Working on Older Video Tapes - Vimeo and Zoom

 

Art by Norma Boeckler

 

I looked through the computer video tapes for past efforts that fit the liturgical calendar. I tried searching for denominational Lutheran efforts, which cling to Rome, ELCA, and LCMS, but The Lutheran Hymnal seemed much better.

Readers and listeners should note that everything is changing at once, so there is a constant challenge with each effort. I am going to experiment with some and see how that works and sounds.  

 

Reviewed the 2021 Vimeo This Morning

 

 Luther's Works were prolific in the earliest days of the printing press, a combination that changed the West completely.

I picked a Vimeo video tape, 2021, but I want to do more for the future. We have gone from IBM to Vimeo to Zoom. YouTube alone might work.

I wonder how well this works already -

Click here for the latest YouTube Videos 

A New Sheriff in Town - Zoom Trials Daily

 

1. Our congregation began with Ustream until IBM absorbed it and later shut it down. 
2. Next we used Vimeo, which improved in some ways but is quite unstable.
3. Zoom is the best available, but I was slow in getting it to work and made mistakes. Their help was limited to sales people saying "I'm just in sales" and links.

I will be trying out the Zoom Webinar daily, Tuesday - Saturday. I want to become familiar with it and also make the transition easier.

First of all, the regular Word document with all the information will be sent to the group individually via email. 

The second email will appear afterwards. Clicking on that will start the Zoom, which will begin 15 minutes early, perhaps earlier. The service will start at 10 AM, Central Standard Time and include the Bible study afterwards.

The live broadcast will be permanently saved, so those in Western areas can watch from the saved version. I expect to have the saved version posted in the Ichabod blog for that day and also in the blog where our Reformation Seminary has posts.

Checking the Music for the Service Tonight at 7 PM. Making Up for Sunday's Silence. The Word Document Will Arrive by Email.

Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

 

 

Good Friday Tonight at 7 PM Central

 

This is the plan with Vimeo tonight and Sunday at 10 AM. I will use Vimeo very cautiously and have the phone nearby. If I have to re-start Vimeo, I will do that. Do not be shy about phoning. 

We are up for renewal at Vimeo and I do not trust them, especially after their "improvements." I will pursue Zoom or something else, Easter Monday. 

Your ideas are welcome.

Yeti Saturday

 

This is the Vimeo Link

Weather Hot and Cold -

 

Link to all Vimeos, including the trials. 

d

This is a reminder about Who is in charge.

We had our frost followed by a big rainstorm. Yesterday was shirt-sleeve weather and Friday it will be in the 20s at night. Rose bushes are green but not producing viable buds. Grape hyacinths have pushed up leaves to gain some energy storage for the spring.

In broadcasting news - the trial microphone should arrive later today, endorsed by Pastor Jim Shrader and blessed by the patron saint of Peoria. 

I have stands to adjust the height of speakers and a wireless keyboard to make it easier to be the one-man band of Lutheran broadcasting. 

Easy access to Vimeo is at the top of the links on the left. Click on the graphic and all of them will be on the Vimeo page, from the latest on down, where they can be viewed.

Working on the Chapel Audio Today

I had some fun working on the chapel configuration for audio and other details. More hardware is coming on Thursday and Friday. The idea is to get a sound that comes through best with the equipment, almost all new.

Outline of Sound Tests on Vimeo, July 4th

The permanent link is here: 

Outline of Sound Tests, Rode (sound card plug) and Snowball (USB) Microphones.

The blackouts have been annoying. Yesterday, it was slight for one household, only a few seconds for another one. I now have it set up so I can see that happening and I can stop until the monitor shows it working again. Yesterday's blip was too short for me to notice.

Today I have a script, this post, to guide the combinations I am trying - only one at a time, to avoid getting all the wires crossed. There may some ideas from the camera manufacturer, but I will do these first. I will use the Tacoma hymns for the sound.

1. The white Logitech camera, with built in sound. Actually, this will be a later test, because that is a good but inferior camera.

2. HDMI zoom camera, the way we usually have it. We get a warbly sound from the organ. I understand this is problem with Vimeo. We had that problem with IBM/Ustream but found a solution in how the plug was used in one slot or another - and it varied. 

3. Moving the mike around, which is plugged into the sound board.

4. Using the big white mike, which will be plugged into a USB slot.

I do not assume these alternatives will work, but we have the equipment to try it out. I have read that compression of the sound is the cause. I will consider local help after discussing this with Vimeo.

A Tale of Cameras

Stay flexible!

I was finally up to speed with the Aida camera for broadcasting with RESI. However, once it was all pieced together, the camera provided nothing more than a rainbow - meaning the encoder worked but had no signal going in from the camera.

Easter is also Passover season, so everything slowed down. I got a big, fat streaming camera from Amazon, which had everything but sound integration with the HDMI signal. Oops - back to Amazon.

I am omitting one or two others, to save the planet from unwanted social media verbiage.

Because of the Passover celebrations, the best source for working HDMI streaming cameras was shut for the last week. Tomorrow afternoon I can talk to B and H Camera in NYC about exactly what we need.

I began this quest thinking a USB camera would work. Such innocence in a wrinkled old guy! I was but a novice in a fast-track world of transmission I never heard of before - HDMI and OSI. Also, I thought "live streaming HDMI" was enough of a description. Oh no. 

I can convert HDMI from a camera to OSI to use for the RESI broadcast. I have Black Magic, which is easy to hook up for the conversion.

But now I know what we need and where to get it. Easter Sunday with Vimeo went reasonably well and we had a backup service linked.

The same will be true tomorrow. When this change is done, the broadcasting link will be on the front page for live streams, and the saved broadcast will be in our library on a blog page or pages.

Broadcasting Plans

I worked on the broadcasting issues last night and set up a trial for sound and picture this morning. That worked. Here are two services from last year, in case they are wanted or needed.

Good Friday Service, 2021

Easter Sunday Communion Service, 2021

Monday will be the new camera and RESI trials. RESI has been good on many fronts, including personal phone calls and group meetings. I had to move from Logitech and USB porting to an HDMI camera at the least.

The first HDMI camera (Aida) failed, and I learned that model was very fragile, with code inside that fries easily. I have broadcast two rainbows in RESI, so that is a start. Logitech painted the first one, and Aida projected the second one. 

I will look for a backup live stream system, just in case, even if RESI does very well. 

I sent Aida back for a refund, just as I did with several cheaper live stream cameras. One arrived as a box of jingly parts. 

I am canceling Vimeo tomorrow.

From Camera to Mike

I started the day with the new camera and its supposed mike, only the mike was not. After fussing around about the partial package, I began searching for an alternative. Yes, I can return the other one to that store. 

A look around the Net showed me one that would work with our set up, and it could arrive on Sunday. No, not fast enough for Palm Sunday, but a good start on Holy Week.

I have gone from Kindergarten to high tech in a short period of time. Vimeo was a challenge for me at first.

RESI? I did not know what HDMI cameras were. Since the camera must send video/audio on an integrated signal, I also had to convert the HDMI signal on its way to the hardware encoder (also new to me). From there it trips along at fiber optic speed and gets distributed on the blog page. That will be permanent front page viewing with provisions for storing previous videos.

We are on Vimeo for Palm Sunday. I am asking two of our leaders to monitor the sound for me and notify me on the cell phone if there is a major problem. 

Two Alternatives to the Live Broadcast

At least two households have trouble getting the live worship service via Vimeo and the same might be true of RESI (going live soon). The new broadcasts assume more bandwidth than Ustream, so the new guys assume a raging torrent of 1s and 0s rather than shallow crick. (That is "creek" up north where people talk funny.)

There are two alternatives, because the service is converted afterwards and placed on YouTube here

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNy45SdFhJMGCyiygBHI1Xg

and also a little slower, about 30 minutes after the service and Bible study are done - on Facebook below -

https://www.facebook.com/BethanyLutheranWorship

 We had Chris Shrader, Pastor Jim Shrader, and Glen Kotten with us for one service last year. 

Chasing the Technology Train - Fun, Fears, and Victory

Today was especially fun because I dedicated it primarily to broadcasting. The jigsaw puzzle includes a number of pieces, which now make sense. Sassy and I listened to a new presentation on what I need to know, what I need to use.

1. I have to have a better email set-up, because some have not reached the intended destination.

2. I will need to convert the WordPress Ichabod (not ready for prime time yet) to have a long-lasting place to store videos. We all know how reliable Google is! (Implied positive statement)

3. I will practice broadcasting, starting tomorrow. That will be displayed on this blog.

4. We have a library creation tool, which will be good for long-term, non-disappearing storage.

5. Captions are a low-cost option. I wonder if people like the idea. I always put captions on when I can (YouTube, etc) because I follow the content better.

6. I will be asking if you have been getting your emails. I will have a separate stored placed for them and hope the new set-up works well with group emails.

7. I will slow down books in favor of publishing more lectures on such topics as the KJV, books of the Bible, apostasy, Rome versus the Gospel, the Jesuits.

Tomorrow - Working on the New Video System

 I have had some heart-warming responses to my classes in education and Old Testament.

The video, which I shoehorned into the masthead, is my experiment with making videos on the front page, instead of linking them elsewhere.

Masthead is the ship lingo used for the standard name and symbol of a newspaper - editor, publisher, location, and slogan. The WELS-LCMS-ELS readers are no longer complaining that a blog about apostasy deals with - how shall I say it? - apostasy. Ichabod does mean "the glory has departed from Israel."

Until recently, the  masthead was easy to modify. Blogger decided to make it HTML code only, so I have to figure out the little symbols to make the message show up correctly in the browser. 

The test video is Vimeo because I wanted to see whether the mike made a difference (no) and whether I could put the Sunday video on the front page, starting up on schedule (yes).

Every so often I read this on Facebook, "We have been listening to your worship services for years."

One layman says he looks for post three times a day, morning-afternoon-late evening. A lot of times I think of this organ donor as motivation to write one more article. A lot of people are very encouraging and the ankle biters are no longer emailing their wisdom, like, "Why don't you stop?" and "When you finally die, everyone will be so happy." They were encouraging too, and some readers miss the fireworks, even if the opposition only had sparklers.

Live Streaming without the Blackouts and Better Music

I began looking for a replacement for Vimeo, which I am sure aims at the big budget customer. Their personal service is zilch. I landed on one good place, which is Apple only. OK.

Our two issues are blackouts and music, which comes down to the twirlies, those circles that signal delay or dropped signal. That will be true until fiber optic is 100.00% connected, but it can be overcome with software and hardware.

We don't always see twirlies, but they are part of Internet delays.

That is what RESI claims to do - hold the signal in a buffer and continue feeding it to homes. We have a very wide range of signal in our vast domain. Fortunately we have fiber optic here, so that gives us the speed to produce a good signal.

I have found RESI willing to discuss the problems and solve them. The price is close to our current charges from Vimeo and we may get a refund there. No matter, we need better personal and network service and that is possible. I met with them over the phone - group talk - and I will talk to a staffer tomorrow at 8 am.

Working on the Broadcast - Post Surgery

I am working on this alternative to Vimeo - https://resi.io/

I attended a demo yesterday and spoke with one of their technical people about our set up. It seems that we can benefit from a hardware encoder, and we have the gifts for that already. The regular fee is a bit higher, but we are on the Vimeo cheaper slot. 

I discussed our problems with Vimeo, which Vimeo did not address - the blackouts and the music. Resi says they provide for those lapses with their software and hardware, since delays happen in all computer networks. I remember from Cisco CCNA training "and then it goes into the bit bucket" (loss of data).

The key here is that their people will talk about the issues and not just say, "Really? Humm." 

Tomorrow we will have the best camera (so far) linked up, the separate mike which is matched to it, and two computers, one to handle the organ music separately. 

Links for Live Streaming Church Services - Vimeo Is Not Doing the Job

 Everyone - bite your lip - this is a 1956 hard drive, leased by the month. 

Ten Best Platforms for Churches

Da Biggest Churches and Their Streaming Software

Previous Links

Pengo grabber

YouTube restriction of going live direct

Surfer dude

Best platforms

More best platforms

New Camera Test Coming Up Soon. Vimeo. New Logitech Camera the Only Chane

 

Vimeo player here

Insta-Report on the Vimeo Broadcast

 

Dear Pastor,

Thank you for another great service and teaching.   We appreciate all that you have gone through in your life to stand so firmly on the Truth for all of us.  Truly a treasure.

Today there was one loss of connection which seemed to be kept brief when we simply hit the refresh button (F5) and then played the live feed again on the Ichabod blog.  No biggie.  Believe me, none of these matters diminishes what we are receiving from you.  But thank you for all of the work that goes into trying to improve things.  You're the best.

God Bless you,