Broadcasting Stake Conferences

Good morning all,

I just wanted to find out what options anyone has used to broadcast stake conference between buildings.
We have a GA coming in February and are looking for hopefully a long term relatively inexpensive solution that works! Our Stake Center is line of sight on a hill to each of the chapels in our Stake.
Please post any successes or failures with the various technologies.

JB

jaredblank wrote:Good morning all,

I just wanted to find out what options anyone has used to broadcast stake conference between buildings.
We have a GA coming in February and are looking for hopefully a long term relatively inexpensive solution that works! Our Stake Center is line of sight on a hill to each of the chapels in our Stake.
Please post any successes or failures with the various technologies.

JB

See the thread [thread=45]Simulcast of Stake Conference[/thread].

Hey Jared....Check out the slingbox http://www.slingmedia.com/.

Moderator Disclaimer: The Church does not officially endorse nor encourage the use of the SlingBox product nor any other products by SlingMedia. The decision to use this product is left up to the discretion of you and your local leaders, as long as it remains in accordance to any policy sent out by Church headquarters. Thank you.

Derral

If your buildings are line-of-site you might want to consider an eithernet bridge such as Q-Bridge to transmit between your buildings. You can view this product at http://connexwireless.com/Q-Bridge/. This transmitting solution costs $399.00.

We installed this product for my stake (Salt Lake Granger South Stake) for the October 2007 Stake conference and it works wonderful. It has a 4Mb bandwith which will provide high quality sound and video. We had no interruptions in either during the broadcast. Reports from the viewers said the quality was much better than that provided by a contract provider who we had been using who charged over $2000/year for two conferences.

It requires a computer on each end and the Q-Bridge system connects to the computers via your network plug.

Roger

In our stake we have tried 2.4 wireless transmitters and found them to be inadequate especially for sound. Too many private home wireless routers in between the buildings. We would have gone to 5.8 but at around $4000 and no guarantees we have been reluctant. We have a local mini TV station that has broadcast for us with a portable transmitter, but have found this hard to maintain the TV antennas (we also broadcast to an old folks home) and a hassle to get them on our schedule. We do not have internet in our stake center where the broadcast originates, nor at the other chapel. Does the sling work without internet? I looked for that info but I'm sure it is so obvious as not to be mentioned. If you have to mount the Q-Bridge up high, what do you do for cable to your transmission signal and then from the module to your receiver? Will numerous trees and or wind make this impractical at about 3/4 of a mile? Can the signal be relayed once it is received? (like from the chapel to the old folks home?) Our next conference is in April and every one in the past has been an "adventure". I've been doing this about 5 years and I'm glad to know we have such a site. Our stake conference attendance is between 1600 and 1800 and some are hard to please.

I posted to this thread earlier today but I don't see it here now so will try a re-post. Sorry if it is a duplication.

We mounted the Q-Bridge antennas on the steeples of each of our buildings. From the antenna we ran a CAT5e cable through the roof under the steeple into the attic, through the attic over the chapel and down into a room adjacent to our satellite room. It then plugs into a POE (Power Over Ethernet) power supply which supplies the power via the CAT5e cable for the transceiver which is built into the antenna. A router cable from the computer carrying the data also plugs into the POE and from there the data is carried up the CAT5e cable to the transceiver.

The Q-Bridge system comes with 75 feet of CAT5e cable which is not enough for most buildings. You can use a coupler to add additional cable up to 225 feet additional (300 feet total).

Our buildings are 1/2 mile apart and there are a few trees in the path but it went right through them. Our stake conference is in April and October and most of the leaves are not on the trees then. The manufacturer said that at close ranges under 1 mile a few trees probably will not be any problem and they weren't.

Wind, rain and snow storms do not hamper transmissions. If snow or ice builds up on the front bubble of the antenna you may see some reduced performance assuming you are shooting a long distance over 3 miles. You can even paint over the antennas if you need to.

The system has a built in site survey that lists all of the wireless transmitters around your building. You can choose any of 10 channels to transmit on. The antennas are horizontally polarized to prevent interference from home wireless systems which are vertically polarized in most cases. We had at least 10 wireless systems around us but none of them interfered with our transmissions.

This system has a 4 MHz band width. Your sound should be at least CD quality and the picture is high quality.

It is hard for me to believe that this complete kit only costs $399 when other systems are in over $1000.

It sounds like you have been through what we went through contracting the job out which was costly and always had some problem with sound or video dropout.

We used this system for the first time last October. We were all very surprised that we had no problems and no dropouts for the entire conference (a first for us). The sound and picture were excellent.

You can use up to 2 additional Q-Bridge units together to relay to other locations such as your old folks home. They call it a Mesh Network.

You can go to the Q-Bridge website that was listed in my earlier post and download the "User Guide" which is very well written and easy to follow. It will help you plan your system.

Just a note, you do have to have a computer at each end of the system. I can give you more information if you want it.

I will be happy to send you any block diagrams or photos of our system if you would like me to.

Roger

Ralph,

I was really interested in your response and it generated a few questions. Does the $399 for the Q bridge include a POE? Do you need one on each end? Is there more equipment besides the Q bridge kit needed for a Mesh Network?

Quite often we start our on a project and find out it fits President Hinckley's renovation formula (double it and add 20%) so I hope you don't mind me trying to nail down the details ahead of time.

Lastly, what was the delivery time like once you ordered the system?

Thanks for all your help. The diagrams would be very welcome as well as any pictures of equipment, installations, building to building orientation etc. I'm new to this forum and not sure of the rules for contact but to send the pictures and diagrams, my e-mail address is kidsx5@shaw.ca Thanks again fro all your help. OUr stake conference is the end of April, so this may be just in time.

Lanny