Virtual Stake Conference with everyone at home

Virtual visits, Multi-Stake conferences, Priesthood Leadership Conferences, Church Leadership Conferences
swigginton
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Re: Virtual Stake Conference with everyone at home

#21

Post by swigginton »

tkendall1 wrote:hooo boy. So basically I have 6 weeks to purchase a TV studio and learn how to operate it so that we can have a Stake Conference. I don't suppose there are any consultants hiring out their services for stuff like this?
Not at all. We had our stake conference a couple weeks ago. Everyone was at home except the stake presidency, 3 other speakers and 2 who offered the prayers who were all in the chapel. We used a $70 webcam mounted on a tripod in front of the podium and connected to a laptop. We used Zoom Webinar and the host (Stake Tech Specialist) ran the meeting from his home. We used pre-recorded hymns with video. We had simultaneous Spanish translation (also from her home) and an overflow stream to YouTube, in case we exceeded the 500 device limit. It went very smoothly, quality was more than acceptable and we would do it exactly the same way again. The positive response from the members was far beyond our expectation. I know many stakes have set up elaborate broadcast studios, but in the current COVID environment, a quality stake conference broadcast on a limited budget is quite easy.
russellhltn
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Re: Virtual Stake Conference with everyone at home

#22

Post by russellhltn »

tkendall1 wrote:hooo boy. So basically I have 6 weeks to purchase a TV studio and learn how to operate it so that we can have a Stake Conference.
Substitute "Zoom" for TV studio and you'll be a lot closer. The stake should have a Zoom login, so you don't need to buy that. But you will want to learn how to operate Zoom.

You'll probably want to do a practice run complete with translators (if appropriate) so everyone knows their part.

I'd dig though the posts here to take notes on what others have done so as to ease the learning curve.
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superdave98
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Re: Virtual Stake Conference with everyone at home

#23

Post by superdave98 »

We had our first virtual stake conference with a General Authority Seventy presiding last Sunday. Like the bad guy in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," I chose poorly and decided to use the church's webcast system because I wanted to avoid running into 500 connection limit. Apparently, it was having significant issues last Sunday, so our members had to try repeatedly to connect and were prompted for an access code that we didn't expect them to need and thus didn't distribute in advance. It was a generally bad experience even for those who were able to connect. If I get to do another one, given our stake's small size, I'll definitely stick with a Zoom webinar or YouTube live stream which have worked well for other events. Now, I'm on my virtual apology tour and getting "feedback" from members of the stake who couldn't participate. Learn from me. ;-)

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Mikerowaved
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Re: Virtual Stake Conference with everyone at home

#24

Post by Mikerowaved »

superdave98 wrote:...and were prompted for an access code that we didn't expect them to need and thus didn't distribute in advance.
Is it possible the link the membership was given to view the conference was slightly off? That would trigger mywebcast.churchofjesuschrist.org to prompt them for an event code.
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russellhltn
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Re: Virtual Stake Conference with everyone at home

#25

Post by russellhltn »

"Slightly off" as in a cut & paste that dropped the last bit? I'm always having to watch for that.
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superdave98
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Re: Virtual Stake Conference with everyone at home

#26

Post by superdave98 »

Thanks, guys. We were using the stake fixed URL. I tried cutting off the last letter of "stake" and while it did ask me for a code, it wasn't the page our users were seeing on Sunday. It seemed like the system was having a bad day on Sunday like I was. ;-)

Dave
blainenz
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Re: Virtual Stake Conference with everyone at home

#27

Post by blainenz »

Wow Davidry...wished we in our Stake had the equipment you have just shown in your Youtube clip. Ive got to run a SC in another couple of weeks and we are going basic. Thanks for the upload of your video. Very very informative and Im green with envy. Blaine from New Zealand (STS)
simph1
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Re: Virtual Stake Conference with everyone at home

#28

Post by simph1 »

I have a solution if anyone is interested?

The system I built in PHP allows for reports, knowing who watched, link to be added from YouTube, creation of broadcast, historian and ward, stake reports, and other items.

I am looking for ideas and help to upgrade the system.
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jnpetersen
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Re: Virtual Stake Conference - with 3 Lanuages

#29

Post by jnpetersen »

jsfriedman wrote: Sun Jan 03, 2021 4:39 pm Our Stake Conference is upcoming (in 3 weeks). I have been working with the Church's ICS Broadcast Planning & Event Support group on the streaming and H/W setup. Our Stake has 3 languages, English, Spanish, & Cambodian. I initially discussed with ICS the streaming options. We decided on Zoom with YouTube steaming because most of our Wards are already using this for their 100% virtual Sacrament meeting and most members are familiar with it. Also because the Church Webcast seems to be more complicated to setup. We are starting from scratch having to purchase a lot of hardware: a camera, adapters, cables, etc.

Our conference will be a hybrid with a remote GA, speakers (only) in the Chapel, music videos, and translators on Zoom. The translators will use ALS headsets to hear the English speakers and each has a computer with USB microphone to translate into. I plan for them to each use Ward clerk's office computer. There will be 1 YouTube video channel with 3 audio streams. Each language will have its own YouTube link. ICS will be running OBS and managing the Spanish and Cambodian audio steams. I will be the Zoom host. ICS will also be providing a higher-end Zoom license that will support many more connections and more than audio streams. The -Church provided Zoom license only allows a maximum of 500 sessions (attendees) and 2 concurrent connections.

BTW: I tried to convince them we should be 100% virtual, but the GA wants the speakers in the Chapel. Probably because our Stake Presidency will be changing.

I'm a bit stressed hoping it all goes well.
How were you able to get multiple languages to Youtube? Were you streaming from 1 computer 3 times or 3 computers?
russellhltn
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Re: Virtual Stake Conference - with 3 Lanuages

#30

Post by russellhltn »

jnpetersen wrote: Wed Aug 10, 2022 3:02 pm How were you able to get multiple languages to Youtube? Were you streaming from 1 computer 3 times or 3 computers?
I'm not sure what jsfriedman did, but what many do is use Zoom Webinar to originate the webcast and send the English viewers to the YouTube overflow (which is fed by Zoom's servers). For other languages, they connect to the Zoom webinar which supports translation. As long as you don't bump into Zoom's limit (500 streams?) , that should work fine.

Translation could be done from anywhere, such as the translator's home. So, only one computer and one upload stream is required from the stake center.
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