Changes to Webcast buffering times

Using the Church Webcasting System, YouTube, etc. Including cameras and mixers.
kaaloa
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Joined: Fri Jan 23, 2015 9:05 pm

Re: Changes to Webcast buffering times

#21

Post by kaaloa »

russellhltn wrote:
shawndowler wrote:so I don't expect to be touching the Webcast much anymore if at all going forward.
I'm not sure if you handle stake conferences, but Zoom's limit of 500 connections is likely to be a deal killer for that. Webcast was originally intended for stake conferences. It will likely continue unless the church can cut a deal with Zoom for a larger webinar limit.
I have to agree with you on this. Our stake conference last week had about 550 connections. To me, if we had used zoom and reached the 500 connection limit, then that meant that everyone who tried to connect after that 500th connection couldn't. That would have been the last time I used zoom for stake conference. That is simple unacceptable.
jsjarvis1
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Joined: Sun Mar 30, 2014 1:00 pm

Re: Changes to Webcast buffering times

#22

Post by jsjarvis1 »

(While I'm setting up for today...)

Ward A - Sacrament First, OBS on a laptop. I'd scheduled the webcast for 9:15, so if we run long (8-9) there's 15 minutes built-in that I don't have to fret over. 2nd ward in the same building is doing zoom instead, so no scheduling conflict. This building is not a stake center and doesn't have a teradeck. It still takes about 20~30 minutes to re-run cables and boot up PC/apps, but if I stick to the known sequence it's pretty consistent.

Stake center events - Teradeck and Camera management still leaves a lot to be desired, so this leaves a fair amount of pre-prep. There's always additional anomolies, but this can probably be dealt with by putting a test event right before the conference.

Nearly all of our wards are using Zoom instead (decided on their own), so we're not immediately impacted, and there's a scheduled gap of an hour between wards already.
Sergwes9
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Joined: Wed Jan 27, 2021 8:06 pm

Re: Changes to Webcast buffering times

#23

Post by Sergwes9 »

Con los cambios que ha tenido, no me permite programar una reunion sacramental, me da error aparentemente por la ubicacion actual, y solo tengo opciones de USA, que debo hacer en este caso podrian ayuderme por favor
jstrat
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Joined: Sun Jan 31, 2021 7:59 am

Re: Changes to Webcast buffering times

#24

Post by jstrat »

jonesrk wrote:
jmalyn wrote:Something to consider for buildings with tight schedules and using a single Teradek, just schedule one long meeting for the building for the day. (i.e. 'Stake Center Wards Sacrament Meeting' instead of '1st Ward Sacrament Meeting' followed by '2nd Ward Sacrament Meeting')
The other issue is that it makes it harder for the wards to see who attended their ward online. With separate meetings those stats are split out.
We also do one long broadcast for all 3 wards via a Mevo camera (45 min in between the start of the sacrament and the next meeting.) We have members enter their name when viewing as: WARD - LAST NAME - TOTAL VIEWERS (i.e. A3 - Smith - 5) . Then when we view the broadcast site stats, it is much easier to count each ward's viewers (vs connections). Obviously there are those who don't follow this format, but they are few.
brad_p
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Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2013 6:29 pm

Re: Changes to Webcast buffering times

#25

Post by brad_p »

lajackson wrote:
bradpeterson@gmail.com wrote:That should cover it.
Yes, but only until you read yesterday's email (or see this post). Our wards are going to have to step up and designate technical specialists, that I am perfectly willing to train, or they will no longer be webcasting sacrament meetings.
Ya, it's going to cause problems with certain Teredek situations. Fortunately, we're going to be ok. I don't want to sound cynical, but we've found the more we avoid the church's process, the safer we are.

For us, we're set with our hardware. We use a a camcorder, HDMI to USB converter, OBS on a laptop, various mics, YouTube, and FreeConferenceCall (for 10 digit phone call ins). We don't use Zoom because it's not really designed as a video/audio mixer for webcasts like OBS is. We use MyWebCast is a backup only because of constant problems. We don't use Teredeks because our regional FM office won't let us buy any.

For each ward an assistant just needs to know how to move a camera around and click on pre-set OBS feeds. We take care of the rest.
Compass88
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Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2020 6:56 pm

Re: Changes to Webcast buffering times

#26

Post by Compass88 »

PLEASE, PLEASE,PLEASE, UNDO THIS CHANGE!!!!!!!!!!!!
HQ shot us in the foot with this change.
I appreciate your efforts to make our lives simpler by trying to institute Static RTMP. But really, the dynamic RTMP used before was not an issue. The user just clicked on the first meeting in the active queue.
This change has made our lives much harder, our options less flexible, and has guaranteed that the church will pay MORE for server time because you have made it impractical to terminate a server between meetings and spin up a new one for the next meeting. Provisioned Server cost is the same whether broadcasting or not.

Your explanatory PDF says:
"ACTION REQUIRED: This change is in advance of the release of the static RTMP update. Static
RTMP cannot support overlapping events."

1. I would rather have overlapping events , as before, than to have Static RTMP addresses.
2. In an attempt to same RTMP server cost, you have encouraged one LONG event with much wasted time between meetings, which will increase the server expense.
3. Shortened pre-post buffers translates to artificially starting server too early and running it too later to allow for testing, possible meeting over-runs, and post meeting testing in cases where there were difficulties.
4. We previously had no problem terminating a server five or ten minutes after a meeting if the remainder of streaming and post buffer was not needed. Now, we are forced to an artificially long "Uni-Brow" meeting, costing the church more money and preventing the ability to tailor server "up-times" to fit our needs.
tehpuppy
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Joined: Sun Jan 10, 2021 10:43 am

Re: Changes to Webcast buffering times

#27

Post by tehpuppy »

Why not just let us control the scheduled buffer times?

I got an "Action Required" email letting me know that two of my meetings have overlapping times. A ward sacrament that runs from 1pm to 2pm (so including the buffer, looking at 12:40pm to 2:05pm) and a "combined ward conference 2nd hour" that is set to run from 2:30pm to 3:30pm (which because this one falls into the "Other" category it is given a 45 minute pre-buffer, which makes the total run time scheduled to be 1:45pm to 3:05).

To resolve the issue, I just changed the second meetings "broadcast type" to "ward sacrament" since that only has a 20 minute prebuffer, which lets me keep the posted meeting times so as not to confuse any of our less than technically savvy members viewing from home who would otherwise be confused by not entirely accurate stream runtimes or by multiple events being smashed into one and thus having to have a confusing stream title (the ward sacrament meeting is a Spanish branch, their stream title is in Spanish).
darrengreer
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Joined: Tue Apr 18, 2017 8:33 am

Re: Changes to Webcast buffering times

#28

Post by darrengreer »

With this new deployment, will weekly recurring meetings now retain the same Event Code as well? Or will they continue to change week to week? If so, are there plans to make these static on a recurring basis? Having to communicate different codes to the congregation weekly just adds confusion for our members.

Thanks
pitchkev
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Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2020 12:15 pm

Re: Changes to Webcast buffering times

#29

Post by pitchkev »

Help we are using the Mevo camera system and all has been going perfect for 3 months. Now with these changes ads I tried to schedule my meetings the system said my meetings were overlapping even if they are in different buildings.
I can schedule each building to avoid conflicts but why does the system not differentiate between buildings. My email is pitchkev@gmail.com if anyone has a solution.
russellhltn
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Re: Changes to Webcast buffering times

#30

Post by russellhltn »

pitchkev wrote:the system said my meetings were overlapping even if they are in different buildings.
What the system is concerned about is overlapping schedules for encoders. Make sure your events are not using the same encoder.
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
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