Zoom Webinar 500 Participant Limit Increase?

[swigginton]

We have stake conference in a couple weeks and will use Zoom Webinar. We are in California, and under a stay-home order, so it will be fully virtual. We've been using Zoom Webinar for sacrament meetings for the past several months. Adding up the average participant counts for each ward, we will likely exceed the 500 participant limit for the Church-provided license. Is it possible to temporarily increase that license for stake conference? We know we can redirect to a Youtube Live stream if we reach capacity, but we have a Spanish ward and several members who call in via telephone who do not have internet or an internet device. Live language translation and telephone access would not be available to those who join after reaching capacity. We'll encourage those folks to join early, but temporarily increasing capacity would ensure everyone can participate. Any other thoughts?

[russellhltn]

I believe you can use the RTMP feature to stream the conference to the Church Webcast system. You could set up two webcasts and with two machines, stream a copy with each language.

[swigginton]

I believe you can use the RTMP feature to stream the conference to the Church Webcast system. You could set up two webcasts and with two machines, stream a copy with each language.

Would that require additional hardware to route to the Church Webcast system? With Zoom Webinar, we just use a laptop and USB camera in the chapel with only the participating speakers in attendance.
I suppose we could use the 2nd webinar instance available on the Zoom license, but we'd need to double the camera and laptop setup in the chapel, have 2 hosts and now it gets more complex. The beauty of Zoom Webinar is the simplicity of setup and execution, so I'm hoping for a solution that doesn't increase complexity. That may not be possible.

[russellhltn]

Would that require additional hardware to route to the Church Webcast system? With Zoom Webinar, we just use a laptop and USB camera in the chapel with only the participating speakers in attendance.

It might require another laptop to create the RTMP stream. In your case, I'm thinking you'd need one machine for the English stream and another tuned to the translation to create the Spanish RTMP stream.

If all the participants are in the stake center, there are other non-Zoom options. Some as simple as a cell phone with a free app. But you've got the complication of needing a translation. You could probably do that with two phones - one with a remote mic for the translator.

[swigginton]

That's an interesting approach. It would add to the complexity and risk, and introduces members to a new way of viewing, which further complicates things. They are familiar with using Zoom for sacrament meetings, so that is certainly preferred, but we may need to look at solutions such as you recommend as a backup plan.

[bido101]

As mentioned, use Zoom’s RTMP to church webcast for general viewing.

Further, use Zoom’s translation audio channel feature for other languages. Translators do not need to be on site. They can translate from home.

Then ONLY share Zoom webinar info to those needing translation.

Everyone else views from church webcast.

[russellhltn]

but we may need to look at solutions such as you recommend as a backup plan.

Reading the letter announcing the Zoom license, it stated the limit for webinar would be 500. The letter did indicate that if you exceeded 500, that there could be an automatic direction to YouTube. I'm not sure how that works or if you could direct them somewhere else (like Church Webcast).

You could email to mht at churchofjesuschrist.org and see what they have to say. But I would work on a "Plan B".

[bido101]

It isn’t automatic redirection to YouTube, Zoom can be manually configured to stream the meeting using RTMP, of which YouTube supports as does many streaming services.

[swigginton]

The letter did indicate that if you exceeded 500, that there could be an automatic direction to YouTube.

That's our current plan. We will encourage those who need translation or are calling in by telephone to join early. Any who join after reaching capacity will view on Youtube. We'll still play around with some of the other options mentioned and may find it to be a better option.

[russellhltn]

"If your webinar has hit capacity and attendees are unable to join via Zoom, you can leverage live streaming via Facebook, Youtube, and Workplace by Facebook, to allow them to view the webinar. When the attendee receives the message that the webinar is at capacity, they will be given the option to join via the live stream option. "

More details: Webinar livestream redirect.

It looks to me like you could direct it to something like the stake's Church Webcast page so users can select the proper language webcast.