wfn.org | Technology Will Revolutionize Coverage of Adventist Church's World

["Beckett, John" <BeckettJ@gc.adventist.org>]

Session 

ANN Bulletin
Adventist News Network
Seventh-day Adventist Church World Headquarters
May 17, 2000
----------------------
Technology Will Revolutionize Coverage of Adventist Church's World Session 
Silver Spring, MD, USA ... [ANN]

State-of-the-art satellite, Internet and broadcast technology will make the
upcoming Seventh-day Adventist World Session a truly interactive event for
hundreds of thousands of people from every continent of the world, say the
Session's technical planners. The Session, which is expected to draw more
than 60,000 Adventists to Toronto for the June 29-July 8 meetings, will
produce a number of technological "firsts" for the Adventist Church. It will
be the first Session to be broadcast to a global audience, in more than 40
languages, on a daily basis; and it will be the first to use the Internet to
make Session news, pictures and video available on the Church's Website.  

"The creative use of the Internet is one of the most exciting technological
aspects of this Session," says Webmaster John Beckett, who will be heading
up the Session Website team. "From Peru to Australia to Zimbabwe, people
will be able to access the site for a 'virtual' Session.  They will have
access to the very latest information and photos, read constantly updated
feature stories and interviews, and see and hear Session highlights through
our use of video streaming technology."

Ray Tetz, co-director of the Session's audio-video productions, says that a
full-scale television production center will be constructed in the
exhibition hall of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, adjacent to the
SkyDome. "We will have more than 100 people participating in the production
of our daily satellite programming, as well as things like image
magnification in the SkyDome," says Tetz. 

 The audio-video team will produce 90 minutes of programming of Session
highlights and news each day, and will broadcast an additional 90 minutes of
live programming each evening. A full seven hours of live coverage will also
be broadcast each Saturday.

"Three satellite feeds each day will cover the Americas, the Pacific Rim,
Europe and Africa," says Tetz.  "We have something like 10-15,000 downlink
sites around the world." 

Brad Thorp, director of Adventist Global Communication Network-one of the
satellite networks that will be carrying the signal-says that the Session
will be "the most widely viewed satellite event in Adventist history.  It is
the first time we know of where any denomination has shared daily, globally
broadcast reports from a world convention."

A new concept in Session coverage will be the production of eight daily
one-hour programs called "A Window on the Adventist Church."  Intended to
make the Adventist World Session understandable and interesting to a
primarily non-Adventist audience, the programs will be carried by the United
States cable networks Safe TV and Loma Linda TV.  They will also be
available to other interested broadcasters around the world, says Tetz.

Adventist World Radio (AWR) will broadcast Session news and programming
directly from the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, says AWR spokesperson
Andrea Steele. "The AWR exhibit will house a full production center,"
explains Steele, "where programs will be created in English, French,
Spanish, Portuguese, Kiswahili, Mandarin Chinese, Romanian, Russian and
other languages."

"Visitors to the exhibit will be able to watch program production through
plexiglass windows surrounding the production area," says Steele.  "Programs
in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese will be broadcast directly from
the exhibit hall by satellite and on the Internet-so this is worldwide
coverage. Programs produced in the other languages will be incorporated in
future programs in those languages, either broadcast locally or on AWR's
shortwave stations."

The General Conference Session Website address is www.adventist.org. This
site will also include satellite downlink schedules and information. AWR
programming information for the Session is available at www.awr.org.
[Bettina Krause]

----------------------
Contact Information: 
Communications Department
General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
12501 Old Columbia Pike
Silver Spring, MD 20904-6600

Phone: 301-680-6300
e-mail: info@gc.adventist.org
web: http://www.adventist.org/