Webcast 3.0 is out

[seanhyte]

Could we start thinking about the receiving end of these broadcasts? Consistency with a player is the absolute most important thing in a successful broadcast that can't be controlled from the Stake Center / Webcast broadcast site.

Yes, we have been aware of this, and we are working towards a solution for the receiving end soon.

[seanhyte]

Any chance the 2.1Mb/s ceiling has been increased?

The 2.1Mbps is still the highest, this is to keep the experince more stable for meetinghouse webcast.

[Mikerowaved]

The 2.1Mbps is still the highest, this is to keep the experince more stable for meetinghouse webcast.

More stable? I have to jump through hoops just to get Wirecast DOWN to 2.1Mbps when sending a 720p/30 video stream. We have ample bandwidth to support 8k/60 if we had the equipment and need for it (which we don't). The default for 720p/30 using NVENC is 4Mbps plus audio. Forcing it down to 2.1Mb really starts to affect the quality. Please don't take this the wrong way. I'm just trying to make those in the overflow buildings have as good an experience as reasonably possible and it's limitations like this that make me look for other solutions.

[seanhyte]

The 2.1Mbps is still the highest, this is to keep the experince more stable for meetinghouse webcast.

More stable? I have to jump through hoops just to get Wirecast DOWN to 2.1Mbps when sending a 720p/30 video stream. We have ample bandwidth to support 8k/60 if we had the equipment and need for it (which we don't). The default for 720p/30 using NVENC is 4Mbps plus audio. Forcing it down to 2.1Mb really starts to affect the quality. Please don't take this the wrong way. I'm just trying to make those in the overflow buildings have as good an experience as reasonably possible and it's limitations like this that make me look for other solutions.

Yes, thank you for expressing your wanting the best possible experience for your viewers, me personally as an STS myself and I'm also a home theater enthusiast, I’m very picky wanting the best audio/video possible, so I’m with you in your desire.

The webcast team is evaluating requirements all the time to make sure stakes are successful in webcasting, and when I said “more stable” I was using it to refer to the Church as a whole in its overall success for meetinghouse webcasting. There are many reasons for the limit at this time, but one of the reasons was to reduce the amount of failures stakes were having, not just in Utah but all over the world as a high percentage of failures happened when using the higher bitrates. The Church is extremely interested in making sure meetinghouse webcast is as successful and reliable as possible so the technology can be utilized to further the work. Although webcast failures are rare now, it is always hard to hear when even one event has failed and to know there was a group of people that did not get to hear the message that was intended for them.

2.1 Mbps can reach HD quality if you have the bandwidth, stable internet, and all your equipment including cameras and projectors are HD capable.

Thanks

[seanhyte]

One of the cool new features of Webcast 3.0 is the ability to configure the Teradek VidiU once and then it will configure automatically for all your events going forward.

I really like this, but have a small concern.

As I understand it, the Teradek will self-configure only if you turn it on during the pre-buffer period. This is okay for a regular webcast with a two-hour pre-buffer period, but a test broadcast only gives 10 minutes. That does not give much time if the Teradek doesn't come up when first started. Ours takes almost 5 minutes to boot up, and does not always come up Ready the first time. If we had to do it again, we would be late for our test broadcast.

Is there any way to trigger the Teradek to accept the auto configuration during the pre-buffer period if it is turned on before the pre-buffer period has started? Obviously, any type of trigger would have to take place during the actual pre-buffer period. Or is the only method to turn it off and take our chances on bringing it up again during the pre-buffer period, or just never turn it on early for a test?

Again, for actual events with a two-hour pre-buffer, this is not an issue. And I guess a test is a test is a test, so it is no big deal then. I was just wondering if there was another way to trigger the auto-configuration than the poor little switch on the side of the box.

You may be getting “auto-configure” confused with the “auto-start” process (which both are all part of the auto-config mode but separate processes).

The Teradek will auto configure anytime it is turned on and boots up. So if you change the bitrate or create a new event in the webcast portal, you need to reboot the Teradek (or power it on from an off state) for the Teradek to get its configuration. It does not need to be in a prebuffer mode for the Teradek to auto config. The Teradek will auto config anytime it boots no matter what state (of course this only works if you previously have setup the auto-config mode as shown in the 3.0 guide).

However, the Teradek will only auto-start broadcasting if it boots up when your event says “begin encoding” in the webcast portal. (“begin encoding” will start in the prebuffer state). If you boot up the Teradek before your event says “being encoding” the Teradek will configure, but not auto start broadcasting. If this happens and you want the Teradek to start encoding, you can either reboot the Teradek again after it says “being encoding”, or push the red “start” button on the front of the Teradek to manually start it. (You can only manually start it from the red button, if you previously rebooted the Teradek to receive its auto-configuration).

[Mikerowaved]

The Teradek will auto configure anytime it is turned on and boots up.

That's a very nice feature! I have a few questions...

1. Does the Teradek need to be in the Facility Zone to be found, or can it remain in the Meetinghouse Zone?
2. Using this feature, can the church roll out acceptable firmware updates to the Teradek so we don't accidentally roll it ahead too far?
3. As part of this routine, can the church run a bitrate test from the Teradek to the church's portal to make recommendations (or automatically set) webcasting bitrates?

[seanhyte]

The Teradek will auto configure anytime it is turned on and boots up.

That's a very nice feature! I have a few questions...

1. Does the Teradek need to be in the Facility Zone to be found, or can it remain in the Meetinghouse Zone?
2. Using this feature, can the church roll out acceptable firmware updates to the Teradek so we don't accidentally roll it ahead too far?
3. As part of this routine, can the church run a bitrate test from the Teradek to the church's portal to make recommendations (or automatically set) webcasting bitrates?

1. Zones do not matter, the Teradek just cares if it has an internet connection or not (of course policy states connections need to go through meetinghouse firewall). Basically (in autoconfig mode), every time the Teradek boots up, it goes out to retrieve any settings that are set in the webcast portal. That is why you need to reboot Teradek if you change bitrate in the portal, or setup a new event in the portal.

2. Not able to update firmware because there is only a limited items the Teradek VidiU can be auto configured, this is a limitation from Teradek.

3. Currently we have added a new test in the portal that will let you test at your broadcast site for the closest cloud region you should use, and have added new articles/worksheets to help you understand the right bitrate and settings you should use, but hope to move towards other tools that will help as well.

[bretep]

Could we start thinking about the receiving end of these broadcasts? Consistency with a player is the absolute most important thing in a successful broadcast that can't be controlled from the Stake Center / Webcast broadcast site.

Here is what I do, I think the church should do something just like it:
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=24539&p=199482#p199482

[egibb]

Wasn't this available on a per-location basis in the previous version? This setting does that for the entire broadcast, right? So even if we have sites that can take a full HD stream, if we set this it will stream at the lower bandwidth option, right?

I see what you mean. It used to be per-location but now it seems to be a blanket application. When reviewing Locations, there's no way to check if the site previously set as a Low Bandwidth location is still that way. The whole interface for Location reveiw, editing and adding seems clunky and missing configuration ability that was available before.

[seanhyte]

Wasn't this available on a per-location basis in the previous version? This setting does that for the entire broadcast, right? So even if we have sites that can take a full HD stream, if we set this it will stream at the lower bandwidth option, right?

I see what you mean. It used to be per-location but now it seems to be a blanket application. When reviewing Locations, there's no way to check if the site previously set as a Low Bandwidth location is still that way. The whole interface for Location reveiw, editing and adding seems clunky and missing configuration ability that was available before.

The broadcast site will encode and upload at the rate you set. This stream is then transcoded so your receive sites will be able to receive the stream at the rate the location can handle based on its network speed and heath. It worked this way in the previous version, and still works this way now.

The added new feature to 3.0 is the Low Bandwidth Broadcast Mode. In this mode the rate is locked in at a low encode rate and there is no transcoding. This will help sites that have low/unstable internet.
Make sure to read up on the below article -
Webcast Network Health and Encoder Settings https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/hel ... s?lang=eng