Long before the days of YouTube and broadband Internet, the LDS Church was sharing video content with followers around the world using technology it says is still essential to spreading a global message. The white satellite dishes tucked behind meetinghouses from Utah to Thailand help members stay connected with church leadership, attend training meetings and participate in firesides and the church’s biannual General Conference.
In its earliest days in the late 1970s, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ satellite broadcast system reached only a handful of congregations in the U.S., and beaming video to members in Europe and South America would have to wait at least another decade.