PVC Retirement December 31, 2019

Discussions about the desktop video conferencing solution provided by the Church

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segbert
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PVC Retirement December 31, 2019

#1

Post by segbert »

With the retirement of PVC as of December 31, 2019, what are other church leaders using for video conferencing? I'm focused more on non-employees of the Church. The notification that was sent out lists alternatives for Church employees, but says nothing about those Church leaders who have been using it for Church business.

I've heard that some people like Zoom, but free calls are limited to 40 minutes only. I wish all meetings could be done in 40 minutes, but that just isn't realistic. I'm curious what other people are using for video conferencing, both free and paid services.
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sbradshaw
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Re: PVC Retirement December 31, 2019

#2

Post by sbradshaw »

I haven't needed video conferencing for my calling, but for other things I've used Google Hangouts quite a bit.
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russellhltn
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Re: PVC Retirement December 31, 2019

#3

Post by russellhltn »

segbert wrote:With the retirement of PVC as of December 31, 2019
How was this communicated?

I'm not seeing anything on the web pages.
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segbert
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Re: PVC Retirement December 31, 2019

#4

Post by segbert »

russellhltn wrote:
segbert wrote:With the retirement of PVC as of December 31, 2019
How was this communicated?

I'm not seeing anything on the web pages.
I received an email with the details.
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russellhltn
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Re: PVC Retirement December 31, 2019

#5

Post by russellhltn »

segbert wrote:I received an email with the details.
Thanks. Probably sent to those with active PVC accounts. Always interesting about how the church communicates changes.

I took a quick look at WebEx, and the free accounts are limited to 40 minutes as well. Microsoft Teams looks like it requires a subscription of some kind. The letter seems to address "Employees" while leaving absent any suggestions for local units.

I do know there are free audio-conferencing options.
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eblood66
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Re: PVC Retirement December 31, 2019

#6

Post by eblood66 »

russellhltn wrote:Microsoft Teams looks like it requires a subscription of some kind.
Microsoft Teams does have a free version: https://products.office.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/free

There doesn't seem to be any restriction on who can use it other than a 300 person limit per organization. But that would handle leaders within a stake just fine.

From their feature table it looks like it may not support audio conferencing using the phone network but does support audio and video meetings via computer/mobile device.

My experience using Teams at work for conferencing is so-so. It generally works but we've had some oddities. But it seems to be getting better. Don't know if that applies to the free version or not.

It might be something that some may want to explore.
mhsmith19
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Re: PVC Retirement December 31, 2019

#7

Post by mhsmith19 »

Brethren, has the retirement of Vidyo support for all church use been verified? Or is it just retired for church employees? We were just getting our HC started but held off when we saw this. Unfortunately the free version of Teams does not allow scheduling so isn't quite as intuitive as we were desiring. Thanks.
russellhltn
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Re: PVC Retirement December 31, 2019

#8

Post by russellhltn »

Good question. PVC is still in the Help Center. I didn't get an email, but then I haven't been using it. I assumed it was only sent to those with registered accounts.
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wvpenfold
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Re: PVC Retirement December 31, 2019

#9

Post by wvpenfold »

Our Stake uses Zoom at $150 a year. With all the phone lines we discontinued we decided we could pay for the service. We have Zoom meetings about 4 times a month as it takes about 90 minutes with a drive over a mountain pass to go from one end of our Stake to the other. We also liked the phone in option as we have High Councilmen that are always on the road somewhere and the phone in options keeps them informed when they don't have a good internet connection. We use it for High Council, Stake Youth Council, Stake Council and a variety of other meetings so people don't have to drive 2 hours for a meeting. And now with COVID-19 we will be having all stake meetings with it ;)

We have two rooms with semi-permanent setups. Each setup has a Pancast camera, Yamaha YVC-1000 microphone with 5 mics in the biggest room and 2 in the other and Windows 10 computers. For screen we have 65" and 55" in TV's. We have trained each organization on how to set everything up and given them each an individual room code that they use every-time (another benefit of the paid version). Usually when there is a problem its windows updating or user error on connecting or not turning everything on.
russellhltn
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Re: PVC Retirement December 31, 2019

#10

Post by russellhltn »

wvpenfold wrote:With all the phone lines we discontinued we decided we could pay for the service.
Phones were supposed to be reimbursed from CHQ. So, I don't think most stakes are going to have any extra money from that.
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