How Fast Is Your Internet?

Having transitioned our Sunday morning responsibilities, we weren’t quite done with livestreaming.  While the service started well the first Sunday back, the internet stopped cooperating about halfway through the service as it had the week before.  Since we were keeping our distance, we were monitoring the service remotely from our RV and saw the all-too-familiar seesawing of the internet and therefore the livestream.  There had to be a solution.  We spent the next week working on the problem. 

​Once in place, we started seeing the speed in the sanctuary that was close to the same as that in the office. Progress. But we weren’t willing to stop there. As we tested the speed along the way at our internet access points, we knew we should be able to get better performance out of the church’s network. We made some improvements by replacing older cables and ensuring the routers and switches were not throttling the speed unnecessarily or causing unstable access. 

When we had done all that we could, the next step was to get Comcast involved. Their technician discovered problems in the wire that led from the pole to the office and replaced it. He also replaced the box that delivered the signal to the rest of the campus. Did this solve the problem of the internet going off and back on? Only time would tell.

But we didn’t have to wait until Sunday. Cathy would be hosting a Zoom call / livestream for her mother’s Celebration of Life on Saturday. It would either work – or not.

On another end of the campus, the Zoom tutoring sessions run by Kim’s Open Door had been problematic for a couple of weeks. Like many changes during the pandemic, the increase in demand for online performance was not linear, but exponential. Holding 4 simultaneous Zoom calls during the virtual summer camp was putting a severe strain on the service and causing her sessions to freeze. After lots of discussion and analysis, Dave helped Kim with a decision to install 2 new routers that would help her service. With the other improvements being made upstream, the hope was that this should ease her problems. And it seemed to work. ​

Celebration of Life

Remembering Cathy’s mom in a virtual service seemed the only way we would be able to gather given the concerns and restrictions from the pandemic, which had begun immediately after her death in March. Cathy sought to bring together the thoughts and memories of the family in a remembrance slideshow. The Zoom call brought together family members from different cities and states, some of whom we had not seen in quite some time. We were offered music from Matthew Bacon, the organist at Mom’s church and joined by her pastor, Matt Farabow, who opened and closed the service.
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Despite some audio difficulties, the service was well-received. Cathy posted a cleaner version on YouTube afterward. And all the efforts on the internet were proven to work well. Good job Dave. 
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Happy Father’s Day​

Dave set his sights on a new toy for Father’s Day. It was a Ninebot Minipro. Since he couldn’t ride by himself, we actually bought 2. After passing our training test, we took them on the “road”, and managed to stay mostly upright. But it doesn’t quite have the same benefits of a walk, so we haven’t stopped taking them each evening. Check him out at:  Dave In Motion

Transitioning


The last drive-in service was scheduled for June 14th, with the plan to gather in sanctuary the following Sunday. We were unlikely to be able to be there for that service (more about that later). So that meant we had to ensure others were ready to take over and that the pieces were in place to help ensure their success.


Upgraded Hardware and Streamlined Software
Having purchased and configured a new computer capable of managing the livestream more effectively, we were ready to use it for Sunday services. We also made changes to make our process as close as possible to one that could be used in combination with the in-person service. That meant creating a presentation, similar to a typical Sunday morning, and keeping the camera always on screen next to it. We would need fewer “scenes” in OBS. All that was needed was to advance the slides in the presentation, which would display in the church as well as the livestream. Ironically, the first Sunday we tried this, was the day of the “storm”, meaning Cathy could not easily skip over a bunch of slides, but otherwise it worked well. We had also increased the resolution of the stream to make it a higher quality video. With the upgraded computer, that worked well too. ​

Passing the Baton
So, since we are not going to be here indefinitely (all evidence to the contrary), we needed to transition this process to church members, training them on what we had put together. Who to train? One obvious choice was Mark, who currently managed the presentation and sound. The second volunteer was Nelson, a young teen, who most often sat quietly at the back of the church. Dave distilled the process into a checklist and set up a training class to step through the ins and out of what we do. A second session had them hands-on setting up the camera, presentation, displays etc and streaming to youtube. With a couple of passes under their belt, they felt ready to go. We were feeling better as well.


Falling off the cliff
Wanting to complete our final livestream on a high note, we walked into the service on the 14th thinking we were well-prepared. We had moved the computer back to the sound booth, where it would need to be the next Sunday. The presentation was ready. The cameras were working. All was well.

Until it wasn’t.

The internet kept going down … and up … and down. And then OBS stopped responding. Presumably because of the internet problems. Our cell phone cameras froze (again because of the internet problems). And we had trouble with the presentation, which we later discovered was because of changes made in anticipation of the next Sunday. Luckily, we had recorded the service, so it took less time to recover afterward and load the full version to Youtube and Facebook.

​So much for the high note.

More Internet Stuff?


With ever increasing demands on the church’s internet, Dave continued to upgrade the service. By installing faster (i.e. gigabit) switches and routers, he was hoping to extend a faster service to the sanctuary and further into the Education buildings (A, B, and C).  ​

What’s That Smell?

The box had arrived in February. It was huge, but we sat in on the couch until we had time to focus on the project we both dreaded. The toilet. The annoying, but persistent problem with the seal inside the toilet bowl had been superseded by a more worrisome one.
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The toilet was rocking. It was obvious, without removing it from the floor that some piece of the flange that secured the base to the floor had broken. But was that all that was wrong? And would the flange have to be replaced as well as the toilet? We had purchased a toilet identical to the one that we were replacing, so the footprint would remain the same.  The other questions wouldn't be answered until we were willing to remove the existing one.

Final Piece of the Puzzle​

Although Cathy’s infusions ended in March, she had one more procedure that was needed – removing the port that had been used for the infusions. The original surgery was planned for March 31, but had been canceled due to the restrictions on elective surgery. So, we finally decided it was time to reschedule. The new process requires a Covid 19 test. Hers had to take place on Sunday morning, June 21st. So, now you know why we won’t be able to help livestream the service that day. Assuming all goes well, she will be port-free the following Thursday.