Final Release Candidate For Meetinghouse Webcast 3.0 Software Now Available

We would greatly appreciate your review of the Final Release candidate for the Meetinghouse Webcast 3.0 software(NOTE: UPDATED WITH CORRECT URL). We are most interested at this time in knowing if you experience any bugs or crashes. When providing feedback, please include your capture device model, operating system and version, and hardware configuration (RAM, processor, etc). Feedback may either be included in this thread, or E-mailed to webcastbeta@sites.ldschurch.org.

NOTE: If your Church unit is new to webcasting and looking for an immediate solution for webcasting your local event, we recommend that you NOT use the Meetinghouse Webcast beta software. Instead, consider using the existing Meetinghouse Webcast Software or Meetinghouse Webcast Communicator to originate and send your webcast

Is it normal for the cursor to blink when using "Screen Capture Source"? It seems to blink in sync with the framerate (ie: twice as fast when the framerate is 30fps as it when it is 15fps) and it is annoying to watch.

Thanks

Aaron Z

Hi Aaron-- I have the same thing happen. To disable it, click on the settings for the screen capture source and uncheck "Capture layered window." Hope this helps and please let me know if you have any further issues.

starkjs wrote:Hi Aaron-- I have the same thing happen. To disable it, click on the settings for the screen capture source and uncheck "Capture layered window." Hope this helps and please let me know if you have any further issues.

That did the trick.
How stable has this release been so far? We will have a clerk training meeting later this month where the stake clerk will be demonstrating some functions in MLS to the ward clerks and the screen-capture function would be nice if it is stable enough.

Thanks

Aaron Z

This latest version is very stable, but we are asking for assistance with testing to verify that fact.

We had Stake Conference this weekend and I used the V2 software on Sat to webcast the adult session, then (as a test) the V3 software to webcast a video of the Sunday broadcast.
The computer with the V3 software was a Dell Inspiron E1502 with XP MCE (fully updated), an Intel T1300 1.66Ghz Core Solo CPU and 1024MB of RAM (this is just for testing) and the V600 capture card. The process monitor wasn't ever pegged, but it showed that it was busy.

The three things that I noticed (compared to V2) were:

1. There is no longer a current/average/target streaming rate or a total of how much data was uploaded. I like this on the V2 software because I can see when it is having issues
2. The preview video went black at one point and I was not able to get it to come back on until I closed the program, but it continued broadcasting both audio and video - Is this a VC600 issue?
3. While the video was black, when I went to change the audio source from "Stereo Mix" to "Line In" and every time I closed the "AudioInputMixer Properties" box it changed back to "Stereo Mix". After re-opening the software, when I opened the "AudioInputMixer Properties" page the only option was "Line In"

Otherwise, I like being able to change the video source and having the rest images available. The video streaming (on the lowest quality settings) seemed to work on our connection which (per the LDS Speedtest page) was running at 1509 kbps down and 362 kbps up.

Aaron Z

Thanks Aaron. I've gone ahead and passed these bugs/enhancements on to the rest of the product team.

starkjs wrote:Thanks Aaron. I've gone ahead and passed these bugs/enhancements on to the rest of the product team.

I can provide more info and troubleshooting data if needed, just let me know.

Aaron Z

We just did our webcast yesterday for Stake Conference. We are currently using the Communicator device to broadcast. We had some issues before the meeting started where the webcast failed and we had to reboot about 3 or 4 times. I forget, stress levels were through the roof at that point. I suspect that it failed because about 3 people were online on the same network trying to test the webcast receiving and we were all draining the internet bandwidth. Anyway, for next time I want to have a solution that is as solid as possible. Can we upgrade our Webcast Communicator device to the latest and greatest version of the software? I've heard that the Communicator is no longer being made available. Would we be better off to put together a dedicated computer with the webcast software installed? Do we get any added functionality with this solution over the Communicator hardware?

flyboyscott wrote:We just did our webcast yesterday for Stake Conference. We are currently using the Communicator device to broadcast. We had some issues before the meeting started where the webcast failed and we had to reboot about 3 or 4 times. I forget, stress levels were through the roof at that point. I suspect that it failed because about 3 people were online on the same network trying to test the webcast receiving and we were all draining the internet bandwidth. Anyway, for next time I want to have a solution that is as solid as possible. Can we upgrade our Webcast Communicator device to the latest and greatest version of the software? I've heard that the Communicator is no longer being made available. Would we be better off to put together a dedicated computer with the webcast software installed? Do we get any added functionality with this solution over the Communicator hardware?

I don't know about upgrading, but my first webcasting will be in June. I decided from the get go to get a computer (Dell Studio XPS 7100 Minitower) with a TV/video capture card in it.

So far it has worked great. I have to use the TV/video card to capture the video and then use the on-board sound card to capture the audio. I've done a couple of test and it has worked great. I need to do more because of my upcoming stake conference.

The software will allow you to actually show the desktop of my computer and broadcast it over the connection. So if I had a powerpoint slide that I wanted to show on the screen, I could. It also will allow me to do minor changes to microphone input and others to adjust the volume. I can't do much because it will kill the video stream.

There is a bit more work involved with the software as you need to put Microsoft Expression Encoder and then the software. Once it is installed and working properly, everything should be good to go.

Hope this helps.

flyboyscott wrote:We just did our webcast yesterday for Stake Conference. We are currently using the Communicator device to broadcast. We had some issues before the meeting started where the webcast failed and we had to reboot about 3 or 4 times. I forget, stress levels were through the roof at that point. I suspect that it failed because about 3 people were online on the same network trying to test the webcast receiving and we were all draining the internet bandwidth. Anyway, for next time I want to have a solution that is as solid as possible. Can we upgrade our Webcast Communicator device to the latest and greatest version of the software? I've heard that the Communicator is no longer being made available. Would we be better off to put together a dedicated computer with the webcast software installed? Do we get any added functionality with this solution over the Communicator hardware?

Contrary to some incorrect rumors that are somehow floating around, we are not discontinuing the Communicator. We just ordered 100 units several months ago and are consistently sending out multiple units per week. We are now putting together our next order and talking about some future options. One of those options would be to put the newer software on the Communicator; however, that would require a faster CPU on the motherboard than what is currently offered because of our move to Microsoft Expression as the underlying encoder/decoder. So that's still just a topic of conversation and nothing solid yet.

In the meantime, a reasonably current PC running Meetinghouse Webcast Software 3.0 should work well for you.

Thanks for the reply and I'll do my part to dispel the rumors.

I guess I still have a question I am looking for an answer to: Is there any advantage to using a PC with the webcast software as opposed to the communicator hardware? We are using the communicator but have seen failures in the webcast.

ksolsen wrote:Contrary to some incorrect rumors that are somehow floating around, we are not discontinuing the Communicator. We just ordered 100 units several months ago and are consistently sending out multiple units per week. We are now putting together our next order and talking about some future options.

I suspect that there are some who misread the announcement that the receiver was being discontinued and thought that the communicator was being discontinued.

Aaron Z

flyboyscott wrote:Thanks for the reply and I'll do my part to dispel the rumors.

I guess I still have a question I am looking for an answer to: Is there any advantage to using a PC with the webcast software as opposed to the communicator hardware? We are using the communicator but have seen failures in the webcast.

Here are the advantages I see with both:

Meetinghouse Webcast 3.0 Software advantages over Communicator:
- Simple user interface with preview of video
- Rest images and videos
- Screen capture
- No cost for the software (obviously, you still need a PC, video/audio capture & devices)
- More flexibility to choose audio & video capture devices
- Ability to stream higher-definition webcasts

Communicator advantages over software:
- Fixed configuration that has been thoroughly tested and proven in the field (no variability in the audio & video capture hardware)
- Single-purpose device; no risk of conflicts from other drivers and applications (can be the case on a PC)

By far, our biggest challenge with the software has been the video & audio capture sources. Most of us would like to use a USB video capture device with a laptop and the software, but we have yet to find a really solid, reliable solution. My top recommendation, if it's possible, is to use a desktop PC with an Osprey 100, 230, or 240 capture card. This is a very solid solution. The USB capture devices can work, but are also prone to failure.

Kurt Olsen
Video & Streaming Product Manager

ksolsen wrote:[...] because of our move to Microsoft Expression as the underlying encoder/decoder.

Microsoft Expression appears to allow streaming to iOS devices. Does that mean that a future version of Meetinghouse Webcast will allow streaming to iOS devices without having to use a 3rd party app like VLC?