Digital Media Distribution Within the Meetinghouse

[heyring]

I am looking for feedback.. I am planning on testing a new method of distributing media throughout the meetinghouse that would basically consist of these elements.

1. Stake Center fully equipped with 881 firewall and Cisco WAPS
2. PC secured in the tech room and connected to firewall
3. Western Digital Media Players secured to TV Carts

I would then put all of the Church's authorized media I could either download or digitize myself on the PC. Including Gospel Art Kit, Mormon Messages, "I'm a Mormon" videos, General Conference Videos, etc..

This media would then be made available through the buildings wireless network which would then be accessed through a menu system on any WD Media Player in any classroom of the building.

I recently spoke with a member of the Church's Technology Department and was told that this was something that was being looked into. I asked about network/firewall limitations to doing this and he thought it should work.

I plan on experimenting with this in the coming weeks/months so if anyone else is blazing this exciting new path, I would love to hear about it.

[carsonm]

Any update on how your testing is going with this setup? I am interested to hear how it works for you. The main concern I have with using the WD media player is the user interface it has, compared to the user interface of the Roku. If WD has recently updated their user interface on their media players, I would be interested in checking it out, as I am trying to make it as easy as can be for some of the non-techican users in my stake. If they can't navigate the menu system, they won't use it.

One thing that I do like about the WD media device is that you could potentially store a vast amount of church authorized media on the HD and not have to rely on the wireless connection all the time.

I am trying to plan for a new building we have in our stake being built right now, and I am interest to hear what others have done and how it works.

[crees]

Once thought of this as well.

https://tech.lds.org/forum/showthread.p ... ouse-Media

[nigelgiddey]

I am looking for feedback.. I am planning on testing a new method of distributing media throughout the meetinghouse that would basically consist of these elements.

1. Stake Center fully equipped with 881 firewall and Cisco WAPS
2. PC secured in the tech room and connected to firewall
3. Western Digital Media Players secured to TV Carts

I would then put all of the Church's authorized media I could either download or digitize myself on the PC. Including Gospel Art Kit, Mormon Messages, "I'm a Mormon" videos, General Conference Videos, etc..

This media would then be made available through the buildings wireless network which would then be accessed through a menu system on any WD Media Player in any classroom of the building.

I recently spoke with a member of the Church's Technology Department and was told that this was something that was being looked into. I asked about network/firewall limitations to doing this and he thought it should work.

I plan on experimenting with this in the coming weeks/months so if anyone else is blazing this exciting new path, I would love to hear about it.

I have a working solution already operative in our chapel along with most of the available LDS media.

Contact me via Skype if you would like a demonstation, Skype ID, nigel.giddey

[JonesRC]

All. I am quite interested in hearing about your experiences in providing media in your Ward Houses. Please feel free to drop me an email to discuss what you are doing and provide feedback on your experiences. We are discussing now all the opportunities available and what makes sense to do. Thank you for talking.

[crees]

I just ordered some hdmi droid sticks for a digital signage project. Search the web for "Kimdecent Droid Stick A2" (its a mini PC packs a dual core Amlogic CPU). May be a great platform to write on and since the church already has some apps they could continue to build on those platforms and build additional video, audio, picture, lesson, conference and all media type streaming. Also I am sure these guys will run slingbox or something like it for meeting house streaming. The nice thing is they are priced under 100 and some models are going as low as $50. I will keep you posted on what I find.

[johnshaw]

I have a similar setup as above, each clerk computer has Plexapp media server running, as much content as can be downloaded has been done.

What is available on the Streaming?
Animated Scripture Stories
Bible Videos
CES Devotionals
Children Messages
Homefronts (Mormon Commercials through the years)
I Am a Mormon
Leadership Training Library
Mormon Messages
Mormon Movies (features)
Mormon Tabernacle Choir
Our Heavenly Fathers Plan
Prophets and Apostles Speak
Seminary (pictures, music, and videos)
Sunday School Curriculum
The Holy Spirit
World Wide Leadership Training
Youth Messages

I have dropbox setup on all clerk computers where I upload the new videos as they come out. The clerk computers connect to the dropbox and copy the new files to the local computer where the plexapp media server makes it available to everyone in the meetinghouse.

Roku devices with the official Plex app are installed on TV's (providing access for both LCD and CRT tv's) - 2 in each meetinghouse. Additionally, anyone with Windows 8, Windows OS, MAC, IOS (iPhone,iPad) Android (phone/tablet) can access the solution on their own devices.

Rolling out this month to everyone has been interesting. The plex app is $5 if members want to access the solution, but on android it can be free using several other apps. Apple fans as stuck paying no matter what.

I find that most people these days can work through a menu system that is Netflix-like. My stake has a wide distribution of wards with young-hip-types to the Missionaries serving in Adam-Ondhi-Ahman.

[Gary_Miller]

John what affect does this have on the clerks computers. I would think doing this would bog it down. The last thing I want when I'm trying to do something in MLS on a Sunday is have it bog down because it being used for other purposes.

[johnshaw]

Computers were all imaged with Win7 64bit (they all had previously existing licenses, I did not purchase new licenses as they came from FMG with Win7 licenses) and have 4 GB RAM.

I've tested the computers with at least 12 streams running at the same time and the performance for CPU, Memory, and Network were next to nothing. You really couldn't tell anything extra was going on.

If those tests had shown impact on the clerk computer I'd have done something different. I've been a clerk in MLS running on a computer that didn't perform well and know just how frustrating that can be... it was part of the evaluation.

I doubt a similar experience would be had with 32bit Windows XP with 1 GB RAM, but I was lucky enough to have received computers in the last couple of years - luck through insistence.

I have a similar setup at home, we are nearly 24/7 streaming music to multiple devices (phones, stereos or TV's) along with running a movie or TV show that I've ripped to mp4 (to preserve the original DVD media from the wrath of kid!) The plexapp is running on our main computer in the family room where the kids have 1/2 hour blocks to play or do homework. haven't had any complaints so far (about 3 years of running a media server). Our home computer is a DELL Optiplex 580 with 2 GB RAM.. very similar to setup with the clerk computer.

[crees]

Another Media Player alternative. WORKS REALLY WELL with mormon channel and LDS.org media.

So as a followup I just got my RockChip (UG802) Android Mini HDMI PC. This is an awesom little player that connects directly into your HD display via HDMI. It Runs Android so church devoped apps are ready to run. The device also has a External Mini SD slot so you can load up images music and video locally so if WiFi is not available you can still play your media using the build int media players. Wifi is 802.11n and the performance is outrite Awesome. Oh and cost is 45-65 depending the vendor and shipping. Mine was $54 on Amazon.

Below is a youtube video of the Rockchip Mini PC close up (Privately listed for LDS Tech Viewers)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhAregzIv7o

And here it is working

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj5OCFD_ZdA

I was incorrect about the local storge. It actually has over a 1GB storage . But still nice to have an external Micro SD slot for larger storage.