Face to Face technical difficulties

[kcowolf]

My stake held an event where the youth gathered to watch the Face to Face broadcast with Elder Bednar. I was asked to set up the equipment and handle the broadcast. Unfortunately, the video froze up various times during the event, sometimes to where I had to refresh the page and force it to reconnect. I'm frustrated that it took a lot away from the event, but in hindsight I should've realized it was a potential issue and had some mitigations ready before it started.

I had a couple of questions:

1. Did anyone else streaming the video online run into issues with video buffering/freezing? I'm guessing the issues were with our building's Internet connection, but I'm curious to know if others saw what we did.

2. I just saw on another message (http://tech.lds.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=152&t=21716#) that the event was streamed on the Church's satellite system. I didn't see this mentioned anywhere (the main page I referenced was https://www.lds.org/youth/activities/sp ... r?lang=eng#), but if it was, I really wish I'd known about it. Is there anywhere I could have seen this?

3. For future events like this, could an audio-only stream be provided (if there was, I didn't see it anywhere) as a last resort for anyone with spotty bandwidth?

[russellhltn]

2. I just saw on another message (http://tech.lds.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=152&t=21716#) that the event was streamed on the Church's satellite system. I didn't see this mentioned anywhere (the main page I referenced was https://www.lds.org/youth/activities/sp ... r?lang=eng#), but if it was, I really wish I'd known about it. Is there anywhere I could have seen this?

I'm not sure about that answer. You'll notice I had the same questions and difficulties in finding an answer.

I've got a question for you: when you ran into problems, did you disable the building's wireless? Otherwise other users of the building's internet could have been an issue.

[kcowolf]

I was streaming using the Wi-fi. I would've needed to have a long Ethernet cable ready to run from the pulpit to the Clerk's Office (or ideally I should've planned to set that up from the beginning). If we have an Ethernet port closer to the pulpit I'm not aware of it.

I did ask everyone to disconnect their devices from the wireless, but I don't know how many did.

[russellhltn]

Fortunately for me, FM installed a jack at the pulpit of each of our meetinghouses. But in your case it could go either way.

I would use the situation to push for getting a jack installed. Not doubt there will be future broadcasts and this failure emphases the need for a fix.

[johnshaw]

Always, always, always stream using Ethernet, even if you have to run a cable, a long cable. This let's you disable wireless.

You can always call the global service center and ask about the satellite, I was told at the end of last week that the church has decided to always broadcast these kinds of events over satellite. I hope that is the case.

[Mikerowaved]

1. Did anyone else streaming the video online run into issues with video buffering/freezing? I'm guessing the issues were with our building's Internet connection, but I'm curious to know if others saw what we did.

For me, it froze once for about 3-4 seconds about 15 minutes before the live event started. It certainly grabbed my attention, but that was all I saw; the rest went very smooth.

2. I just saw on another message (http://tech.lds.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=152&t=21716#) that the event was streamed on the Church's satellite system. I didn't see this mentioned anywhere (the main page I referenced was https://www.lds.org/youth/activities/sp ... r?lang=eng#), but if it was, I really wish I'd known about it. Is there anywhere I could have seen this?

I posted that and I agree it could have been better publicized about the different methods of streaming on more than that one page.

[drepouille]

I think it would have been counterproductive to disable Wi-Fi since I thought the whole purpose of the event was to allow the youth to interact during the event. Perhaps I am wrong.

Either way, this event occurred at exactly the time Microsoft released its monthly Windows critical updates. I was in a stake council meeting last night, and had to reboot for that reason.

[russellhltn]

I think it would have been counterproductive to disable Wi-Fi since I thought the whole purpose of the event was to allow the youth to interact during the event. Perhaps I am wrong.

How many youth rely on WiFi for texting?

[robartsd]

I think it would have been counterproductive to disable Wi-Fi since I thought the whole purpose of the event was to allow the youth to interact during the event. Perhaps I am wrong.

That was the impression I got too. I seem to recall satelite being mentioned on the page I saw about the event last week - even if it had not been mentioned, I would have assumed an event like this would use the satelite system. Our stake did not host a live viewing. In our ward, we invited the youth to stream live at home if they wished; our YM (I'm not sure about YW) are planning to watch the video from it tonight.

[rsidwell]

I think it would have been counterproductive to disable Wi-Fi since I thought the whole purpose of the event was to allow the youth to interact during the event. Perhaps I am wrong.

How many youth rely on WiFi for texting?

Not for texting, but for accessing #LDSface2face on Twitter or Facebook. I had the same quandary before discovering it was on the satellite.