ON Saturday, October 5, 2013, an audience of 257,294 in 21 lands attended the 129th annual meeting of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania either in person or via a live Webcast. Later that weekend, other groups of Witnesses viewed a replay of the program. The total attendance was 1,413,676 in 31 lands—the largest gathering of Jehovah’s Witnesses yet.

Since the 1920’s, Jehovah’s Witnesses have broadcast conventions to international audiences, using telephone lines along with vast radio networks. Now Internet technology allows people even in remote places to  hear and see events either as they happen or soon afterward.

Members of several branch offices worked for over a year to set up the Webcast. On the weekend of the Webcast, technicians monitored the program from a control center in Brooklyn, New York, and stayed on duty around the clock as it was shown at venues in 15 time zones.