funding remote locations

I am a STS contemplating the Meetinghouse Webcast software solution. We have successfully conducted point-to-point broadcasts over the internet, but need to expand beyond two buildings. We have received conflicting guidance from visiting general authorities and our local FM Group. One insists on a single stake conference session using as many buildings as might be necessary, while the other refuses to fund or participate in modifications to remote buildings to accomodate such broadcasts. Specifically a permanently mounted screen in the chapel instead of the portable screen currently stored in the materials center, which is adequate for small groups, but not for an entire congregation for two hours.

I am looking for an official policy regarding funding building infrastructure modifications to accomodate audio / visual events not anticipated at construction.

msdeason wrote:I am a STS contemplating the Meetinghouse Webcast software solution. We have successfully conducted point-to-point broadcasts over the internet, but need to expand beyond two buildings. We have received conflicting guidance from visiting general authorities and our local FM Group. One insists on a single stake conference session using as many buildings as might be necessary, while the other refuses to fund or participate in modifications to remote buildings to accomodate such broadcasts. Specifically a permanently mounted screen in the chapel instead of the portable screen currently stored in the materials center, which is adequate for small groups, but not for an entire congregation for two hours.

I am looking for an official policy regarding funding building infrastructure modifications to accomodate audio / visual events not anticipated at construction.

Although I cannot refer you to any policy, I would suggest that you discuss this problem with your Stake President. From my own personal experience I can guarantee that he has quite a bit of pull.

Depending on how much modification is required, it may require budgeting.

But I agree. Work with the stake president. He has the most "pull" and would be the one escalate it higher if needed.

msdeason wrote:Specifically a permanently mounted screen in the chapel instead of the portable screen currently stored in the materials center, which is adequate for small groups, but not for an entire congregation for two hours.

Perhaps we have been spoiled, as we have a brother in our stake who owns an A/V business and lends us all of his equipment for free, but may I suggest an alternate solution to your problem. It would probably be most cost-effective to rent (or maybe buy) a large portable screen for the remote meeting house(s). Many of them are rear-projection and are quite large (maybe 12-18 feet across). We've had success placing such rear-projection screens just behind the podium and projecting from the choir seats behind it.

msdeason wrote:I am a STS contemplating the Meetinghouse Webcast software solution. We have successfully conducted point-to-point broadcasts over the internet, but need to expand beyond two buildings. We have received conflicting guidance from visiting general authorities and our local FM Group. One insists on a single stake conference session using as many buildings as might be necessary, while the other refuses to fund or participate in modifications to remote buildings to accomodate such broadcasts. Specifically a permanently mounted screen in the chapel instead of the portable screen currently stored in the materials center, which is adequate for small groups, but not for an entire congregation for two hours.

I am looking for an official policy regarding funding building infrastructure modifications to accomodate audio / visual events not anticipated at construction.

I will share my observation and experience and they aren't necessarily conflicting policies. Visiting authorities for stake conferences have the ultimate say in how many sessions are held. We normally do two and the visiting authority approved the schedule submitted by the stake president. On another occasion, the visiting authority only wanted one session. This required that we do some extra wiring in our satellite building. We had to cover that expense at the stake level.

The FM group provided a large format portable screen a few years ago that has worked well for the building. It sits nicely behind the benches used by the choir. It probably won't work well for buildings that have chairs.

We wired all buildings in our stake for internet and had to pay for that as well. We plan on broadcasting our stake conferences to the other 3 buildings and hold only one session of stake conference. The additional expense for equipment (computers, projectors and screens) we will mostly be covering at the stake level.

It never hurts to ask the FM group what they are able to do. They do have guidelines and limits (budget) as to what they can do.

Hope this helps.