General Conference Satellite Transmissions

#1

I am trying to find a quick answer to a question regarding general conference satellite transmission while waiting for our FM group to respond.

In one of our units their satellite reception of the general conference was in English yet it had Spanish subtitles. I thought the different language transmissions was a voice translation of the conference with a voice-over in the translated language. Since I have never viewed a general conference broadcast in another language I am not certain how it is done. Is it a voice-over or is subtitled? I am just trying to figure out how they ended up with Spanish subtitles for their feed into the chapel video.

marianomarini · #2

In Italy we receive in italian, and other european languages, with voice-over!

jbh001 · #3

Wikipedia notes that: For all types of NTSC programming, captions are "encoded" into Line 21 of the vertical blanking interval – a part of the TV picture that sits just above the visible portion and is usually unseen. For ATSC (digital television) programming, three streams are encoded in the video: two are backward compatible Line 21 captions, and the third is a set of up to 63 additional caption streams encoded in EIA-708 format.

There are several closed captioning options/sub-channels. These have usually designated in the TV as CC1, CC2, CC3, and also Text 1, Text 2, etc.

Most likely, CC1 carries the English closed captioning, and CC2 the Spanish. I suspect that somehow your TV was set to display CC2 instead of CC1.

Additional equipment is required to pick up the different audio feeds. And it sounds like the unit you are talking about does not have such equipment, thus your surprise.

#4

jdlessley wrote:In one of our units their satellite reception of the general conference was in English yet it had Spanish subtitles.

jbh001 is correct. Your local television or projector was set to CC2 (closed caption channel 2) instead of CC1 (if you wanted English subtitles).

Voice-over languages come on different audio channels and require separate receivers for each audio channel. But closed captioning is done on the main (only) video channel, and the Church has chosen to put English on CC1 and Spanish on CC2.

#5

I never asked if they were using a TV or any device with a tuner. I just assumed they were using their projector just as we do at the stake center. The projectors do not have a tuner or any options for closed captioning and rely on the source for the video. In this case it would be the satellite feed to the chapel.

I will have to ask what equipment they were using to view the broadcast.

Thanks for the insight.

russellhltn · #6

When you say "subtitles" what does that mean? If you're talking about captioning, then something somewhere has close caption capability. I've never seen an "open caption" broadcast. And I don't think there is any such setting in the satellite receiver. I'd double check the projector. Just because there's no tuner doesn't mean it doesn't have the capability. CC is in the composite video stream.

OTOH, if you're talking about the labels that appear at the beginning and end of the talk to identify the person speaking, then that would be something else entirely. If that's the case, then SLC must have had your receiver tuned to a different video stream.

#7

I used the wording and information presented to me by e-mail from a member of the unit with the difficulty. He sent the e-mail to the stake presidency who then forwarded it to me. Here is some of that message.

We've had difficulties getting the spanish subtitles turned off during conference broadcasts. I believe what needs to be done is changing something with the satellite feed. Can you direct me to the information about how to do this so we can nip the problem in the bud before we need it next time?

I wanted some advance information before I get back to them with a possible answer/solution or go on to the FM Manager. Since the unit is an hour and fifty six minutes away I wanted to get all the information I could before either traveling to them or bothering the FM Group with a possible satellite issue. I am waiting on a response from the person who sent the message about what equipment was used to view the broadcast. As the STS I know the equipment they have to view the broadcast is either a TV or a 1996 era video projector. The projector definitely has no closed captioning control (on or off) capabilities. I know nothing about the TV they used. The TV sounds like the source for controling the closed captioning if that is where the solution resides.

mkmurray · #8

jdlessley wrote:...As the STS I know the equipment they have to view the broadcast is either a TV or a 1996 era video projector. The projector definitely has no closed captioning control (on or off) capabilities...

From the email you quoted, my guess of what they mean by "subtitles" is RussellHltn's second proposal, quoted here:

RussellHltn wrote:OTOH, if you're talking about the labels that appear at the beginning and end of the talk to identify the person speaking, then that would be something else entirely. If that's the case, then SLC must have had your receiver tuned to a different video stream.

#9

lajackson wrote:jbh001 is correct. Your local television or projector was set to CC2 (closed caption channel 2) instead of CC1 (if you wanted English subtitles).

Voice-over languages come on different audio channels and require separate receivers for each audio channel. But closed captioning is done on the main (only) video channel, and the Church has chosen to put English on CC1 and Spanish on CC2.

Just to clarify, receiving Spanish audio alongside English does not require a separate satellite receiver. The newer Wegener Unity satellite receivers receive two languages, English and Spanish for most units in the USA. The older pre-Unity receivers had four outputs that could be programmed to two different pairs of languages. If I recall correctly, the default for most US units were English and Spanish on one pair, and French and German on the second pair.

Buildings set up for multiple languages will normally have multiple modulators, one per language, plus perhaps one for the camera for stake conference overflow. With the usual setup, you just set up a TV in a room fed with the satellite signal and tune the TV to the channel for that modulator.

jbh001 · #10

rmrichesjr wrote:Buildings set up for multiple languages will normally have multiple modulators, one per language

My mistake, I should have said modulator instead of receiver.