Technical Support

General Information

  • All times listed are in the Central USA Time Zone.
  • Live streaming begins approximately 10 minutes before the listed start time of an event.
  • An on-demand archive is generally available within a few minutes after the conclusion of a live event.
  • In certain cases, it may take up to 48 hours for an archive to be available due to copyright restrictions or required editing.
  • The downloading and redistribution of streams from St. Olaf College (with the exception of podcasts) is strictly prohibited.

How do I view the streams?

Video streaming requires a modern web browser; we support all major browsers and versions. If you experience difficulty with playback, please check that you are running the most up-to-date version of your browser before contacting us for support. You can also try a different browser. We recommend Chrome and Firefox. Adobe Flash is not required to view our streams.

Can I view streams on my mobile device?

Yes. All streams are available in a format compatible with mobile devices including smartphones and tablets.

Do I need a high-speed Internet connection?

Yes. A dial-up connection will not be able to receive the amount of data necessary to sustain continuous video playback. Any common variety of high-speed connection such as DSL, cable, WiFi, fiber, cellular, or satellite should be sufficient to view the streams.

How can I determine my connection speed?

You can ask your Internet provider or try an online speed test. Note: tests will give varying results due to the constantly changing nature of the Internet; you can run several tests and average the results to get a better idea of your overall connection speed.

I'm having trouble viewing an athletic event. What do I do?

Broadcasts of athletic events are controlled by the Office of Sports Information. You may contact them directly with questions or concerns. You may also use the support options found in the Stretch Internet GameCentral portal.

Can I purchase a CD or DVD of streams found on this site?

Many excellent recordings are available in a variety of formats for sale to the general public at stolafrecords.com. CDs and DVDs of other streams as they appear on this site are not for sale to the general public. Certain events may be available to participants only to purchase; contact us with inquiries.

I get an error message when I click on an event, or the player loads but nothing plays.

To view the streams successfully, you must have Javascript enabled in your web browser. You will experience problems if Javascript is disabled.

You may be trying to connect before the stream has been activated. If you know the event has started, please be patient; it sometimes takes a moment for the stream to begin playing.

The stream periodically skips or "hiccups."

Unfortunately due to many factors your Internet provider may not always be able to guarantee a consistent connection speed. This may result in excessively buffered playback, or reduced quality audio and video. Our stream adapts automatically to provide you the best quality compatible with your available bandwidth.

Why don't you post the orders of worship for chapel services?

Nearly all orders of worship for chapel services from Boe Memorial Chapel contain musical excerpts that include copyrighted material, either in the music itself or in the texts of choral anthems and other works. To obtain the rights to make these materials available online would be prohibitively expensive and time consuming.

Why is music omitted from the downloadable MP3s of chapel services?

St. Olaf College has obtained blanket performance rights agreements with ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC — the industry representatives for artists, authors, and composers. These agreements include the right to stream musical works via the college's website. They specificaly prohibit us, however, from allowing these musical works to be downloaded or otherwise transferred from our servers to an end user's storage device.

How do I view concert and event archives from Semester I of 2007 through Interim of 2009?

Streams from this time period were created in a format that is no longer compatible with our current streaming architecture. We are working to convert all of these files to a viewable format, but this process is labor intensive. If there is a particular event from this time period of interest to you for academic or sentimental reasons, you may email us to request a priority conversion and we will do our best to accommodate.

Chapel services from this time period are unaffected and can be viewed as normal.

Why can't I see video from chapel services prior to Interim of 2007? Why is the audio quality poor?

The first stream including video from Boe Memorial Chapel occurred on January 19, 2007. Broadcasts prior to this date were audio only.

Prior to 2007, the concept of streaming live events was a new and experimental venture. St. Olaf College has been on the leading edge of streaming technology as it has evolved. Early chapel services reflect the state of streaming technology available at the time. We feel the advantage of having the underlying content of this material available "on demand" outweighs any negatives regarding the quality of the audio itself.

Interested in working with us?

We hire several new students each year, usually in August/September. If being hands-on in the world of audio and video production and broadcasting is something you'd enjoy, check out our jobs site to learn more and apply!