Commentary: Can You Hear Me Now?

#1598c
Joseph B. Baity
Given 22-May-21; 14 minutes

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Today’s commentary is not about current or historical events. No political stories, editorials, or sighing and crying about the state of the world. Instead, I’d like to discuss the state of our Sabbath service broadcasts.

As most of you know, as part of our respective positions with the Church of the Great God, David Grabbe and I are responsible for designing, installing, and overseeing the audio, video, and computing systems used to broadcast and record our weekly Sabbath services. It can be a lot of fun—we enjoy what we do—but it is not without its challenges, or the occasional headache, and even a sleepless night or two.

Even now, we are suffering from mysterious equipment failure with our video streaming computer. Apparently, it will be a few more weeks before the unit is repaired and returned from the manufacturer. Despite all of this, David and I still feel blessed to be able to contribute to the work in the manner that we do. For what it’s worth, we are both very driven, and frankly, self-conscious about the technical quality and consistency of the product we broadcast each weekly Sabbath or high holy day.

With the recent addition of the video stream, we had to reconfigure our audio system to ensure high standards of quality for both the audio and the video streams. Though we don’t receive a ton of constructive feedback, from time to time, Richard will debrief me on his latest experience from on the road, or I’ll reach out to a few of you for opinions. And though most of you seem to be relatively satisfied with the broadcast each week, I’m hearing enough negatives about the quality of the audio to cause me to pause and consider why we still struggle with consistency after so many years of doing this.

After a few heart-to-hearts with Richard, Martin, and David, and after a thorough system checkup and even more weekly monitoring, some technical study, and a lot of prayer, I’ve come to some conclusions that I would like to share with you all.

But first, I would like to apologize to those of you who have struggled from time to time. Obviously, no electronic system is foolproof—there will be occasional technical difficulties that are beyond our control, but I want everyone out there to be confident that you have a crew here in Fort Mill that cares, and we hate it when anything goes wrong.

As a side note, I am glad to report that we are making progress on one big category of potential trouble: power outages. We have just received bids on the purchase and installation of a full, deluxe, backup generator. Because of the current silicon chip shortage, critical to all electronic devices, it will be awhile before the generator is delivered and installed, but once that is done, we can all breathe a little easier.

But, back to my conclusions.

For years, we have been working on getting better, more reliable, and higher quality broadcast equipment. Back in 2016, when I began working for the church, one of my tasks was to increase our broadcast and recording standards here at the home office. And, I am happy to say, we have done that. Our gear here is good—some of it better than good. Our operators, like Ted Bowling, Dana Fletcher, Robert Richter, David Grabbe and I, know how to put together and monitor a good broadcast. We run into little electronic or Internet gremlins from time to time, most of which are unavoidable and most of which we are able to work around successfully. And we have a few speakers who are a little more soft-spoken, and they will always be a little more challenging for all to hear. We can only turn up the gain on the podium mic so far without causing even bigger problems. But we’ve added a lot of system check-ups and monitoring to our weekly routines, and I’ve concluded that, despite all of our challenges, what we are sending out is pretty consistent.

As another side note, it is important to keep in mind that the Internet stream will always be of significantly higher quality and dependability than a phone hookup, particularly via cellular service. And a wired Internet service is always more dependable than a wireless service. But, if you are depending upon the telephone, you need to know that your experience will be prone to more noise and inconsistent volume. There is not a lot that we are going to be able to do with that.

Let’s also not forget that we are one of the smallest churches out there. We don’t possess the human or financial resources that all of the bigger churches do. We are also the only church that regularly originates about one third of our broadcasts from remote locations. There are some weeks when all three messages are remote. That means we also have to ensure that the remote speaker is able to handle the technical challenges of transmitting his message via the Internet or phone so that we can receive it clearly and send it right back out to you. And we are the only church that we know of that conducts a live roll call each week. (More on that later.)

Can we do better? Of course we can, and with God’s help, we will continue to strive to do just that. But I’m happy with what we have achieved here at the home office.

But that’s really only half the story. For, you see, we only send out the broadcast. You out there in the field have to receive it, and that’s where I believe we have let you down. So, in order to achieve a better and more consistent result each week, I need to solicit your help.

In 2021 (if I am interpreting our online records accurately), we are averaging over 200 different locations that are logging into our broadcast each week via the Internet. And we have a dozen or so that call in via the telephone to listen, not including the roll call.

Think about that. That’s well over 200 different homes, hotel meeting rooms, Internet service providers, or telephone and cell phone companies. That’s a lot of different levels of Internet and cell service speed, dependability, and quality. And there are so many other variables. For instance, are you using a 12 year-old desktop computer, a 5 year-old gaming laptop, a 3 year-old iPad, a $25 Cricket phone, or your brand new $1,000 smart phone?

Do you have the money for improvements, or are you, like so many of us, on a tight budget?

What kind of service for Internet or cell is available where you meet or live? Or, if you are in your home, what kind of service do you pay for each month?

And with your Internet service, are you plugged into it via ethernet cable or are you wireless?

Do you have high speed service or something a little slower? If you are using the phone, is it landline or mobile, cellular or Wi-Fi?

And how is your sound system configured? What kind of speakers or amplification do you use? Do you use a smart phone and portable Bluetooth speaker? Do you have a monster surround system at home with your computer attached? Or are you trying to listen in with just your laptop speakers, or your TV speakers, or maybe just a little soundbar? Do you still use those tiny, no-name computer speakers that came free with the desktop your brother-in-law bought 15 years ago?

Are you in a hotel meeting room, or in your living room at home? Do you have 5 guests or 25? Or are you by yourself? Are you dealing with crying babies or a neighbor mowing his lawn?

All these factors and more must be weighed in order to make sure you are capable of receiving and hearing the broadcast each week—and to make sure those who join you in the hotel or your home can hear as well.

The bottom line is that we have been trying to increase our broadcast standards here in Fort Mill, but we haven’t done enough to help you with the systems you use to receive and listen to our broadcast, particularly those of you in larger groups, and for that I apologize.

We can send out the clearest, most robust, and glitch-free signal each week, but if you don’t have the system or the technical know-how to dial us in and amplify that signal for all to hear clearly, it doesn’t much matter.

So I would like to ask all of you who suffer from inconsistent quality, first to pray, for without God’s help, we can do nothing good. Second, please reach out to me. I can’t promise I can solve all your technical challenges, but between David and myself, and especially with God’s help, I think we can identify the greatest problems and lead you to a path of technical bliss, and a more enjoyable and educational Sabbath experience.

My number (and I may regret this one day) is (803) 802-7075. Please call if you would like to discuss your system.

My email address: jbaity@cgg.org.

Please join us as we try not only to increase our standards to broadcast and record, but to increase your standards to receive and listen. It’s all about the message—and faith does come by hearing!

Now, before I finish here, I need a minute to discuss the weekly fiasco we call the roll call. We really could use your help.

We need for everyone to please listen carefully. We need your focus, your engagement, and your cooperation in order to eliminate the ugly noises that we hear each week when trying to do the roll call. If everybody follows some simple guidelines, the roll call would be a delight and very easy to listen to. We wouldn’t hear delayed portions of the broadcast and we wouldn’t suffer all the chaotic feedback noises. We would only hear your lovely voices telling us how many are in your gathering this week. Wouldn’t that be nice?

So, here’s what we all have to do: Each week, each person who calls in has two options to make this roll call work. To start with, you have to understand that there is a delay of anywhere from 15-90 seconds on the audio or video stream. This is not anything that we can control; it is simply the nature and design of the streaming technology. There is no delay, though, on the telephones. They are essentially live to the very second, just like any phone call you make.

So, if you are listening to the stream, then before you call in for the roll call, you must, as option number 1, turn the speakers you are listening to down—completely.

If, when you are ready to dial, you can still hear the service coming through on those speakers, even at a low level, then you will cause us feedback, delay noise, and confusion.

The better option, if possible, is for each caller to leave the room where the speakers are located—completely—before calling in. I strongly recommend that you not only leave the room, but walk into another room and close the door behind you to isolate yourself and your phone from the broadcast. Remember: If you can still hear the speakers from where you are calling from, then so can your phone, and that is what is causing us all the grief and chaos on these roll calls. And, if you are listening to the service via a phone hookup, the same rules apply: you must turn down the broadcast completely, or leave the room and isolate yourself completely, before you dial.

On our part, we need to wait about 30 seconds longer before we start the roll call to make it easier for all of you to call in on time.

So we ask, we beg, we plead with you to follow these simple rules every week, and we can enjoy the roll call every week.

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