Simple Fully Automated worship webcast with Meetinghouse Webcast

[bretep]

Hi everyone. I thought I would share the cost effective and low stress setup we are using in our stake. I've made this an easy setup for anyone and it uses the Meetinghouse Webcast system to boot.

This setup is quite simple. Just turn on or off the encoder is all that is needed by anyone on the stand. All else is automated.
I webcast 12 of 13 wards on Sunday with no technical issues on the webcasting side of things. I do admit that I had specialists
configure each encoder before each session, however, they will no longer be required to configure with this firmware.

Benefits of this setup:

• Low cost - No expensive web camera or computers
  Stationary - Podium can move up and down
  No fuss - Power on/off to start and stop the webcast
  Simple configuration using the Church provided Meetinghouse Webcast system
  Easy to train and delegate
  Open source, so we can improve this system together!

Cost: $205.00 MSRP per building
I'm listing MSRP, but I was able to find them far cheaper on Amazon

J-Tech Digital H.264 IP Encoder: MSRP: $179.99 https://jtechdigital.com/product/jtech-ench4-0220/
RCA to HDMI Converter: $12.00 https://www.amazon.com/GANA-Composite-C ... B01L8GG6PW
Camera with Microphone: $14.00 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073P1K48T/re ... AFbXG48WGZ


Firmware Release:
https://github.com/bretep/webcast-auto- ... tag/v1.0.0

Meetinghouse Setup

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Meetinghouse setup

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Full test of full automation - Zero touch to webcast encoder, simulated scheduling and playing all 3 worship meetings only using the Meetinghouse Webcast system.

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Successful fully automated meeting test

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Congregation view

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Congregation view

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[russellhltn]

So, this encoder works like the VidiU as far as the auto configuration? It loads it automatically from the church Webcast System?

[bretep]

Correct, but you have to use my firmware and configuration steps. I made this since the Teradek VidiU has been discontinued and the church no longer sells it according to store.churchofjesuschrist.org and my FM group and their direct manager.

It’s also much cheaper than the VidiU and I prefer it given the simplicity. I have a call with J-Tech tomorrow to see if I can get access to the GPIO pins and to have a look at my auto config so they can include it by default in their firmware.

The great thing about this encoder is it uses the same chipset as the VidiU, you get root access to the device (if you send in a support ticket to get the root user and password) which makes it ideal to develop custom software for it.

It has 2GB flash memory, Cortex A7 arm processor, only 32 MB of disk, but I can deal with that. Runs Linux.

[winjesluck]

I made this since the Teradek VidiU has been discontinued and the church no longer sells it according to store.churchofjesuschrist.org and my FM group and their direct manager.

The old Teradek Vidiu model has been discontinued that is listed on the Purchasing Webcast Products page https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/hel ... s?lang=eng , but there is a newer model the "Teredek Vidiu Pro" and the church online store's website says it is in stock. The Item number for the Teredek Vidiu Pro is 16740000

I believe one of our FM's were able to purchase one of Teredek Vidiu Pro's recently.

In regards to the encoder you've found, it sounds like a great alternative and now makes me wonder if I can get one of my other encoders to get the auto config settings too.

[bretep]

Awesome! We would have purchased 3 of these last week had we been able to find it. However, I’m glad we didn’t. $732.25 USD vs. $179 USD,

[bretep]

Teradek vs. the J-Tech encoder trade-offs

Had my FM group helped me find the Teredek Vidiu Pro (16740000) we would have gladly purchased 3 of them. The time I spent learning the J-Tech platform and building and testing a firmware and even bricking one of the devices, was much more expensive than to purchase the 3 additional Teredeks.

The reason I point this out is because we all try to be good stewards of money spent in the Church. My FM group is strongly discouraging the purchase of Teredek's and I spent Monday and Tuesday last week trying to purchase the three of them with approved money from our Stake. It would have saved me about 60 hours of work. To put numbers to this cost: 3 teradeks / 60 hours = $36.62/hr which if far less than I make an hour meaning it was more expensive for me to get the J-Techs working.

Now that I have working firmware which performs better than the Teredek auto config, the J-Tech is now a viable option and we won't be purchasing the Teradeks.

The features we don't get with the J-Tech that the Teredek has:
- Wifi config and monitoring (I wouldn't broadcast using the wifi, but you can)
- Built in display for easy setup
- iOS and Android app
- Slow boot time
- Slow auto configure
- A red joystick/numb for starting/stopping the webcast

The features we get with J-Tech that Teredek does not have:
- Fast power on, 5 seconds and webcast is running
- Fast and reliable auto configuration
- One way to configure, via web interface
- Less moving parts, meaning less things to configure, break, etc...

The only technical issues we had on Sunday were with the Teredek in the Stake Center. The red joystick was not used properly and the broadcast was not stopped, I had to end the session using the Meetinghouse Webcast. The J-Tech's did not
experience any problems because it's power on/off for webcast. Dead simple.

Everyone now has an alternative, viable option to use with the Meetinghouse Webcast system, and you don't need to spend the 60+ hours configuring the thing. It's literally a firmware upload that takes about 2 minutes, and configuration which takes about 3 minutes, then you're up and running on the J-Tech. All other setup (HDMI, Camera, etc...) is the same as the Teredek.

[bretep]

I just got off the phone with J-Tech, they have taken a look at my firmware and are building the remote config functionality into their firmware. They said they'll try to have it to me by end of week!

[dashwort]

Hey BRETEP. Solution looks really great and simple and thanks for all of your work on this. Can you correct the link in your original post for the RCA to HDMI adapter?

Thanks,

Dane

[bretep]

I’m not able to edit the original post however here is the correct link. Sorry about the error.

https://www.amazon.com/GANA-Composite-C ... B01L8GG6PW

[russellhltn]

I’m not able to edit the original post

Fixed.