Many congregations throughout the world face challenges trying to view general conference and other Church broadcasts in a timely manner. But new technology is changing that.

Previously, there were two main ways for congregations around the world to view conference. Many stake centers throughout the world have satellite dishes to receive Church broadcasts. These satellite dishes and receivers are very expensive to install and maintain. It also requires members to travel–sometimes great distances–to stake centers where the dishes are available.

A second way to receive conference was to wait several weeks for conference sessions to be copies onto DVDs and shipped to congregations around the world. Once the DVDs arrived, members would gather in Church buildings to view the DVDs.

But Church technology employees are working on solutions to deliver conference and other broadcasts more quickly and less expensively.

Today, videos of general conference are available online in many languages within 24 hours of each session of conference. Members can watch general conference on a computer or even on a mobile phone with Internet access. You can find general conference video files at conference.lds.org or on the Mormon Channel on iTunes.

Now there is also a lost-cost, quick alternative for congregations to watch conference. Church leaders can go to a home, Internet café, or business that has Internet access and download the conference sessions onto a memory stick. The stick then plugs into a media player and general conference is ready to show to the congregation. Below is a picture of the media player recently tested in 59 congregations around the world. (Learn more about the pilot test in an article in the Church News.)

The media player costs about US$100 and is about the size of a standard Book of Mormon. It can plug into a TV, monitor, or projector so members can watch conference on a large sceen.

Photo: Ryan Morgenegg, LDS Church News

This quick, lost-cost alternative allows members to view general conference in many more buildings so members don’t have to travel long distances to a stake center. Information about implementing a similar solution for viewing general conference in your own stake can be found at mhtech.lds.org. If you have suggestions on how to improve this, please enter comments below.

Learn when general conferences are available in text, video, and audio formats.

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