Planet Bahá'í

On Tuesday, May 22, 2001 the Bahá'í world will celebrate the official opening of the terraces at the Shrine of the Báb on Mt. Carmel, and you are cordially invited to attend.

Okay, you probably won't be one of the 4,500 people who will actually be in attendance, but if you can read this you can still attend. That's because the Bahá'í World News Service will be presenting a two-hour live Webcast covering the ceremonies. There will also be a satellite feed available to television broadcasters, cable companies, and others. Many of the larger Bahá'í communities will be hooking into this feed. There may be plans for a viewing party in your area.

So, let me help you get ready for the celebration. I can't give you details on any of the aforementioned viewing parties, but you can contact your local or national Bahá'í community to find out if any are taking place in your area, or if media broadcasts will be available. For the rest of you, here's what you'll need to do to prepare for the Webcast.

First, the technical stuff. The Webcast will be in Real Media format, so if you don't already have it you'll need to download and install RealPlayer. This may be a good time to upgrade, too, if you have an older version. (The current version as of this writing is RealPlayer 8.) RealPlayer Basic is available for free.

I suggest testing your RealPlayer connection ahead of time. If you're behind a firewall or proxy server (at your office you probably are), you may have problems configuring RealPlayer to pick up the content. If you're having trouble, try clicking the Auto-Configure button on the View/Preferences/Transport dialogue.

That's the how. What about the when? The Webcast begins May 22nd at 15:00 GMT, which you'll have to convert to your local time. Here are local times for a few selected areas:

Time Zone	Local Time
GMT	15:00 to 17:00
North America Pacific	08:00 to 10:00
North America Mountain	09:00 to 11:00
North America Central	10:00 to 12:00
North America Eastern	11:00 to 13:00
London, England	16:00 to 18:00
Berlin, Germany	17:00 to 19:00
Haifa, Israel	18:00 to 20:00
Moscow, Russia	19:00 to 21:00
Calcutta, India	20:30 to 22:30
Hong Kong, China	23:00 to 01:00 (May 23)
Tokyo, Japan	24:00 to 02:00 (May 23rd)
Sydney, Australia	1:00 to 03:00 (May 23rd)

If you aren't able to catch the program live, don't worry. It will be archived for on-demand viewing, and videos will also be made available for purchase in the near future. (Please note that the Webcast is protected by international copyright law and may not be used for commercial purposes.)

As you can see, the program is two hours in length. It will include a few brief speeches, musical compositions specially commissioned for the event, and at the end the dramatic lighting of the terraces.

Here at About's Bahá'í Faith site we will also be holding a chat session to coincide with the event. I haven't worked out all the details yet, but my regular chat session takes place each Tuesday at 9:00 P.M. U.S. eastern time and May 22nd will be no exception. I may also be available for chat during the Webcast. Either way, the chat room is always open, so feel free to congregate there and share the excitement.

If you don't know what this terrace business is about, take some time before May 22nd to read my Mt. Carmel articles (see the "Further Reading" box at the right) and look over the materials available at the Mt. Carmel Terraces site. These pages will tell you all you need to know about the history, scope and meaning of the Mt. Carmel projects.

Finally, sit back and enjoy the show! The terraces are a gift from the Bahá'ís of the world to all of humanity. We hope you like them.