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First GC Session to be Uplinked Globally

 For the first time in history, people can view General Conference Session 2000 in Toronto on television from every continent of the world.

Every weekday, three hours of Session events, sermons, music, and reports will be uplinked to seven footprints, and can be watched in Siberia, Sydney, South Africa, and thousands of other sites around the world. On Sabbaths, there will be approximately six hours of sermons, reports, and mission events uplinked.

The programs will be carried around the world by AGCN (Adventist Global Communication Network). In North America, ACN (NAD’s Adventist Communication Network) will distribute the signal. It will also be carried by ADSAT, the Brazil-based satellite distribution system covering most of the Western Hemisphere. The signal will be available to other private distribution organizations such as 3ABN.

AGCN’s director, Brad Thorp, commented that “this will be the most widely viewed satellite event in Adventist history. It is the first time we know of when any denomination has shared daily reports from a world convention.”

The General Conference Session in Utrecht in 1995 was watched by viewers in North and South America. In 2000, the whole world will be watching.

To make this happen, a team of people from nearly every continent on earth will pool their talents and technical skills. The same team will supply sound and image magnification to persons attending the Session in the SkyDome.

The General Conference will use its giant encoder which is capable of digitally encoding one video signal and up to 40 audio signals (with some redundancy). Another encoder, which can handle up to 16 languages, will also be in use.  Different languages can be beamed to various footprints, making it possible to broadcast around the world in nearly 100 languages.

Translators will be provided by the divisions, unions, or other denominational entities desiring that language. The General Conference will provide translation booths and equipment.

Each evening’s mission report will be uplinked, as well as a summary of the day’s activities and a sampling of sermons, interviews, and music. Mark Finley, Speaker-Director of It Is Written, will be the anchor.

The two Sabbath sermons, as well as the Sabbath afternoon programs and Saturday night events, will be uplinked.

Co-directors of the audio-video broadcast of the General Conference Session will be Ray Tetz, president

of Mind Over Media, and Warren Judd, president of the North American Division’s Adventist Media Production Center. They will bring with them their staffs, plus scores of other professionals.  [Phil Follett]