Webcast end of life question.

[poswald]

I have been told by some 'sources' that the Webcast system is going away. We may be relegated with the likes of Zoom. Our current camera equipment and setups are not very workable with Zoom. Is the Webcast tool going away (April 2022 is what I have heard)? If so I would like to know now so I as the STS can retool and retrain. I have several wards with elderly populations that have no plans to move away from broadcasting Sacrament meetings as this has literally been a 'Godsend' for our home bound membership who deeply desire to feel this kind of participation.

[davesudweeks]

I have no special knowledge, but have read elsewhere in the forum that a letter was sent from church headquarters instructing all units to move off the Webcast system for sacrament meeting broadcasts and use their unit zoom account or some other platform such as youtube. That is the reason the church has paid for each unit to have their own Zoom account. There are lots of forum posts instructing ways to be successful using these other platforms (even for those who are challenged by the technology).

I believe (but again have no special knowledge) that the Webcast system is probably not going away unless they are developing something new - just that wards have been asked to not use it for their broadcasts.

[poswald]

We had invested in equipment such that the Webcast team told us we could stay on their system. We do use our unit Zoom accounts for other meetings which was also the reason for Zoom account assignments. If the Webcast direction is changing I simply want enough notice to react and train appropriately. We have tools that we use to notify viewers when the Sacrament portion of the meeting is taking place which our built in capabilities with our Mevo camera systems. Some wards use OBS to produce their meetings. We just need time to adjust. We have never planned on using Zoom for our Stake Conference Broadcasts as we have a building with an old mounted analog camera which we do not want to adapt for Zoom. Yes, there are solutions for all of these things with Zoom but we enjoy the elegance of the current Webcast system. If they are going to move our cheese we just want to know when.

[lajackson]

Is the Webcast tool going away (April 2022 is what I have heard)? If so I would like to know now so I as the STS can retool and retrain.
. . .
If the Webcast direction is changing I simply want enough notice to react and train appropriately.

I have heard the same rumor with a date a few months later than what you heard.

We have become so reliant on the Church webcast system that I would be amazed if the Church did not give us at least six months advance notice if the system really is going away.

If the Church were to make an announcement sometime in October, for example, I would read the announcement carefully, note any suggestions or preferrances the Church provided, and then go back through the comments here at the Forum to figure out what might work best in our stake. Only then would I begin to start moving to a new system if that were to be in my future.

So until there is an official announcement, I would just enjoy General Conference this coming weekend with my new satellite replacement solution. There is nothing as constant as change.

[johnshaw]

Everything that goes through the Taradek can be directed to Zoom as easily as it can to the Azure Based Could Webcast solution. I don't understand how this would be something hard to handle. We might lose a small, teeny bit of functionality like auto-setup, but that was only a recent (late) introduction into the system anyway, we were manually doing it for a very long time.

[poswald]

I only have one Taradek in my system of buildings and I have been told the current Taradek systems are out of production. My Mevo camera systems seem to have issues with Zoom. If I am forced to Zoom we will work out the noise cancellation issues among others issues as well or simply buy new systems. Webcast works great and has a nice landing page for members to select their meeting of choice. We will have to come up with our own landing page for the Zoom links which of course is a matter of choice for us. I just want to know if the Webcast is going away. YES or NO! A very simple question. I know the Webcast and Networking team monitor these forums. Would someone answer the simple question?

[Wattsuk]

I'm afraid you're extremely unlikely to get an answer.

I presume you are trying to use the mevo in wired webcam mode for zoom? USB Cable length is critical here.
Another option that works well for us is to use the camera in NDI mode. This works consistently well when coupled with the PoE adapter to have a solid ethernet connection. Latency is not bad at all on our network.
Benefit is that the laptop used for zoom does not have to be in close proximity to the camera but can be operated anywhere on the same network. A clerk's computer could potentially even be used for example.

The Mevo Start has some very aggressive DSP to pick out voices if you are not using the 3.5mm jack input.
Zoom also has it's own highly aggressive DSP with the AGC and the echo reduction.

Best solution is to run a 3.5mm sound input into the mevo to disable the camera's internal microphones and then 'enable original sound' in zoom. This will defeat the signal processing and give you the best chance at not only the highest quality but also the most consistent sound.

Anyway. If webcast goes away completely or gets restricted right down to just regional conferences etc, i'm sure we'll get more than just a couple of weeks' notice.

[Mikerowaved]

Everything that goes through the Taradek can be directed to Zoom as easily as it can to the Azure Based Could Webcast solution. I don't understand how this would be something hard to handle.

Except Zoom can't ingest an RTMP stream, so the Teradek can't directly stream to it like it can other services.

[Wattsuk]

Everything that goes through the Taradek can be directed to Zoom as easily as it can to the Azure Based Could Webcast solution. I don't understand how this would be something hard to handle.

Except Zoom can't ingest an RTMP stream, so the Teradek can't directly stream to it like it can other services.

Setup RTMP server and pull it into OBS and then output source to zoom? Bit of a hassle to workaround like that, but it is possible.
Much easier to just output to youtube.

[Mikerowaved]

Much easier to just output to youtube.

Agreed.