This morning, around 7:15 Heidi drove me over to the Inter-Stake Center to help with the Mesa Stake Conference. Our stake is over the Inter-Stake building so we help many stakes with stake conferences and other meetings. Today we had a rather large tech problem. The switcher that we use to choose which camera or computer to show on the screen appeared to be failing. Most of the inputs had a bad flicker and some of the outputs simply didn't work. It took a little while to be sure it was the switcher because not all the inputs were bad. Kevin, one of the lead engineers, rerouted one of the flickering cameras directly to a monitor and confirmed that it was not the problem.
The somewhat amazing part is that the switchers was working at all. Of 20 available inputs only 3 were working (inputs 1,2 and 5). It turns out that 3 is the minimum number we need to have a solid, from the audience point of view, show. It gave us room for 2 cameras and the computer with the hymn lyrics and name supers. We had to reroute some of our outputs as well to feed the various overflows, but we had enough. It was stressful while we figured it out but ended up making for a simpler show in the end.
During stake conference we heard some great talks. One reminded us to ask "what lack I yet" from a recent general conference. Another told two stories about seagulls. In one story the gulls by a fishing village became so dependent on the fisherman feeding them that when the fleet moved many died. The other story was about the gulls who saved the first crops of the pioneers when they were being destroyed by crickets. The speaker invited us to be service-able seagulls instead of gullible gulls.
After we were done Dave, another sharp engineer, remembered that the switcher should still be under warranty as it is less than 8 months old. He boxed it up and plans to send it to the manufacturer for repair or replacement. Hopefully this can happen quickly. We have our next stake conference in a month.
The rest of the day was relatively quite. Heidi took the kids to our ward with Gram, Papa and Becca B. In the afternoon we did our weekly planning sessions. It felt good to all get on the same page again.
It's great that you have an opportunity to serve others using your media knowledge and skills
ReplyDeleteYou always have to be prepared, so Rycharn asks "What is Plan B?" He says you must go in every time with a Plan B. At KSL they have a backup switcher for situations such as this one. ( of course it is a cheaper one). Good luck
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