It wasn’t Bob the Tomato or Larry the Cucumber, but when Brian Mitchell, Director of Marketing & Licensing for Big Idea called, we were excited to hear from him. Big Idea had a VeggieTales live show on the road in the Fall 2010. It wasn’t going to play every market in the U.S. nor was it going to travel overseas, but they recognized the need for more people to have access to view the show and thus purchase VeggieTales products.

316 Networks worked with our current streaming partners Bellevue Baptist Church to record a five- camera shoot of the live show when it played Memphis. The content was sent to Big Idea for editing, and we determined that a simulated live event with multiple time zones was the best choice for making it available worldwide. The simulated live event would be broadcast at 7:00 p.m. November 26th in the U.S. followed by 6:00 p.m. local showings for other key VeggieTales markets--London, Auckland, and Johannesburg.

Using 316 Networks’ VX Media Suite platform, we created the project and scheduled the simulated live events based on the aforementioned schedule. Big Idea plugged the code into their website (a great looking site, by the way) where viewers could see a countdown to the event.

What happened? Flawless execution with over 1000 online audience members including viewers from all 50 states and a dozen countries. But there’s more...

The goal wasn’t just to simulate and deliver an event. One of the intentions was to drive traffic to their website and online store. During the two days of promotion prior to the event, day of the online event, and the day after, BigIdea.com experienced 30,000 site visits and fantastic online store sales during those four days. That’s a 70% increase in their average daily site traffic, and it’s great timing since the day of the live event was “Black Friday”. Can you say, “strategic planning”?

 

ABOUT BIG IDEA, INC.

Big Idea, Inc. is the leading faith-based studio and producer of children’s and family programming, characters and brands. Since 1993, Big Idea’s best- selling animated series VeggieTales has sold 53+ million videos, 13 million books and more than 7 million CDs. VeggieTales and Big Idea’s property, 3-2-1 Penguins!, enjoyed four seasons as top-rated series on NBC Saturday mornings, Telemundo and ION TV via the qubo® children’s programming block. The studio’s two theatrical releases, Jonah-A VeggieTales Movie (2002), and Universal Pictures’ and Big Idea’s The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything-A VeggieTales Movie (2008), are distinguished among the top ten most successful faith-based films of all time. Big Idea also maintains an extensive presence in publishing, licensing and live entertainment arenas.

316 Networks is pleased to have been chosen as the exclusive provider to deliver Dave Ramsey’s first EntreLeadership 1-Day (http://www.daveramsey.com/entreleadership/simulcast/) to simulcast LIVE to hundreds of locations across the country. This event will take place on November 5, 2010, live from Orlando. Through the EntreLeadership 1-Day, Dave teaches fundamental business best-practices and team building fundamentals to take businesses success to the next level.

Currently scheduled to be simulcast to over 300 churches nationwide, the event will be streamed using the 316 Networks’ WorldCast encoding solution from the Orlando host site via the Akamai content delivery network.

Partnership upgrades encoding quality, addresses multi-site delivery with DVR functionality and simultaneous browser & mobile streaming

Atlanta, GA & San Marcos, TX – November 3, 2010 – Kulabyte (http://www.kulabyte.com), a leading developer of cutting-edge high-definition (HD) live video encoding and streaming solutions, and 316 Networks (http://solutions.316networks.com), the leading provider of multisite, browser, and mobile online video technology for churches and ministries, have entered into an exclusive agreement to market and implement Kulabyte’s XStreamLive encoding software to the faith community. Through this partnership, the two companies form an alliance to deliver the best-of-class high definition live encoding solution for ministries worldwide.

Branded as WorldCast XStream, the new offering expands the capabilities of 316 Networks’ WorldCast encoding hardware to include Kulabyte’s XStreamLive software pre-installed. The software includes an easy to use interface with many advanced features for managing dynamic streaming events. In addition, 316 Networks and Kulabyte will launch a new DVR service for multisite and delayed broadcasting scenarios. When combined with VX Media Suite, 316 Networks’ online video platform, ministries will have a complete end-to-end solution for live delivery to multiple locations, browsers, and mobile devices.

“We are extremely excited to partner with Kulabyte to create this incredible combination of technologies to deliver the ideal end-to-end solution for live broadcasting. This has been in the works for a long time, and we’re glad to have come to this day. Ministries will now be able to cost-effectively execute on their multisite and online strategies”, stated Chance Mason, President of Global Faith Initiatives for 316 Networks.

”We are thrilled to be bringing together the best live video streaming technology with the best end-to-end media platform in the faith community, said Peter Forman, Chairman and CEO of Kulabyte. “We’re excited to be a part of such a powerful, complete and cost-effective set of solutions.”

Kulabyte and 316 Networks will be demonstrating the WorldCast XStream solution at the Worship Facilities Expo (WFX) November 3-4 in Atlanta, GA. In addition, the WorldCast XStream encoder and VX Media Suite platform will be used to deliver the live broadcast from WFX (http://www.wfxweb.com).

About 316 Networks

Since 2005, 316 Networks has served ministries that have a vision for growth through strategic digital communications. 316 Networks provides proven leadership and technology solutions surrounding social media, web development and integration, online video technology, and targeted communications and provides the strategic leadership to assist churches and ministries to gain the most effective use of these tools. VX Media Suite, 316 Networks’ leading online video platform, is used by hundreds of ministries for delivery of content live, on-demand, and simulated live content to multiple locations, browsers, and mobile devices. For additional information about how your ministry can partner with 316 Networks, visit http://solutions.316networks.com.

About Kulabyte

Kulabyte develops and sells the industry’s highest quality, professional live video encoding and streaming software, servers and portable systems for web, mobile, and point-to-point delivery.  Utilizing proprietary and patent pending encoding techniques, Kulabyte's XStreamLive provides significantly higher quality live HD H.264 Flash video and streaming HTTP video than any other encoder on the market - hardware or software.  Based in San Marcos, TX, Kulabyte's products and services are being used every day in a variety of vertical markets including live church streaming, sporting event streaming, distance education and training, HD IPTV and OTT systems, and Military and Department of Defense applications.  For more information visit http://www.kulabyte.com.

Media Contact

316 Networks

Greg Teffertiller
Vice President, Marketing

Tel. +1-866-356-0792
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Congratulations to Oasis Church-Los Angeles on the launch of their new online campus delivered by 316 Networks. Started in 1984 by pastors Philip & Holly Wagner, Oasis is a multicultural church located in downtown LA with a regular attendance of 3000 each weekend. You can check out their new online campus, which will launch officially this weekend, at http://solutions.316networks.com/oc/oasis-church-la/.

316 Networks is excited to announce a new ministry partnership with Fellowship of the Woodlands. FOTW ranks as one of the top 10 largest and fastest growing churches in America based on research conducted by Outreach Magazine. Now with five campuses, FOTW is led by pastor Kerry Shook and has been reaching The Woodlands and Houston metropolitan area since 1993.

We're excited to be providing our VX Media Suite online video platform for live and on-demand delivery. Look for FOTW to launch their live streaming through VX Media Suite the first week of November.

316 Networks is excited to announce the launch of its new Online Campus model immediately available to churches who desire to build an online community around their live and on-demand video presence. The Online Campus is constructed of a custom aesthetic design to match a ministry's website and integrates seamlessly with 316's VX Media Suite online video platform. Surrounding the video, the Online Campus includes:

• Facebook Live to build a ministry's social media presence
• Live chat to for audience interaction
• Integrated YouVersion bible
• Contact form for name acquisition
• Links to church's Online Giving
• Note-taking feature that allows the viewer to send their notes to themselves via email
• Personalized church profile with web link
• Church-specific URL hosted on the 316Networks.com domain

For an example of an Online Campus design, click here.

Ministries who license the VX Media Suite platform have a limited opportunity to build their Online Campus for a reasonable one-time setup fee. To launch your Online Campus, contact our Sales team at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or via live chat on this site, or contact your Client Manage.

If you're a 316 Networks client attending Catalyst 2010, you're invited to join the 316 team for a free lunch. Enjoy a casual pizza lunch, discuss your digital media strategies, and get your free t-shirt.

• Thursday, October 7 from 12-1:30 p.m.
• Vinny's New York Pizza
• 6590 Sugarloaf Parkway (1 block north from Gwinnett Arena) map

Please RSVP to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) by 6 p.m. Wednesday, October 6

On Friday & Saturday, October 1-2, thousands of women will gather throughout North America for the Extraordinary Women Conference. Although the live event is hosted in Roanoke, VA, Ewomen is partnering with 316 Networks to simulcast the live event from Roanoke to 50 satellite church locations throughout the United States and Canada. Our team will be onsite at the Roanoke Civic Center with our WorldCast encoders to receive the live production feed and deliver a high bitrate stream to the remote locations for IMAG projection.

Details regarding the event can be found here.

If you have an event like the Ewomen's Conference that you would like to deliver to multiple locations or maybe you're a church with a multi-site strategy, contact us to help you make your vision a reality.

The National Quartet Convention 2010 has concluded with the sound of success. Over 900 paid viewers experienced six days of streaming video by quartets and other gospel artists ranging from The Booth Brothers, Greater Vision, The Perry’s to The Gaither Vocal Band, The Greenes and Gold City. This year’s event also offered a keynote session led by Sarah Palin.  With over 5,000 in attendance at the convention, the streaming audience allows those who can’t travel to Louisville to experience the homecoming feeling of the event and gives the NQC a way to market the event and recoup some of the expenses of hosting the event through the pay-per-view model offered through 316 Networks. Our team installed our WorldCast server and managed the event onsite in Louisville, KY.

Through this PPV event, the streaming viewers are able to access the live event followed by content made available on demand, all delivered through VX Media Suite.  The demographic this event serves is one of the largest growing people groups in the US today.  There is value in learning how to best serve the needs of viewers who are not as computer literate as younger generations.  316 Networks has been able to support the viewer base with our Above & Beyond Support staff by answering questions about the best viewing practices, assisting with the e-commerce transaction, and even how to open an email on occasion!   

 

Get connected to Pastor Steven Furtick's 24 hours of preaching as he launches his new book, "Sun Stand Still". We're happy to be providing our WorldCast encoder and VX Media Suite platform to deliver this dynamic event. Check out Pastor Steven's message from Elevation Church at http://www.sunstandstill.org/experience.