Church Webcasts using YouTube Live Streams

[russellhltn]

If you are referring to the "accept terms of service" click-through, you can add the MAC address of the phone to the "Firewall IP Assignments" page for the building in the Technology Manager (tm.churchofjesuschrist.org

That option is only available to a few people such as the Stake Technology Specialist or Assistant Technology Specialists. It's not avilable to the general membership.

[Mikerowaved]

I am using an old phone that does not have mobile network service. But after connecting to wifi, it still requires me use the internet to answer an authorization question before I can use the internet. How to I get past this problem trying to connect to the Liahona wifi at church?

A phone without mobile service or even a SIM card can connect to the Liahona WiFi just like any other device. Scroll to the bottom of the splash screen and accept the terms of use. Done.

[failproof]

We've been successfully webcasting in our stake using the church's webcast portal for years now, and it was a fairly easy transition to using it when we started webcasting Sacrament Meetings. This year we have begun the process of moving to Zoom after the recent update from MHT. One of our challenges with Zoom is that it doesn't have an app for most (or any that I know of) smart TVs and smart TV devices (roku, firestick, etc.) One solution to that would be to utilize Zooms feature to also stream it to YouTube. Many of the smart TV/devices have a YouTube app.

What I'm wondering is whether anyone has a good solution for a pema-link for the YouTube stream? I've considered the "youtube.com/channel/YOUR_CHANNEL_ID/live", but in order for this to work your stream has to be public rather than unlisted or private. The guidelines we received from the church, however stated "YouTube Live events should be unpublished and deleted after the meeting," so setting it to public doesn't seem like the right way to go.

[CalS201]

.......What I'm wondering is whether anyone has a good solution for a pema-link for the YouTube stream? I've considered the "youtube.com/channel/YOUR_CHANNEL_ID/live", but in order for this to work your stream has to be public rather than unlisted or private. The guidelines we received from the church, however stated "YouTube Live events should be unpublished and deleted after the meeting," so setting it to public doesn't seem like the right way to go.

Our stake uses the free Google Sites to host a permanent webpage with links to all Sacrament Meetings on youtube and all Second Hour Classes on Zoom. The link everyone uses for Google sites is pretty short, for example "https://sites.google.com/view/YourStakeName/home". Links for the unpublished/unlisted Sacrament Meetings are updated each week by the Stake Clerk and links for the Zoom classes never change. See attachment.

[russellhltn]

Our stake uses the free Google Sites to host a permanent webpage with links to all Sacrament Meetings on youtube and all Second Hour Classes on Zoom.

Nice solution, but it does raise the question of "unpublished". Is it findable by any kind of websearch?

[CalS201]

Nice solution, but it does raise the question of "unpublished". Is it findable by any kind of websearch?

If you know what search terms to use you can find MANY stake and ward webcast home pages that contain their broadcast links. In addition, any member with the home page link can share it with anyone else. Any member can also share the link to the unlisted youtube videos.

[CalS201]

Nice solution, but it does raise the question of "unpublished". Is it findable by any kind of websearch?

Doing a quick web search indicates there are setting you can invoke that will disable web searching. Also, there are settings for "Published" or "Unlisted". If it's unlisted then only people that have the link can access the webpage.

[russellhltn]

If you know what search terms to use you can find MANY stake and ward webcast home pages that contain their broadcast links.

Somehow, I don't think that "All the other kids are doing it!" works.

Doing a quick web search indicates there are setting you can invoke that will disable web searching. Also, there are settings for "Published" or "Unlisted". If it's unlisted then only people that have the link can access the webpage.

Nice! That sounds like a good solution that can be set according to needs.

[jsweeny]

What I'm wondering is whether anyone has a good solution for a pema-link for the YouTube stream?

Each YouTube event/video is a different URL -- so to enable members to use the same link every week I use the URL shortening service rebrandly.com. I can update our short URL each week to point to the next week's video. That way the URL the members visit each week can be the same.

[Wattsuk]

Some other ideas that we've toyed with. Have not used either yet but maybe they have some mileage for you.

Free google site:
https://sites.google.com/view/southampton/home

Google sheet:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIp ... g/viewform

Can also use bitly (or other service) to shorten URL:
https://bit.ly/2Qdxmzw

We may revisit these ideas if the option of youtube streaming is put back on the table for our local unit.