Guide for Zoom Technicians

This page provides a quick overview of the requirements and responsibilities of a Zoom Tech for online Satanic religious services. If you have been asked to be a Zoom Tech, please reach out to the Religious Services team for technical information, such as how to log into Zoom using the religious services technician account.

1 Hr 15 Min Before Service

1 Log into Zoom using the Religious Services Zoom Tech account.

2 Confirm that you have the streaming parameters.

3 Perform a quick stream test on the platform with the Coordinator.

1 Hr Before Service

1 Greet the minister(s) and panelists as they arrive, be friendly and help them to relax.

2 Work with anyone having trouble logging into or figuring out how to use Zoom.

3 Perform the standard set of “basic checks” with each person as they arrive.

standard “basic checks”

  • Their display name should be what name they would like to be called + their pronouns.
  • Tablets and mobile devices should be turned sideways (horizontal orientation).
  • Do a “mic check” for volume level and to make sure there is no scratching or static.
  • Recommend that they also include their locale in their display name when that may be important to the discussion. For example, for Temple Weekend Services it is fairly common to have topics for which differences and laws and cultural customs between different countries matters to the discussion.

30 Min Before Service

1 Everyone should have arrived in the Zoom by this point.

2 Obtain consent to be recorded, explain how they can revoke consent later.

3 Confirm that everyone knows how to raise/lower Zoom hands, mute/unmute their mic.

4 Talk through the entire process of the service so everyone knows what to expect.

example “talk through”

“Hello! Some of you might already know this, but some of you might not. I don’t want to embarrass anyone by forcing them to admit that they don’t know, so I’m going to talk this through for all of you! A few minutes before the service starts I will ask everyone except the minister to mute themselves. I will spotlight the disclaimer background. You’ll get a notification that the recording has started. You’ll get a notification that the meeting is being live streamed. Minister: don’t start talking right away! When I get confirmation that everything is appearing properly, I will change the spotlight to you, and that is when you should start talking! As we get close to the end I will put little warnings in the Zoom chat. Then when you are all finished, there will be an awkward pause and I want everyone to just hang out and stay silent. Because of the time lag, it will be a few moments before I stop the recording and then I will come on and let you know it’s all over! Any questions? OK, now you can chat and do any last minute things to get ready, and I’ll come back and let you know when we are about to begin.”

5 Min Before Service

1 Set your background to the “Views expressed…” graphic.

2 Put everyone but the minister on mute.

3 Turn on the automatic captions.

4 Start the recording (to computer).

5 Cover the camera (to show the background image).

6 Start the live stream

7 Watch the live stream monitor.

8 When the live stream has begun, spotlight the minister.

During The Service

1 Keep the minister spotlighted throughout the invocation and declamation.

2 Remove the spotlight when the minister asks the first question, so focus will automatically follow the speaker.

3 Keep an eye on the focus, and manually fix it if the automatic focus is not following the person speaking.

4 Spotlight the minister again for the peroration and announcements.

End of The Service and After

1 Watch the live stream monitor

2 When the monitor catches up to the end, stop the live stream.

3 Stop the recording.

4 Let people hang out and chat for a short while.

5 End the Zoom meeting.

6 Make sure the file of the video recording finishes saving.

7 Share the video and caption files with the Services Team so they can be added to the archive.