Ka You Communications is rolling out a new “First Step” Internet solution with adaptive dynamic bandwidth technology. According to a company announcement, the solution is more reliable, yet no more expensive, than traditional terrestrial solutions. First Step also has the advantage being scalable, and it's capable of being integrated into a broadcast satellite solution.
Known for its high-quality satellite transmission services, Ka You introduced First Step as a best-of-breed, yet extremely affordable, “first step” for churches and other organizations that may not be ready for satellite yet seek a dependable transmission solution.
“First Step is perfect for a growing church that has just had a merger and now finds itself with two campuses,” says Ka You President Linda Gimourginas, or a church that's new to the multi-site model and isn't sure when—or even if—they'll expand to more than a couple of campuses.
“They may not be ready to invest in satellite,” says Gimourginas, “but they'd still like to live-feed their worship services. First Step gives them the best-possible Internet solution at a very affordable price. Down the road, when they're ready, they can easily convert to satellite.”
Gimourginas notes that satellite users have the luxury of being able to manage their networks, while Internet users are subject to the vagaries of bandwidth congestion that can dramatically slow down or drop a live-streaming broadcast.
Using encoders and decoders from Ateme, a global leader in video-delivery technology, Ka You's First Step monitors and adapts to changing bandwidths, thereby reducing the jittering and packet loss that occurs with other Internet solutions.
Mark Johnson, Ka You's director of technology, says Ka You selected the Ateme Kryrion CM5000 encoder and DM5000 decoder because they are dynamic, scalable and have the ability to broadcast over satellite.
“You can broadcast to multiple destinations or upgrade to satellite without having to purchase new encoding and decoding equipment,” explains Johnson. “It's a very attractive solution for a growing church because the First Step equipment you need to build a satellite system is already in place.”
The Ateme technology uses a bandwidth-aware adaptive bit rate, packet retransmission and forward error correction to improve transmissions. “The system monitors, manages and adjusts the stream so you don't lose the picture,” Johnson explains. “We may have to make a few adjustments around the edge, but you probably won't even notice. You reduce the potential for annoying squares, freezes and stops that you see with most live-streaming over the Internet.”
“First Step is very affordable; in fact, it's comparable in price to other Internet solutions that do not offer these capabilities,” Gimourginas says. “We tell our customers, ‘Why limit yourself, when for the same price, you can get a solution that is adaptive, scalable and satellite-capable?'”
Johnson says those who have switched to the Kyrion equipment have been very pleased. “They absolutely love the features,” he says. “It's a very intuitive system that's easy to operate.”
Highlands Fellowship Church (Abingdon, VA) Director of IT Brad Stuart was one of Ka You's first customers to use the Kyrion. “I really like the First Step solution Ka You is offering,” he says. “The more I work with this equipment, the more impressed I am with its capabilities. The one thing that I can say is that by investing in such a feature-rich encoder/decoder set, the Ateme Kyrion series pays for itself.”
