Released by: Rick Kajiura
Phone: +31-30-955-324 (June 29-July 8) or +301-680-6300
Written by: Betty Cooney

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 6, 1995

HOME (AND CHURCH) DELIVERY SPEEDS SESSION NEWS AROUND
THE GLOBE

Utrecht, The Netherlands... Those who were not among the fewer than 300
members and delegates attending the first General Conference Session in
1863 were grateful they could read Session news in the pages of the
Advent Review & Sabbath Herald (now called Adventist Review), which
reportedly came out a month or so later.
	During this 56th General Conference Session of the Seventh-day
Adventist Church, believers around the globe are praising God that the
session is "coming home" to members via satellite, short wave, FM
radio, and computer communication at a faster rate than has ever been
possible in Adventist history.
	GCTV is responsible for television coverage of session events for
those at the meetings as well as for those in the Americas with access
to satellite dishes. Essentially a complete television station
constructed inside the Jaarbeurs Convention Center, the station's
impressive array of equipment includes a full studio production
facility, a master control room controlling eight cameras in the main
auditorium and the image magnification system that provides the large
audiences with closeups of platform speakers and musicians.
	The station is a technical buff's dreamland of intricate engineering
controls and a cable network with 17 channels. And for the
statistically-inclined, GCTV's three miles of video cable and another
three of fiber-optic cable further underline the fact that there's
definitely much more than meets the eye where television is concerned.
Its staff of more than 62 represents the Adventist Media centers in
California and the South Pacific, Sydney Adventist Hospital, five
colleges and a number of General Conference departments. Co-directors
are Warren Judd, vice president for production, Adventist Media Center
in Newbury Park, California, U.S.A., and Ray Tetz, vice president for
communication, Adventist Development and Relief Agency, Silver Spring,
Maryland, U.S.A.
	Extending the reach of the Session even farther geographically than
does GCTV, Adventist World Radio (AWR) and Adventist Radio Network
(ARN) have joined in a historic first to operate a radio broadcast
center at the session. This operation serves more than 50 international
broadcasters preparing programs about the session.
	Using satellite technology, AWR sends programs to transmitters around
the world allowing listeners to hear up-to-date news of session events.
Other programs are being sent to various countries via telephone feed
lines. A total of 35 broadcast hours per day are prepared in 20
languages for worldwide distribution, using 15 shortwave transmitters
and dozens of local transmitters.
	Allen Steele, broadcast center manager, points out that most
broadcasts from the center are time-delayed so listeners will hear the
programs during prime time. However, live broadcasts will be made
around the world by short wave on Saturday, July 8, during the morning
worship service. "This is a first," Steele says, "that will give an
opportunity for millions of church members and others in dozens of
countries to share a worship service at the exact same time."
	In addition, on-site broadcasters are providing delegates and other
attendees 15-hours a day of local, FM-based programming on Station GC95
Radio (87.6/FM) that can be heard throughout the city of Utrecht.
According to Bert Smit, coordinator, this is the first time AWR has
ever established a special-events radio station, benefiting delegates,
while letting community residents hear what is happening during 10 days
of Seventh-day Adventist meetings.
	GC95 Radio has five watts of power, with the transmitter inside
Jaarbeurs Center and a tower on the conference center's roof. It is
licensed by the government of The Netherlands. Programs are broadcast
in English, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, and French, locally relaying
the programs AWR is producing from the main exhibit hall, ARN Producer
Michael Wiist reports.
	Possibly the surprise package of technology steadily emitting messages
is a rapidly growing one-year-old forum on the CompuServe Information
Service (as of July 5) called SDAs On-Line. Ask SysOp (systems
operator) Ralph Blodgett what technical ramifications were necessary
for CompuServe messages to go out from the session, and he will not
make your eyes glaze over with technical details. "All it took was
finding one outside phone line," he says with a grin.
	On-line sessions are being held nightly during the Session, with
articles from the News Room uploaded each day as well. Delegates and
workers on CompuServe are using the service as an economical way to
keep in touch with members and families back home. In the Business
Center, four lines are available for CompuServe access.
	Reporting on the service's news-facilitating capability, Blodgett
reports, "Within 12 minutes after Pastor Folkenberg's reelection was
announced, the news was posted as a Newsflash for the 3,000 members of
Adventists On-Line around the world. The women's ordination vote
results were on-line ten minutes after the results were announced."
	Computer users can also get news from the Internet with a listserv,
an ftp site at andrews.edu, and a World Wide Web home page at
www://http.cuc.edu/sdaorg/gc.
	Satellite television and radio, FM and short wave, computer-phone line
transmissions indeed, "Look what hath God wrought," for "such a time as
this!"
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