When a production professional joined a city government and inherited a patchwork streaming setup, he knew exactly what it would take to fix it — and exactly which platform to call.
The Challenge: High Stakes, Unreliable Signal
Stephen Gonzales came to the City of Corpus Christi with a production background that spans verticals and disciplines. He knows the difference between a tool designed to do one thing well and a tool that tries to do everything adequately.
What he found when he arrived wasn’t adequate. Remote events (groundbreakings, ribbon cuttings, press conferences, public input sessions held across the city) meant a remote production environment and a quiet, unspoken anxiety every time the stream went live.
“Every time I was going out to produce a remote event, it was just kind of like a little bit of hope and prayer,” Gonzales said. “Hopefully everything’s good.”
For most organizations, a buffering stream is an annoyance. For a city government, it’s something else entirely.
“We need to not have technical problems,” Gonzales said. “It may not be the same for every city, but for us, if we’ve got a technical problem, it’s not just a technical problem. It compromises transparency and risks the community trust we strive to maintain every day.”
When your audience includes local media, civic advocates, and residents who are already watching closely, reliability isn’t a preference — it’s a requirement. Gonzales needed a streaming platform built to meet that standard. He already knew which one it was.
The Solution: A Platform He’d Trusted Before
Gonzales’s history with Resi predates his city job by years. Back when the platform was still called Living As One.
“I would feel confident that my live stream is going to work and I’m not going to have any buffering or any problems with that,” he said. “I knew that was a good move forward.”
When he arrived at the City of Corpus Christi and encountered the same reliability problems in a new context, the answer was clear. Resi’s Resilient Streaming Protocol, RSP, was built for exactly this kind of situation. By absorbing network disruptions in real time before they ever reach a viewer, RSP keeps a stream live through the signal fluctuations and dropped packets that come with cellular connections and field locations. The momentary blips that used to feel catastrophic simply disappear into the buffer.
“I want something that’s purpose-built,” Gonzales said. “Something that its reason for existence is to create high-quality, resilient streams.”
That philosophy extends to how he thinks about his entire production setup. Each tool does what it was designed to do — and Resi handles streaming.
Streaming a City: More Complex Than It Looks
From the outside, government live streaming looks straightforward: broadcast the council meeting, put it online, done. The reality in Corpus Christi though is considerably more involved.
The city streams more than 120 live events per year. From council meetings, to board and committee meetings, and others. Then come the remote events: groundbreakings, ribbon cuttings, park dedications, fire department graduations, press briefings held on the banks of Lake Corpus Christi with nothing but a generator and a hotspot.
Remote events introduce a specific kind of operational complexity. Gonzales had been doing everything he could to shore up the signal — buying the best hotspot available, network bonding — but the uncertainty never fully went away. Simultaneous streams going to YouTube and Facebook at the same time would typically mean managing separate stream keys, monitoring multiple devices, and hoping nothing breaks in the field — until Resi.
With Resi in the chain and utilizing its native YouTube and Facebook integrations, stream keys are a thing of the past. And rather than managing multiple streams to various destinations, you send a single stream to the Resi cloud. The platform then takes care of the “heavy lifting,” distributing that stream to all your destinations, with options for scheduling and automation.
“I wanted to be able to confidently tell people: yes, we can live stream,” he said. “And with Resi, we can, without a doubt.”
What Confidence Looks Like at the Leadership Level
That confidence has had a ripple effect beyond the control room.
As Gonzales has built out the city’s production infrastructure and as the streams have become consistently reliable, city leadership has started to think bigger about what’s possible.
“Our city manager, our executive leadership — they know that whatever they want to accomplish, we’ll make it happen,” Gonzales said.
That kind of institutional trust doesn’t come from good intentions. It comes from consistent, problem-free execution — and from having the right tools in place before anyone asks for something new. For Gonzales, Resi is the foundation that makes it possible to say yes.
Building for What Comes Next
Gonzales is already thinking beyond the current setup. In addition to Resi’s web platform (which the city currently utilizes) he’s also considering how Resi’s multisite platform could connect their physical locations (council chambers to community centers and senior centers) during high-interest meetings. And he sees a future where Resi’s on-demand capabilities give the city a cleaner, more accessible archive of public content — something more intuitive than navigating YouTube playlists.
“I knew there were features within Resi I wouldn’t utilize right away,” he said. “But I also knew that the Resi platform is very scalable and will grow with us as our needs continue to grow.”
For other cities still running on hope and prayer, his advice is simple.
“Having top-tier cameras and gear is just one piece of the puzzle for a quality live stream—you need a professional-grade streaming provider too. If you use a cheap, low-quality platform, it’ll totally undermine the money you spent on your equipment. But with a professional provider, you get that reliable, stable, high-quality experience for your viewers. It’s the best way to protect your investment and maintain your professional reputation. Get the right tool for the job.”
Stephen Gonzales serves as Multimedia Manager for the City of Corpus Christi, overseeing live streaming, channel operations, and production across more than 120 annual events.
