Reliable Streaming for Seacoast Over an Unreliable Connection

Mar 27, 2018Customer Stories, Multi-site

Product: Resi's Multisite Platform

Location: Charleston, South Carolina

Like many others in his field, Rick Russell, Production Director at Seacoast Church, faces a big challenge in streaming church services to the church’s multisite campuses. With 13 physical campuses spread throughout South Carolina, some in rural areas, multisite streaming reliability is critical for Seacoast. Russell explains, “from a leadership perspective . . . our number one most important priority from the production team is to provide the best quality video and playback at our campuses.”

Unfortunately, this hasn’t always been easy for Russell. “With our previous streaming solution, probably once a week we would have one of the locations drop out, and in our case a drop-out would either mean switch to a backup message that was a video file that we would send to those campuses or it would entail a campus pastor having to get up on stage and try and preach a message that he’s never spoken before.” Sam Lesky, Executive Pastor of Campus Operations (formerly Campus Pastor), describes how this type of interruption has a great effect on the audience. “The hard part is . . . it sends a lull over the congregation. The whole congregation freezes,” he notes.

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Seacoast Multisite Streaming
Seacoast Multisite Streaming
Russell explains that because all of the campuses operate through DSL or commodity cable connections, he believed he was stuck on the current system until seeing a post on social media about Resi. Russell immediately jumped on the opportunity to use the Resi Multisite Platform. This platform, powered by the patented Resilient Streaming Protocol, ensures reliable multisite streaming with zero content loss from site to multisite, regardless of the internet connection. Utilizing Resi’s Multisite Encoder to compress live video with next-generation HEVC/H.265 and transport it with RSP to any number of remote sites, video streams are high-quality and interruption-free, even in the case of a complete internet outage.

The first time using the platform, Russell knew it was the answer that Seacoast needed. “I tried to pick the worst possible environments that we have, one of them being a fishing Village of about 500 people with a really poor DSL connection,” states Russell. Experiencing no interruptions and crystal-clear video and audio playback at the campus, he explains that he “came back to leadership and said, ‘hey I think this is the product we should consider’.”

Pleased with the results of the testing, Seacoast promptly replaced the streaming systems at all locations. Lesky describes, “it is absolutely amazing the difference we have.” Along with being ensured a completely resilient playback given a short delay, Russell explains, “one of the biggest things we’ve seen from an attendee perspective at our campuses is the lack of freezing or smearing or digital distortion that we would see in other streaming solutions that we tried at our campuses.” Without having to worry about multisite streaming reliability, quality, or connection drop-outs, Russell, Lesky, and others are freed up to spend their time working on more important ministry tasks. As Lesky states, “That we’re not stressing over the satellite locations or production of the video . . . we can get better at what we do on Sunday morning as a church. It has been an extremely smooth operation with Living as One.”

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From a leadership perspective at Seacoast our number one most important priority from the production team is to provide the best quality video and playback at our campuses.
Rick Russell

Production Director, Seacoast Church

Quick Facts

Total Campuses

Years Since 1st Multisite

That we’re not stressing over the satellite locations or production of the video . . . we can get better at what we do on Sunday morning as a church. It has been an extremely smoother operation with Living as One.
Sam Lesky

Executive Pastor of Campus Operations, Seacoast Church