Ryan Geesaman, Digital Media Specialist, Lancaster Bible College
Lancaster Bible College is the second-largest independent Bible college accredited through the Association for Biblical Higher Education with multiple locations across the country and in Uganda. The Lancaster, Pa., campus is the hub of LBC’s traditional undergraduate programs. These programs include worship arts and live production. Students and faculty gather for chapel services three days each week during the semester. These services are live streamed on the college’s website and, on special occasions, Facebook Live. In addition to chapel services, the college also live streams graduations, athletic events, and concerts.
The use of Teradek’s Core streaming media management platform allows the user to bond the individual bandwidth from multiple networks to increase the overall bandwidth available for streaming.
Recently, Teradek, designer and manufacturer of high performance video solutions for broadcast, cinema and imaging applications, allowed LBC to demo the VidiU Go with Core integration. The VidiU Go provides HD-SDI and HDMI inputs. It offers Ethernet, WiFi, and with the addition of Teradek’s Nodes, 3G/4G/LTE connectivity. The use of Teradek’s Core streaming media management platform allows the user to bond the individual bandwidth from multiple networks to increase the overall bandwidth available for streaming.
In application
LBC used the VidiU Go to stream an outdoor worship event to Facebook Live and an employee meeting to the college’s content delivery network (CDN). A single high definition video camera was used on an elevated platform to shoot the outdoor worship event with a wireless audio feed from the sound board. The threaded mounting points on the VidiU Go allow the unit to be secured directly to cameras and other equipment with magic arms and shoe mounts. The camera was used to embed the audio, and the signal was sent via SDI to the VidiU Go. “For this first test, we ended up only using a single cellular network at the VidiU Go’s medium-quality setting,” reports Ryan Geesaman, digital media specialist at LBC, “and it streamed solidly to Facebook Live for over an hour.” Subsequently, Geesaman tested the Core integration and bonded two cellular networks, supplied by Teradek, which allowed consistent streaming at the high-quality setting.
The threaded mounting points on the VidiU Go allow the unit to be secured directly to cameras and other equipment with magic arms and shoe mounts.
For the employee meeting, a single HD video camera was again used to embed audio and feed the VidiU Go. The meeting was held in the dining commons, which is not typically set up for video streaming. Geesaman used the Ethernet connection to provide a stream directly to Stream Monkey, the college’s CDN, at the VidiU Go’s high-quality setting. Geesaman says, “The small form-factor, high-quality image, and diverse connectivity made this a more obvious choice than pulling our existing streaming device from our equipment rack.”
When asked about other potential uses for the VidiU Go, Geesaman points to the athletics program, “I could see uses for away games or sports that take place out-of-range of our WiFi network.” The LBC athletics department utilizes the YouTube Live platform, with which Core also natively integrates.
To see LBC’s outdoor worship night, visit https://www.facebook.com/lancasterbible/videos/432666087486524/.
