CHICAGO —Haivision, a video networking, digital signage and IP video distribution company, announced that the Church of Champions, a house of worship located in Houston, has deployed the KulaByte Internet video encoder to enable 1080p live streaming of its services and other events to web audiences and congregations at its affiliate churches in North America and Argentina.
“Live Internet streaming with KulaByte is a critical component in our ability to share our message with the widest-possible audience, on the platform of their choice whether a desktop or mobile device, and with HD quality that rivals that of any professional broadcaster," said Wendell Hutchins, pastor and founder of the Church of Champions.
Haivision's audio visual solutions provider partner on this project, Whitlock, has delivered implementation and support services for the encoder, which is currently used along with Haivision's HyperStream Live cloud-based transcoding service to stream the second Sunday morning service and other events from the 1,000-seat main sanctuary. Audiences can watch the services live or on demand from the church's web video channel,http://www.champ.tv/. The initial webcast of the Sunday morning service last November drew more than 600 unique viewers; since then, the Internet audience has grown to thousands every Sunday.
"From a system design standpoint, our goal was to enable people with any type of Internet capability to access church content at the highest-possible resolution," said Jon Litt, account executive at Whitlock. "KulaByte has enabled us to do this with the least amount of hardware and bussing, enabling the stream to be tamed according to the device pulling down the content — whether it's a DSL line, a wireless coffee shop connection, or even a dial-up connection. Also, Haivision's HyperStream Live service has enabled the church to avoid costly third-party transcoding services for all of the various delivery platforms."
The KulaByte system delivers HD streams to affiliate churches that lack the resources to conduct their own services. Churches without a pastor can take the live feed of the sermon at a designated time following their own music program; likewise, those without music can stream the musical segment of the main service.
