Satellite for rural areas

 Lets talk about ‘the Internet’ …

“The 4G is bad at that location”

This is a brief overview of 4G connectivity, Church WIFI and Satellite as options.

As a side note here, we normally only get asked to do a paid site visit or bring the satellite probably no more than once a month. It’s just on occasions it’s very useful.

The photo above is from a recent Thanksgiving stream in Farnham where the 4G is truly bad an the Church have a WIFI

The Satellite is not a normal day to day request. The most important thing here is that people actually tell the truth when its comes to 4G coverage being “known” to be really bad’. If we deal and plan for this early it could save everyone a lot of stress and help make a successful funeral or memorial stream.

We were recently told that a venue in Gloucestershire had really bad 4G. He said the venue has amazing WIFI with broadband fibre. Although as mentioned below relying on one connection is a bad idea.

He asked us to bring the Satellite for the additional fee. He was telling the truth, the 4G was 1 bar or nothing on all the networks, so we bonded the WIFI in the venue and the Satellite together which is just as well as the venue wifi dipped out and disappeared for a while during the live stream. (I was monitoring the connections)

Without our Satellite that day over 50 people watching all around world would only watched ‘half the service’ then Im sure the text messages would be coming in saying they cant watch it. The satellite saved the day which the family really deserved for all the hard work they put into the beautiful service.

Funeral & Memorial Streaming with the Internet

We have live streamed over 1,500 Funeral & Memorials all over the UK over the years, and of course one of the things that comes to mind instantly when we are asked to live stream is the 4G coverage … the connection to the internet. Without this, there is no live streaming.

There are many areas in the UK which of course have good 4G connection at least with 2 or 3 of the networks and of course there are many areas that have really bad 4G and sometimes even 3G and sometimes zero 4G on any network.

Many Churches are nestled deep into the beautiful countryside and are often shrouded by trees… Trees like to block 4G

When live streaming you definitely need more than one connection, thats a fact. If you rely on just one connection whether that be that be Church wifi or 1 x 4G connection then the chances are it’s going to fail and if it manages to hold on the quality will be really poor as the data rate changes.

For this reason of course professionals are supposed to try and Bond 3 or 4 of the networks, this bonding means they all act as one solid connection and they all ‘chip in’ to help all the time, then if lets say Vodafone 4G vanishes for a while then the others continue and they chip in a ‘bit more’ to cover the lost connection, so nobody knows and the stream continues. It’s quite robust.

Many clients and Funeral Directors are told many things. Some are told by the Church “we cant live stream here“ (not true) Some are told the Church has Fibre… Super fast Broadband WIFI which is true as gladly now most Churches are having it installed but Church wifi is known to fail often like any WIFI and we have witnessed many times Church WIFI go from 200Mb download and 90MB up load then during the live stream the Church WIFI goes to 222kb upload for a period of time. (the upload speed is the most important with live streaming not download) the wifi going bad during the service means you will not be able to hear or see the live streaming. Its goes all pixel looking and the sound breaks up and stops. This happens more often than people let on.

To try and mitigate this we have invested in a Satellite Solution. The Satellite Dish points upwards to the Sky / Stars where there are thousands of satellites roaming the sky offering internet connection. Satellite has nothing to do with 4G or Church WIFI so if 4G is bad at the Church and the WIFI is a bit patchy along with our extra outdoor 4G kit we can add a Satellite Dish for an extra fast connection. The more connections the better.

4G internet & how many networks

There are 4 Mobile Networks. Vodafone, o2, EE & Three. We have all these networks bonded. From my experience rarely all 4 are any good at the same time, it’s mostly 3 of the networks are OK and one is normally pretty bad but sometimes only 2 are OK.

4g Inside the Church

As we all know most Churches are made from super thick walls and many of them now have that ‘metal mesh’ over the windows. This metal mesh also stops 4G coming into the windows, so when we arrive and see poor 4G coverage and wire mesh over the windows we know we are in for a challenging time to say the least. We normally know quite quickly that we will be having to use our outdoor 4G kit.

Church WIFI

Often touted as amazing and makes people falsely confident. (The Church has WIFI). Sometimes we try and tap into it for an extra connection, but more often than not we leave it well alone. Its drifts off and disappears often which can ruin the live stream. We only ask to use it if 4G is really bad and we are running out of options. We would though not be happy to use it on its own, we would try and bond it with at least 2 or 3 4G networks

Satellite

As we have discussed before, Satellite as an extra connection is amazing and 4G coverage does not play a role, we do though need a clear view to the sky. There are some limitations of course like most things but a quick look on Google street view or maps allows us to identify if we think there is a place to put the satellite. Sometimes a site visit helps paints that picture. It likes a clear view of the sky.

The Good news is that we have a internet solution for all challenges, but if the Church warden or locals know that the 4G at the venue is awful or very patchy then the satellite solution could really save the day.

We get once chance at live streaming Funeral & Memorials to people all across the UK or the world so we all need to try our best to make sure it works

Of course we record the live stream too for safety but try telling the client that when they were expecting its live streamed to family in Australia or Canada and thye will be getting texts during the services saying they cant see it. Let’s do all we can to make sure it works.

Please ask us about the cost of bringing along the Satellite kit to help make the live streaming work. Its a relatively a nice low cost addition