Living As One announces the release of the Web Platform, a system “designed to completely automate high-quality and ultra-reliable online video streaming for any organization,” according to the company’s announcement. Using technology originally designed for the Living As One Multisite Platform (a system used by organizations such as Life.Church, Elevation Church, The Global Leadership Summit, and Toyota Industrial Equipment), “...the unique platform introduces a level of simplicity and resiliency to online video delivery.” The Web Platform was debuted at the 2018 WFX Conference & Expo.
The release continues, “The innovative system was designed to take the hassle out of live streaming - after a simple setup process, the Web Platform runs itself. Recurring events (such as weekly church services) may be scheduled to stream automatically each week or launch along with existing Multisite Platform events. Events can be easily embedded onto a website or other platforms, launching a robust online campus that requires no weekly maintenance.”
Utilizing streaming technology MPEG-DASH and HLS, Web Platform streams may be viewed on any device with full DVR playback. Persistent URLs are also available for iOS/Android apps and OTT (Over-the-Top) devices such as Roku and Apple TV. Additionally, the Web Platform supports scheduled Sim-Live (Simulated-Live) playback of content from the cloud, providing the ability to host an online guest experience through synchronized replay of events at any time.
“Throughout our testing, we’ve seen viewers watching on smart-TVs, mobile phones, and all sorts of devices,” explains Daniel Poston, IT Director at Newspring Church in Anderson, SC. “It's pretty incredible how simple it is to reach everyone. We get just one embed code, schedule each service, and it works automatically without us having to touch anything. LA1 has been so reliable for our Sunday live and sim-live messages that we are confidently using it to stream back our youth sessions from the beach so the parents can see what their children are experiencing."
The Living As One Web Platform is designed for 100% resilient cloud transcoding for live video. With most live streaming technology, if video from the encoder doesn’t make it to the cloud within a few seconds, that video content is lost and the cloud transcoder will not have a perfect copy to transcode into multiple bitrates. Thus, all viewers will see video that has been transcoded with missing data, resulting in a poor viewing experience including buffering wheels, jitters, and quality loss.
The Web Platform is powered by a patented Resilient Streaming Protocol, designed with no time restriction on when the video is sent to the cloud. The transcoder can wait for a complete copy without temporary network interruptions delaying the transmission. Viewers see completed video across any device. The delay is configurable, and even a two-minute delay can make a difference in viewer quality.
Because of the Resilient Streaming Protocol, content is transmitted without loss of data over any public internet connection, including 3g cellular, school, or enterprise networks. The design insures that no video content is lost, even in the case of a complete temporary internet outage at the broadcast site, as long as it’s not longer than the delay. This solution adds confidence when streaming to the web and ensures that viewers will see an exact reflection of the video which was encoded on-premise.
The Web Platform design allows both broadcast and online audience sites to have enough bandwidth for a continuous viewing experience. Living As One's Web Platform includes cloud transcoding, which converts a single high-quality live video stream into multiple bitrates (qualities) in the cloud. Converting the video into multiple bitrates in the cloud conserves upload bandwidth at the broadcast site, removing the need to provide every bitrate for the audience, allowing more to be done with less.
On the audience side, smooth streaming is reinforced by adaptive bitrate streaming (ABS), which dynamically selects a bitrate depending on available bandwidth and device processing power. The automatic bitrate selection is dependent on many factors such as the user's available bandwidth at any given moment and the available processing power of the device they are watching on. Adaptive Bitrate Streaming is very important to ensure viewers have the best possible viewing experience, and it is included with all Web Platform plans.
The Web Platform also includes a dedicated Living As One support team that proactively monitors streaming health for each organization and responds to issues before they arise. Additionally, with support hours specifically designed for churches, engineers are available when needed, even on Sunday mornings.
“Through the Living As One Web Platform, we’re proud to release a solution that truly gives peace of mind to churches and organizations allowing them to broadcast a high-quality, professional live stream without worry or hassle,” explains Living As One CEO, Paul Martel. “We are excited to equip churches and organizations with technology that empowers them to accomplish their goals with excellence at an affordable cost.”
