When I first heard about the option to publish Stake Conference Zoom Webinars to Gospel Stream, I thought this was a brilliant move by the church. As a Stake Technology Specialist for 12+ years I have experienced frustration by members who are trying to share Stake Conference with their families and they can't figure out how to get it from their phone or laptop to the living room TV. Trust me when I say that families do not want to gather around a laptop for 2 to 4 hours watching conference. Seeing that Gospel Stream is an app that I've used on Roku, Amazon Fire Devices, Google TV, and Apple TV, I was excited at the notion that anyone that could download an App to their device could seamlessly watch conference without the need of complicated cables and computers.
Today I published our Stake Conference Links for the first time on Meet.ChurchofJesusChrist.org and I noticed that the links were immediately available to Gospel Stream on my iPhone. Unfortunately Roku, Amazon Fire Devices, Google TV, and Apple TV I could not find the link.
It quickly hit me that Local Events are restricted to your specific unit and that check balance is done when you use your LDS Church credentials to log into the Gospel Stream app. On my phone there is a place to log into the Gospel Stream App. On my Roku, Amazon Fire Devices, Google TV, and Apple TV, there is no such option.
This is really disappointing. Please tell me that this isn't some huge oversight. That we didn't develop all of these platform apps void of the ability to log into your church account unless you are using a computer or phone. If that is the case, what is the benefit of publishing events to Gospel Stream? Members are still left trying to connect their laptops and phones to their TV, and Gospel Stream just becomes another cumbersome layer, and using the Zoom link outside of Gospel Stream is likely the easier solution.
Publishing Stake Conference Zoom to Gospel Stream
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Forsters
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awev
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- Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2010 7:21 am
- Location: New Canton, VA USA
Re: Publishing Stake Conference Zoom to Gospel Stream
Hello Forsters,
Sorry for the late response, I do not get on the forums very much nowadays.
It is a two-part problem, and you have figured half of it out. Streaming of temple dedications/Area 70s are restricted to stake centers in the defined region, and stake conferences to those located within the stake, etc.
The second part is that an event like General Conference is broadcast using codecs that almost any modern display device/streaming device can decode and display. Zoom uses there own codecs, which is not supported by streaming devices like Fire TV, Roku, etc, yet most tablets, smart phones, and computers/laptops are able to use a Zoom client (software, program, app, or whatever terminology you want to use). Gospel Stream receives the broadcast, figures out what codec it is using, then makes a request to the operating system (Fire TV and Android TV for example), which can then display it. Since the Zoom codec is not supported by the streaming devices there is nothing for Gospel Stream to hand off to.
For the second part there is a couple of options, such as setting up Zoom to broadcast to YT or FB in place of the church broadcast system, or maybe in addition to it (this is above my pay grade), with the added benefit that people outside the local viewing area can watch. Those in the approved viewing list might be able to use a smart phone or tablet and cast the broadcast to a large screen, or connect the laptop/computer to the said screen.
Sorry for the late response, I do not get on the forums very much nowadays.
It is a two-part problem, and you have figured half of it out. Streaming of temple dedications/Area 70s are restricted to stake centers in the defined region, and stake conferences to those located within the stake, etc.
The second part is that an event like General Conference is broadcast using codecs that almost any modern display device/streaming device can decode and display. Zoom uses there own codecs, which is not supported by streaming devices like Fire TV, Roku, etc, yet most tablets, smart phones, and computers/laptops are able to use a Zoom client (software, program, app, or whatever terminology you want to use). Gospel Stream receives the broadcast, figures out what codec it is using, then makes a request to the operating system (Fire TV and Android TV for example), which can then display it. Since the Zoom codec is not supported by the streaming devices there is nothing for Gospel Stream to hand off to.
For the second part there is a couple of options, such as setting up Zoom to broadcast to YT or FB in place of the church broadcast system, or maybe in addition to it (this is above my pay grade), with the added benefit that people outside the local viewing area can watch. Those in the approved viewing list might be able to use a smart phone or tablet and cast the broadcast to a large screen, or connect the laptop/computer to the said screen.