Audio-Visual System Training for New Bishoprics

[lhicks]

Hi All...

Does anyone know of any training materials related to the new A/V systems recently installed at Canadian Chapels to which I can direct new Bishoprics and Ward Clerks? The ideal training material would be succinct and video-based with clear examples. Some of the newly called brethren are intimidated by the A/V system and others don't ask for assistance until right before they need to use it (Grrrr)!

Any guidance/suggestions will be gratefully received.

LITG,
Larry

[lajackson]

Does anyone know of any training materials related to the new A/V systems recently installed at Canadian Chapels to which I can direct new Bishoprics and Ward Clerks?

If this was provided, I believe it would be a first, almost anywhere in the world. When our stake center was built, our audiovisual system training consisted of how to roll up and store microphone cords, the pulpit controls, and how to turn on the satellite sound (no longer needed). There was no training at all on any of the electronic equipment in the A/V rack. When I asked the question as the stake technology specialist who needed to figure out how to webcast stake conference and other meetings, I was told there were instruction manuals with the equipment. There were not.

Everything I learned about how to use the A/V system in our stake center I learned from the Internet by downloading the technical manuals for each piece of equipment in the rack. I learned how everything was connected by spending several evenings physically tracing the wiring from box to box. And then I experimented in my spare time.

[russellhltn]

Looks like someone has been hard at work in the wiki. Check out Meetinghouse Technology.

[lajackson]

Looks like someone has been hard at work in the wiki. Check out Meetinghouse Technology.

That is a good, simple place to start. It does not help me much with the video processing and switching system, and the audio switching system in my 8-foot A/V rack, though.

On the other hand, most meetinghouses do not have the kinds of systems that newer stake centers have.

[jamiep39]

Because there are so many slightly different versions and nuances per building, even of the same general systems, the best route may be to build your own training (if you're the STS, or ask the STS to build one) and provide that documentation where it can be accessed by those who need it, such as a Google Doc or printed copies in the media center, under the pulpit, etc.

If you are the STS and need further training, the FM group should be able to provide that or get someone to provide that.

[johnshaw]

My experience is that anyone I trained doesn't retain the information unless/until it really is the rubber hits the road. I worked with 2 different brothers for nearly 2 years on a system that was brand new to church meetinghouses, it was the first meetinghouse with the system. I trained them on/off for 2 years. They helped with broadcasts, setting up multiple rooms, we had a separate language in a specific room, etc.. Additionally I had everything labeled, I had a 4 or 5 page booklet describing each type of scenario we'd encountered over the 2 years with EXACT instructinos AND Visuals. When I was released, they told the Stake President they had no idea how it worked and the SP had the Church fly in their people to 'train' them on it. A week later, they came to me asking how to set something up, so I walked up, pulled out the pages stored right in the track on the panel, labeled SYSTEM INSTRUCTIONS (for when John's not here) and turned to the page they needed. I watched as they followed it and had everything work.

That SP later told me he'd asked whether they'd talked to me and both of them told him they had and that the problem they were having was different which is why the pulled the church in.

One of the very nice things is my first assignment after moving to Utah shortly after this incident, I was supporting a Stake Conference held at the Ogden Tabernacle that had the same system. The HC couldn't ever get it to work, and for 2 years tried their best, I walk in, click, click, click and bingo. sometimes it does help to have someone called that can do the things they're asked to do. Just because you 'like' technology doesn't mean you can hookup a sound system, it doesn't mean you understnad how to switch between different video and audio inputs and direct those inputs to multiple outputs, but dog gone, it was super fun for me.

So there you are. I'm just not sure how this works. Sometimes you just get your hands dirty and figure it out. I have found over the years, once-in-a-while someone does exactly what I've done, then the next person doesn't do anything or care, and you've lost your institutional knowledge. It's why I think there are some operational aspects of how we do things that should just never be relied on by someone in a calling that could just as easily be released in a month or two or in there for 4 years doing nothing.

[dave.swartz]

John, I really enjoyed your story.

Sometimes you just need to hook things up in a more fool proof way. We have a newer sound system. The HDMI input jack on the podium supports sending audio from the HDMI connection to the audio processor if the right buttons are pressed on the control. I never use that option since there is too much potential for failure since we never know who will be running the controls on the stand.

What we do when someone wishes to play a video from their laptop is as follows: Laptop is on the podium, HDMI cable from laptop goes to a 4 port HDMI splitter. One cable from the splitter goes to the HDMI input on the podium. This makes the video available to the main HDMI switch and Zoom. The second HDMI cable from the splitter goes to the projector. I take the audio output from the projector (make sure the volume is turned up on the projector) and send it to the dual RCA inputs on the side of the podium. I then tell whoever is conducting that to control the volume level just turn the knob. I think most everyone understands a volume control knob. This works great.

[dave.swartz]

http://federalwaystake.net/Hosting

Here is the documentation on how we setup our system for Stake Conference. This was from the April 2023 setup. The setup is different every time since requirements change. We now need to support English, Spanish, Korean, and Samoan at our stake conference so this will change again. This also represents our minimum setup. We have done more complex setups as well.