Phone tie-ins for the meetings

[JudyO]

What does your congregation use to tie in others for the meetings? A private line? Uber conferencing? 

[Jarred]

KHConf for audio and Live Kingdom Hall for video.  Although live kingdom Hall can do both, we keep it separate for redundancy.

[Tortuga]

KHConf

[New World Explorer]

Landline, standard phone line. (don't know how they split callers though?)

Perhaps they use KH-confrence system

Edited January 14, 2018 by Gregexplore

[JudyO]

2 minutes ago, Tortuga said:

KHConf

I think that's what we use, too. It's around $30 each month, and I think it limits the number of call-ins. 

[On the huh]

We use KHConf.  It can up to 18 lines, which is more than enough for our congregations needs.

[BibleSteve]

livekingdomhall.com brilliant service and gaining more and more congregations every month. I sometimes have had to listen on my mobile phone while travelling and it never lets me down.

[Jmystro]

KHCONF and works great using their app.

[Saffron]

KHconf, but some congregations around here use some kind of conference line where they need to mute the line. Glad we don't have to do that.. I'd forget and who knows what all they would be listening to in here. Lol

 

Didn't know KHconf had an app. How does it work? 

[kejedo]

2 hours ago, Saffron said:

KHconf, but some congregations around here use some kind of conference line where they need to mute the line. Glad we don't have to do that.. I'd forget and who knows what all they would be listening to in here. Lol

 

Didn't know KHconf had an app. How does it work? 

We do need to mute the line, but the recorded voice says KH conf.

[Tortuga]

2 hours ago, Saffron said:

Didn't know KHconf had an app. How does it work? 

It's a simple app that uses your WiFi to connect to khconf instead of calling in. Once you have the app set up all you do is push a button. We also use a Bluetooth speaker so we can hear better.

[Saffron]

5 minutes ago, kejedo said:

We do need to mute the line, but the recorded voice says KH conf.

I had a friend of mine from a nearby congregation tell me this recently. Guess I better double check mine. Hahaa 

 

 

I'm going to look for the app. And the Bluetooth speaker is a great idea. With kids around, sometimes it's hard to hear everything. Thanks!

[dove]

Our KH has a system called Zoom that allows watching the meetings on our computer or tablet..or mirror it to the TV with Apple TV..it's a link given by the COBE to shut-ins and elderly..wonderful provision..

[On the huh]

We used to use a conference call.  Had 2 lines and only 4 listeners.  And we needed to call them before the meeting and set it up.  If the end user didn't mute, the other users could hear all what was being said.

KHConf and the like are much better systems.  We too use the app at the Kingdom Hall and connect via the internet.  Lots of advantages.  Just a click to connect, you can see who is online and a count.  Many UK phone providers give you the first 60 minutes free before charging.  You disconnect before the 60 mins and then reconnect (if you remember, and sometimes we didn't).  Not needed with the app.  This also meant we could switch providers.  We use one recommended by the branch.  It gives us 40mb broadband and line rental,  but no free phone calls and a very good price, much less than what did pay for.

[ChrisC]

On 14/01/2018 at 10:35 PM, Jonathan77 said:

We use KHConf.  It can up to 18 lines, which is more than enough for our congregations needs.

Does using the app count as one of those 18?

[Tortuga]

53 minutes ago, ChrisC said:

Does using the app count as one of those 18?

I'm not sure, the app uses WiFi but it does use the same phone number.

[Zebra555]

6 hours ago, ChrisC said:

Does using the app count as one of those 18?

Yes it does.

 

[Shawnster]

On 1/14/2018 at 5:35 PM, Jonathan77 said:

We use KHConf.  It can up to 18 lines, which is more than enough for our congregations needs.

 

We use KHConf and we had 20 or 27 on the tie in last week.

[Zebra555]

35 minutes ago, Shawnster said:

 

We use KHConf and we had 20 or 27 on the tie in last week.

You can have as many as you like listening in, but the limit for KHCONF is 18 lines.

IE: you can have more than one person listening in on one line.

[Brandon]

1 hour ago, Shawnster said:

We use KHConf and we had 20 or 27 on the tie in last week.

you pay for number of lines. Here's our last invoice:

 

I don't actually handle the payments but it appears we pay $25 CAD per congregation, plus $32 for extra lines, although I don't really know if those extra lines apply to all 5 congs our just mine.

 

This is audio only. I always find it odd to think that those at home (including me from time to time) could watch the meetings instead on stream.jw.org; they'd be able to actually see the meeting, they could break it up into half hour sections to watch (elderly ones would appreciate this time-shifting), plus our KH would save $2000 CAD (about $1600) per year!

 

I actually go through periods where I mostly am listening and speaking only for myself, I prefer watching the "foreign" (US/florida) meeting from stream.jw rather than listening to the low-quality sound-only version of my own.  Sometimes I call in only at the very end to hear local announcements, but apparently starting this month announcements in the form of letters are being revamped and replaced with a once-per-month memo from bethel, so perhaps one day we'll do it this way anyway--I mean, it's the same spiritual food right? no matter which congregation it comes from (provided it's in the same language you're used to hearing)

Edited January 17, 2018 by Brandon

[Shawnster]

50 minutes ago, Zebra555 said:

You can have as many as you like listening in, but the limit for KHCONF is 18 lines.

IE: you can have more than one person listening in on one line.

Ahhh... OK.  

[BibleSteve]

For anyone interested livekingdomhall.com have a free trial period for congregations. There are now hundreds of congregations using this service and speaking personally as a user its fantastic! (I am not connected to the brothers that operate the service, ? well I guess I am but only spiritually haha I don't actually know them personally)

 

From their website;

 

Live Kingdom Hall streaming provides the highest quality and best remote experience available - at the least possible cost. Live Kingdom Hall can also be used to broadcast a remote Assembly to a local Kingdom Hall or Special Talk from one location to another. This streaming technology is compatible with PC's, Apple and Android phones, tablets, and smart phones. A recent user shared:

Thanks so very much for allowing us access to stream the assembly and even a few meetings. It was wonderful to hear the program today although it made me cry it was tears of missing everyone there but also appreciating how wonderfully Jehovah provided a way for us to be there and be encouraged. Please thank anyone who helped make this possible! Give our greetings to everyone!

What is required?

• An internet connection such as dsl or broadband at your Kingdom Hall.
• A pc/laptop that is connected to the Kingdom Hall microphone sound equipment console OR a Barix Instreamer (stand alone solution requires no pc).
• Free encoder software that we help you set-up.
• Create an account at www.livekingdomhall.com/signup

We have free trials available if you would like to fully test the streaming and phone service with your Kingdom Hall. Please enter your congregation's name, location and meeting times as displayed at www.jw.org using this link. If you wish to volunteer to help us translate this site to other languages, please let us know.

[ChrisC]

I would like a khconf pause button.

’Hang on brother I’m just going to add your comment as a note to JW Library.’

Though I would no doubt get sidetracked deep in some scripture!

 

A video feed would be nice but I find things more overwhelming now, having to frequently pause just about anything I watch. But it’s not about me!

[Mountain man]

On 1/17/2018 at 9:43 AM, Brandon said:

you pay for number of lines. Here's our last invoice:

 

I don't actually handle the payments but it appears we pay $25 CAD per congregation, plus $32 for extra lines, although I don't really know if those extra lines apply to all 5 congs our just mine.

 

This is audio only. I always find it odd to think that those at home (including me from time to time) could watch the meetings instead on stream.jw.org; they'd be able to actually see the meeting, they could break it up into half hour sections to watch (elderly ones would appreciate this time-shifting), plus our KH would save $2000 CAD (about $1600) per year!

 

I actually go through periods where I mostly am listening and speaking only for myself, I prefer watching the "foreign" (US/florida) meeting from stream.jw rather than listening to the low-quality sound-only version of my own.  Sometimes I call in only at the very end to hear local announcements, but apparently starting this month announcements in the form of letters are being revamped and replaced with a once-per-month memo from bethel, so perhaps one day we'll do it this way anyway--I mean, it's the same spiritual food right? no matter which congregation it comes from (provided it's in the same language you're used to hearing)

 

How is it working for you Brandon?  

We're having a little trouble with interruptions in internet service, sometimes we can't do a conference call, other times it disconnects lines and drops callers, the brother on sound has to monitor it during the meeting to make sure the conference stays connected.  It's  a great system and saves us money not having 2 landlines like the old way.  Larry said he's had some issue's like this from some other Canadian congregations, I think we may need a better physical service to the building, not sure.  Nanofibre should be available to the hall soon. Currently I'm getting setup for a VOIP system at the hall, then we can get rid of the landline completely and hopefully it helps with the KH conference.  The building is zoned Commercial, so the only landline service available is for commercial business and about twice the cost of a normal residential service   

[Brandon]

5 hours ago, Mountain man said:

How is it working for you Brandon?  

Generally it's pretty good.

 

5 hours ago, Mountain man said:

We're having a little trouble with interruptions in internet service

Yes, if our internet with Bell isn't working (or not working at full capacity), we have experienced similar issues. We've actually disabled WiFi for the general publishers now since we have a double hall (up to 400 devices all connecting at once and apple devices in particular want to auto-update and flood the bandwidth; and this isn't something that a user can even disabled without jailbreaking!). We also tried using separate routers which allotted speeds, to prioritize the sound desk computers, and I thought that was working, but now they've changed it (and I'm not longer working with the OpCom on this, so I'm not privy to the details here).

 

5 hours ago, Mountain man said:

the brother on sound has to monitor it during the meeting to make sure the conference stays connected

until about a year ago we were using iMacs with KHAudio3 software which was great; it reconnected automatically when it disconnected. but we were told "JWLibrary is now the preferred thing" so we unfortunately got ride of them for even more expensive windows-based computers, which almost no one has enjoyed using,  and they still don't do all the things that KHAudio3 did for us.

But that's life I guess.