Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. By connecting the telephone line to the audio installation, a listener at home
can simply call the Kingdom Hall. After the call is received, the speaker can be signalled
that there is a participant on the phone. If that participant gets the turn, the sound
servant will open that channel on the mixer and the voice of the participant will be heard
over de sound installation.
No. This is because of the sound quality and the way VoIP operates.
Sound quality: Because VoIP uses the same bandwidth as regular telephony,
the sound quality is inferior. This is because there is only 3000Hz of bandwidth available.
Therefore not all frequencies are passed along. For the elderly with reduced hearing ability
it can be very hard to concentrate on a meeting of 2 hours. Especially over a speaker phone.
Operation: VoIP may be used in two ways: through a VoIP provider or through
Peer-to-Peer networks
In case of a provider a listener can use a regular phone line to listen to the audio signal
from KZWeb. To do this, special hardware is needed to provide the connection between the
KZWeb's internet connection and the listener's phone line. This can be done in two ways:
1) Doing it yourself with special hardware or 2) a subscription from a provider who does this
for you.
With Peer-to-Peer networks (like Skype, although no true VoIP) the audio signal is transferred through other (unknown!)
nodes in the Peer-to-Peer network. This software is free but doesn't have sufficient conferencing
abilities due to a limited number of allowed participants. Higher numbers of participants are allowed with the commercial service.
Apart from this, a VoIP systems necessitates the use of a computer or the use of a VoIP. The latter one can be obtained at a modest price. The key problem would be access control.
A VoIP system would also create a dependency on a third party. In case of a VoIP provider this entails the provider and a peer-to-peer network with an unspecified number of unknown participants. Tying a Kingdom Hall VoIP system to a VoIP peer-to-peer network would also mean sharing the server and the network to other participants in the network for all kinds of "undefined businesses". The peer-to-peer character is compulsory for anyone participating and can not be switched of.
Yes and No.
Yes:
Anyone who is authorized can listen to the broadcast from the Kingdom Hall provided he/she
has an internet connection (even dial up) and the appropriate hardware/software. The
appropriate hardware/software could be a PC or web radio. Because there are some
minimal requirements for the web radio, KZWeb is able to advise you on this.
No:
The broadcasts are not publicly accessible. The listener would need authorization which is
provided through the congregation.
Approximately 20
The actual amount of listeners depends on the real (not advertised) upload speed of the Kingdom Hall internet connection. The real upload speed depends on the quality of the cables and the distance from the Kingdom Hall to the telephone companies' switchboard.
During one stress test over a connection with a specified speed of 1024 kbps (which was also actually achieved) a maximum of 27 listeners could be served. In reality, most connections will not reach this maximum speed. For this reason we have decided that 20 simultaneous listeners is the maximum amount. We believe this should suffice for most congregations.
No. The audio signal is digitized in the Kingdom Hall. The digital signal is then transmitted directly to the listeners without any redirects or interference from others. After the digital audio signal is received, it is also vanished from the internet.
None.
No. KZWeb does not support video. KZweb was designed to support the elderly and/or (chronically) ill. Sick people are quite often in bed or feel too ill to watch a screen. Usually the elderly do not have a computer to receive and watch video.
Besides this, there are some other practical issues:
Of course, these problems could be solved with cheaper equipment or with a simpler setup. This has been tried by various Kingdom Halls, but didn't provide the quality nor the benefit that was expected.
Compared to some District Conventions where a video system is or was used, the benefits are very small. It requires a substantial investment in equipment, training time and operating time (during the meetings). The operators will not be able to concentrate completely on the education provided during the meetings. All this effort is undertaken to provide a very small number of brothers and sisters with a (though lovingly made, but non-professional) video, who might even not feel well enough to sit and watch it. For this reason, KZweb deemed the added value of video recordings too low to add this feature to the system.
No. KZWeb is a "Black-Box", an appliance. You can not install other software on e.g. a CD or DVD player either.
In order to provide guaranteed operation and the necessary ease-of-use, KZWeb is a closed system. The user interface does
not allow additional software to be installed nor operated. Besides, KZWeb is designed to be used for one purpose only:
handling sound in an easy way without additional maintenance.
Many times we received the question if it would be possible to install the Watchtower Library on the KZWeb system or other
software to support a beamer/projector and presentations. Though technically possible, this will not be done.
For the Watchtower Library the counter with the sound equipment is definitely not the right place. The Library could be
used during the meeting if someone would have to stand in for someone else. The Library could also be used by anyone in
the congregation. But it is definitely undesirable to have anyone operate the KZWeb system just for the Library, let
alone during the meeting.
The responsibility of a presentation is not with the sound servant. For this reason it is by far better that the speaker
will operate any system for presentations by himself or in co-operation with the stage servant. This way the sound servant
will be able to focus on his own task and operate the equipment within his own responsibility.
For signalling the speaker, many options are possible. Some are "High-Tech" but the most simple
and effective way for the signalling is for the sound servant to hold the phone in the air.
KZWeb on the other hand, uses MP3 encoding. This produces a much better sound quality. By
default KZWeb uses a low bitrate of 32kbps to support listeners with a dial-up
over a 56k6 modem connection. This already provides a significantly better quality than
VoIP or regular telephony. If there are only listeners with broadband connections, the bitrate
may even be set higher.
The first option is not flexible as it requires every listener (including the occasional
listener) to own or have the necessary hardware at home, including an internet connection. The
special hardware can also be put in the Kingdom Hall. Needless to say that this is very costly.
The second option reduces the need for the hardware and expertise to install and maintain it but
it still is costly. This still would leave us with the problem of access control. In addition, the
Kingdom Hall and the listeners would become dependent on a third party.
In both situations it would still be necessary to create a so-called conference circuit in order
to connect multiple phone lines to the Kingdom Hall. This always involves a commercial third party
for even more dedicated hardware. And, of course, this leads to additional costs.
The digitized audio signal however, is recorded in the archive on the server in the Kingdom Hall. This
recording can be copied to an USB device in the Kingdom Hall. The recording can not be retransmitted
nor can it be downloaded through the internet.