Tech Forum

The Roku is not a supported device for the Church system of webcasting. Most stakes will use a laptop of a member to receive the broadcasts in their local ward meetinghouses.

A quick, easy simple small windows computer will work well. A permanent laptop that could be used on Sunday's in the Library/Materials Center.

Work has been done on a linux project, and Raspberry PI, you can search through the forums on that. I've personally used android as well to an HDMI projector, but that was a test in a Relief Society Room, not the general population.

JohnShaw wrote:The Roku is not a supported device for the Church system of webcasting.

It was for at least a little while - the church even set up a special account with roku so you could activate the device without a credit card.

...It was for at least a little while - the church even set up a special account with roku so you could activate the device without a credit card.

Are you talking about activating the Roku or actually streaming a local conference webcast using the Roku?

JohnShaw wrote:The Roku is not a supported device for the Church system of webcasting. Most stakes will use a laptop of a member to receive the broadcasts in their local ward meetinghouses.

While it may not be approved for local webcasting, it is approved for Church broadcasts according to the RKATS site.

Our current standard products for sending webcasts are a) the Meetinghouse Webcast Communicator, a custom-built box that makes it simple to start webcasts, or b) Meetinghouse Webcast Software, which can be installed on a current PC. For the receiving sites, a Windows PC with Windows Media Player is the recommendation. For more details:

http://tech.lds.org/wiki/Meetinghouse_Webcast

@JohnShaw
Thanks John, I was not expecting to use the Roku for receiving building to building webcasts, sorry to imply that. All official letters and posters to ecclesiastical leaders regarding Church transmissions eg, CES Devotionals, list Roku as a supported device. I did try one in the building yesterday and it worked really well with LAN connection. WLAN would not connect and reported Error 014, which I understand to be a ping to router error. Perhaps there was too much interference from personal devices? Maybe we'll need to change the router settings if we can.

I'm very interested in your comment that a laptop be used for this purpose as that is exactly what I have requested from physical facilities. They have denied that request and explained that laptops are not issued except to units meeting in properties not owned by the Church.

@kolsen
Thanks for this link. It clarifies what is required and also suggests the use of a laptop. I guess we'll either have to buy small laptops from LUBA funds or rely on a member's personal laptop. I prefer not the latter in case of accident or damage. I understand that some high spec laptops can cost thousands of pounds.

Our stake uses the Roku extensively, and understand it is an approved church device, it even has an official page on lds.org.

It appears my laptop message didn't quite make it all the way out of my head. The FM group will not provide a computer other than the clerk computer for each unit, that is the case. Family History Center Computers are also not provided by the FM group (they are involved in the process of delivery). In my stake, We've made use of laptops for Family History Consultant training and as a pod that could be checked out if a ward/branch wanted to put on a training session and they didn't have access to a FHC.

Since our use of these laptops has dropped off dramatically, I have a pending suggestion in to our Stake Presidency they they be moved to the materials centers in our meetinghouses. Purchase a lock for the laptop and secure them behind a locked door - give the key to the Agent Bishop. This could be used for library access (hey could you print out this talk for me, Internet Access for those without it at home to setup online directory information, upload photos, etc...) and could be used in receiving the webcast.