LDS Media Talk

On February 10, 2007, a worldwide leadership training meeting on teaching and learning was broadcast over the Church satellite system. To help members and leaders in their teaching at home and in their Church callings, the proceedings of that meeting will be provided on LDS.org in text, audio, and video format.The English text and audio files are now available online. The remaining languages and formats will also be posted over the next few weeks.

See also: Additional Leadership Training Materials

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The following are the standards for all new audio and video we provide on Church sites. (Not all current media files meet these standards, but all new media we create will meet these standards.)Downloadable Audio: MP3 with an ID3 tag version of 2.3 or newer.

• Talks and music – Stereo at 128k Bit/s 44.1 kHz.
• Talks only – Stereo at 64k Bit/s 44.1 kHz.
• Music only – Stereo at 128k Bit/s 44.1 kHz.

Streaming Audio: Windows Media Audio

• Talks – Mono with a 16k compression rate.
• Music – Stereo with a 96k compression rate.

Downloadable and Streaming Video:

• Windows Media 8 300K (320×240). Broadcast archives include 56k version.
• Windows Media 11 MBR (640×480). This is a multi-bit Rate (56k, 300k, 1MB) that allows multiple quality levels in the same file.
• QuickTime h.264 (.mp4) (640×480). 1MB compression.
• Mpeg 2 VOB. This format is for purposes of copying to a DVD to be played through DVD players. It will be provided only on specific products that are also distributed as DVDs.
• Note: American Sign Language (ASL) will be encoded as QuickTime only.

We believe these standards provide an acceptable experience for both broadband and dial-up users.

You comments are welcomed.

Note: This post replaces the standards previously stated in Standard Formats for Audio and Video on Church Web Sites.

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Did you catch the USA Today article today about Safer Cyber-Playrooms?

Disney and Nickelodeon have created safe social network sites for kids 14 and under. Disney Extreme Digital and Nicktropolis are free, video-rich interactive Web sites with secure, kid-safe chat functions.

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According to a January 2007 study of 500 adults ages 18 and older conducted by InsightExpress, the following are the types of content that U.S. consumers say they are likely to watch online:

48.6% watch news clips
47.4% watch music videos
32.6% watch movie trailers
25.7% watch TV shows
20.5% watch user-generated videos
19.9% watch movies
11.2% watch sports clips

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“The US remains the single largest Internet market in the world with 181.9 million Internet users in 2006, but China is likely to take the lead before the decade is out.” That’s the lead line from a recent eMarketer report.

Although the U.S. Internet population continues to grow, the rest of the world is growing even faster–particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. China is growing quickly as its middle class grows and home Internet access becomes widespread. India is also a country of great growth potential.

Morgan Stanley estimates that by the end of 2007 there will be over 1.3 billion Internet users worldwide.

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If you’ve downloaded the MP3 audio files of the scriptures in the Gospel Library, you’ve probably noticed that the naming of the files don’t sort in the proper sequence to play them consecutively.

I’m happy to announce that the MP3 audio files of the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price have now been renamed (with appropriate metadata included) so they order and play in the proper sequence.

You may note that the naming of the scriptures file is an addition to the file naming conventions shown in my earlier post. The track for the scriptures is in the 2 field not the 4th. It follows the book identifier, and is before all other elements unique to the chapter. We have not padded with underlines to make the track the 4th element.

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The More Good Foundation has produced a short tour of the new LDS.org and Newsroom sites in the form of a video screencast. The screencast gives an overview of the new sites and highlights some of the new features.

See O’Reilly to learn how to create a screencast.

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Did you know that in the new Gospel Library you can view many items in their full graphical layout as a PDF file?

For existing publications: We provide a single PDF of the entire publication. To see it, go to the Table of Contents for the whole magazine or manual, and click View on the format bar. Please note that PDFs of magazines only go back to 2001, even though text of the magazines goes back to 1971 (because of copyright restrictions).

For future publications: At some point, we will begin providing PDFs of individual articles in magazines and individual chapters in manuals. To see them, click View on the format bar of the article or chapter. If there is no View as PDF option, go to the table of contents page to see the PDF file of the entire publication. You can then advance to the article or chapter.

Once you’ve found the PDF, you can read it online, print all or part of it using the Adobe Reader command buttons that appear inside the window, or download the PDF by clicking the Adobe Reader command button labeled Save a Copy.

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An updated and revamped Newsroom Web site went live today. This new site will be much more useful in communicating with the news media, academics, other opinion leaders, and members of the public interested in the Church’s doctrines, policies and activities. You’ll see lots of improvements over the next few months with lots more multimedia.

See the full story on the Newsroom site.

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Meridian Magazine just published a story on pornography entitled “Pornography: If it Quacks Like a Duck” about the dangers of pornography. Hopefully, we’ll recognize the dangers of pornography individually and as a society before it’s too late.

In addition to this article, you may want to visit combatingpornography.lds.org for further information and help.

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I just realized I never formally announced last month’s beta launch of the technology web site for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. On this site, Tom Welch and others from the Church’s Information and Communications Systems Department will share:

• The culture and processes of the technology department.
• Information about management and team members.
• A glimpse into some of the projects we are working on.
• A look at the different types of technology careers we have.

You can also participate in forum discussions where you can chat with other community members and employees of the Church on various technology issues.

We hope you’ll participate and share your great ideas!

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In addition to the resources mentioned in the post Redesigned LDS.org is Live!, you may also be interested to read a story in Meridian Magazine today and listen to a podcast explaining the changes. About.com also have a brief story.

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