand. The floor mics are best for those who are in the center of a pew in the middle of the chapel. We can hand them a mic rather than having them figure out how to extract themselves from their seat in the center.

Everything we do in video is 1920x1080. The building system supports it, Zoom can be configured to use HD, and the stock Epson projectors can deal with it.

With respect to not having to bring out a win 10 device for playback we have used a Roku with the video stored on an attached USB drive. Our goal is for tech to be invisible to the members. For us in an ideal world we would never touch the projector during the session so all video sent to it, including a blank screen, is sent remotely using NDI. Since the Roku doesn’t support NDI and OBS does we use a PC.

Every building and stake has different levels of technology used. Tech is just a tool to help share the message. The HG and spirit in the room is and will always be the best teacher.

One of the impediments to doing the work is not knowing what is available and what works. The FMG, despite the many challenges that we at times have with them, can be a good partner. They were able to get us a technology uplift to our aged 20+ year old and failing system. The new MHT designed system is really good. With a bit of effort you can make it really perform.

There are many options available for equipment. I am just presenting the hardware and software that we have experience with and which is readily available.

Stake Technology Shopping List

U9 ViewHD 1 in 4 Out HDMI 2.0 18Gbps 1x4 Splitter with Automatic 4K to 1080P Downscaler/ 4K@60Hz / HDR and Dolby Vision/HDCP 2.2 to HDCP 1.4 Converter/Model: UHD1X4S $28.99

We use three of these units. Rostrum #1 - Extron HDMI output jack to dual monitors for participants on the stand. Rostrum #2 – HDMI Source device to Projector, and Extron HDMI input jack. AV booth #3 – between Webcast output from Extron IN1808 and Ripsaw RazerHD (use port 4) if HDCP detected in signal. There may be a way to reconfigure the Extron switch to address this but I don’t mess with their system and an external device is simpler.
Stake Purchased Item

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Razer Ripsaw HD – Game Capture Card $151.00
https://tech.churchofjesuschrist.org/wi ... TURE_CARDS Since Meetinghouse-Shared Services recommends our FMG manager was willing to purchase one for the Stake Center as a replacement for the Teradek.
FM Group purchased item.

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Audio-Technica
ATW-1102 System 10 Wireless Handheld Microphone System $349.95
Our FMG approves the purchase of one for each building in the Stake and one additional unit for the Stake Center (To support Stake Leadership)
That gives us up to 5 to work with for special events such as Stake Conference.
FM Group purchased item

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Translation Equipment
The standard church equipment for translation is the Williams AV PPA T27 Personal PA Compact FM Transmitter. We get them with the R37 FM Receiver (PPA R37N) and the Heavy-duty folding mono headphones HED 027. To account for the receivers, we also purchase the Carrying Case with 35 Slots. (CCS 056 35)
FM Group purchased item

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Epson Projector
The projector in the Chapel is a standard FM Group provided item. We have one in each of our buildings. Our FMG provides two for the Stake Center. One for the Chapel and a second is used in the Cultural Center for Stake Conference.
FM Group purchased item

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Creative Labs Sound Blaster Play 3 $17.83
We purchased one of these USB sound cards for each building during COVID for webcasting of services. This gave us cleaner audio than using the built in sound card of the computer.
Stake Purchased item

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Lenova ThinkCentre M920Q Tiny i5/8GB/240GB SSD WiFi $220
We did many rounds with the FM Group around the surplus clerk computer used for Webcasting. When they are done being used for clerk purposes, they are to be returned to Church surplus in Salt Lake. Tams is the vendor that processes these used church computers and resells them.
https://www.tams.shop/product-p/l-m920q-240-8-i5-w.htm

This is an example of what we purchase. Particularly I look for DisplayPort/HDMI/VGA ports and at least one USB-C port. These computers now come with Windows 11 Pro. Yes, a fully licensed Windows 11 Pro system that installs like a brand-new computer. Conflict is not the way of the Lord and I consider this money well spent to avoid conflict with the FM Group.
Stake or STS Purchased Item

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Computer monitors
Our FM Group is really good about providing new HD (1920x1080) monitors for the clerk office computers at computer refresh. The old VGA connector monitors are all surplus. We use these old monitors to support the translation computers. The residual value of these monitors is so low that FMG doesn’t want them back. This is why I wanted reconditioned computers with legacy VGA ports in addition to HDMI and Display port.
Free

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Apple TV with NDI Monitor TV from Sienna and Mark Gilbert $49.99
This fits in to the nice to have category. I borrow the Apple TV I purchased for home, bought the NDI Monitor TV software and now I have a simple NDI player appliance. Since I already had the ATV purchasing the software was less expensive than purchasing a BirdDog Play for $149. Is this really necessary, no but I would rather sit in the back of the Chapel rather than doing tech on the stand.
The alternative is to have the Stake President / GA use their laptop but now they are driving and if something goes wrong you have to make the walk of shame to the front of the chapel. Sometimes you don’t get a choice.
STS Purchased Item

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Black Table Cloth $7.63
This is a super low-cost way to dress up a beat-up table from the Cultural Center. Why not look like a Pro.
STS Purchased Item

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Software
(Install in this order)
NDI Tools from https://ndi.video/tools/ $0-Free
This software lets you move video around your building network. Yes, the church has a very nice video distribution system in some buildings. For older systems or if you need to route video separate from the main system this is your go to tool.

OBS Studio from https://obsproject.com/ $0-Free
This software is the central pillar of what we do. It has a virtual camera that let’s you send video to Zoom. We use it for lots of things, but especially to suppress the Sacrament camera feed, play back pre-recorded videos, and for title slides. Check out the lower thirds and the Audio gate filters.

Obs-ndi – NewTek NDI integration into OBS Studio 4.13.0 $0-Free
https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/ ... tudio.528/
This plugin for OBS Studio allows the software to capture and display an NDI video stream. It also allows the program output to be available on the building network as an NDI video stream.

VB-Cable from https://vb-audio.com/Cable/ The VB-CABLE driver is $0 – Free
They sell other software packages but we just use the free one. This is a virtual audio cable to route video between two applications. For example, the output audio from OBS Studio can be routed to Zoom as a microphone input. You can also use it as an audio input to connect Zoom’s audio output to if you want to suppress hearing the far end such as when used as an interpreter.

Zoom desktop client for Meetings from https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article? ... =KB0060407 $0-Free.

I am still interested in how you did it. This posting is intended to be a learning opportunity and a chance to process what worked and what didn't. Please share.... there are lots of creative people on this forum. Let's learn from each other.