Retaining sacrament meeting webcasts using MWC

[Mikerowaved]

We've been counseled...

Under the direction and keys of the bishop, hold weekly sacrament meeting, virtually, safely in person, or by hybrid in-person and virtual broadcast, according to local needs and regulations. Such transmissions should not be recorded.

Our stake is setting up to webcast sacrament meetings next week. We are still deciding whether we will use the church Meetinghouse Webcast (MWC) or YouTube Live. Here's my question: if we use YouTube Live, it's easy to select the option to not keep the video once it's completed. However, doesn't the new MWC retain a copy of webcasts for up to a week? Does selecting "Sacrament Meeting" in the MWC Dashboard for the type of webcast change this retention period? If not, it looks like YouTube Live will be the best solution to comply with the above guidelines.

[russellhltn]

However, doesn't the new MWC retain a copy of webcasts for up to a week? Does selecting "Sacrament Meeting" in the MWC Dashboard for the type of webcast change this retention period?

At this time, it does not. However, I'm sure that will change. The directive seems to have caught the team by surprise.

I should note that the recording can only be found if you have the meeting number or direct link. If you just point people to the main page, the event disappears once it's over.

One of the side benefits of using the church system is it offers a bit of protection against "you're doing it wrong".

[Biggles]

Unless something has changed in the last few days, I haven’t seen an option to select “ Church Sunday Meeting” in the MWC Dashboard. I select the “Other” option and go from there.

Edit: I’ve just scheduled our next Sunday meeting and not only is “Bishopric” (Presiding Authority) now an option, but also Broadcast Type “Ward Sacrament Meeting”. When were these options added?

[Giraffelitis]

We used the church system Yesterday for all 13 units and didn't have any issues. We did as a stake change our meeting format to where songs prayers speakers and everything was done then closing prayer was said. Webcast is turned off then we proceeded with the Sacrament.

I think the retention is changed to 24 hours now on being able to watch previous webcasts

[lajackson]

I’ve just scheduled our next Sunday meeting and not only is “Bishopric” (Presiding Authority) now an option, but also Broadcast Type “Ward Sacrament Meeting”. When were these options added?

I think the were added on Friday. But if your meetings were scheduled before that time, you would not have seen them. And the retention period has always been "about 24 hours".

The Church is well aware of the temporary retention period, yet has still suggested that the Church website system is an acceptable method of distributing sacrament meeting. And as russellhltn said, only those who were invited to the meeting in the first place would be able to view it. The benefit of the system is that if a member happens to join the meeting late, they can still return to the beginning of the meeting to watch, even if it is still in progress. It is very similar to a general conference webcast, except that the final meeting is not retained for future reference after the temporary holding period.

[bartj]

The official communication on the VOD has stated it is available for "at least 24 hours". That retention period has been set to 7 days but will be dialed back closer to 24 hours. We had it set longer initially for two reasons: 1) it gave support more time to access it if needed for troubleshooting when we went live August 1 and 2) during our "beta" period in July we had some local units testing and they experienced issues on certain devices so we wanted them to be able allow access to members who might of had problems.

We have added a broadcast type of sacrament to the Church webcast portal and in the coming days will make the VOD for this type of broadcast unavailable. Until then the VOD is only available if the STS, or someone else with access to the stake's webcast portal, provides the link to members since we do not display this link anywhere on the home viewing page. So in order to align with the message from the Church, this link should not be shared for any sacrament meeting broadcast.