LifeChurch.tv Satellite Broadcasting FAQ Part 1
Since we get asked these types of questions almost daily, I will post my responses here so others can benefit.
Q: Why did LifeChurch.tv decide to use satellite technology to broadcast the message each weekend?
A: Satellite technology is reliable and proven technology. It is an inexpensive one-to-many delivery format. We only pay for the time that we transmit which means that it costs the same amount each week regardless of whether we have 10 or 10,000 campuses receiving it.
Q: OK…How much does it cost?
A: There are two pieces…the fixed equipment costs for the uplink and downlinks and the costs associated with renting time on a satellite. It has been a few years since we built our uplink, but it is possible to build a digital uplink for a single standard definition feed for around $200,000. Each campus has as a dish and receiver that costs about $3000 total installed. You can purchase consumer-grade equipment for as low as $500-$600, but we chose to use professional receivers. We are not allowed to share what we specifically pay for the satellite time under our contract. BUT…I can tell you that a current ballpark estimate for satellite bandwidth would be $250 per hour for a singe standard definition digital video feed (4.5 Mhz).
Q: What about the weather? Doesn’t the satellite signal go out or get fuzzy every time it rains?
A: The short answer is no. Severe weather can effect a satellite signal, but the times that it does are very rare. In fact, over the past 2 1/2 years we have maybe had one time where we have briefly lost our satellite signal during the message because of severe weather. And to put it in perspective…we get a LOT of severe weather in Oklahoma. We also broadcast in a digital format which means the signal never gets “fuzzy”. We do have backup plans that I can discuss later.
I’ll cover more questions about this topic throughout the week. If you have specific questions…please post them so that I make sure to cover them.
Visit 
Bobby, so what you are telling us is that there’s no way to “kink” a satellite feed - unlike a water hose?
Huh? That’s interesting…thanks for sharing, I would have never asked because I wouldn’t have even known to act…I just thought things like that were magic. :-)
So do you broadcast your satellite feed live to all the campuses for every service or do you broadcast it out once and all the campuses record that one showing and during the service the specific campus just hits “Play” when they’re ready?
Do you have a list of good companies to work with for purchase and install of this equipment? Also, what do you do or recommend for staffing to run this technology?
I think I understand that you all can broadcast for 2 different campuses. Perhaps it is just me, but I’m a bit unclear. Did the $200K cover building the uplink for both campuses or was that a per campus number.
John,
I’m pretty sure the uplink is only needed at the main campus, where the signal is being sent UP to the satellite. All the campuses receiving the signal just need receivers. And they can add as many of those as they want, as long as each campus buys the receiving equipment.
Sam, We broadcast most all of our experiences. There are a couple of exceptions…experiences after 12:30am on Sunday are played from a recording. In Phoenix, they do not have daylight savings time so we are off and “tivoing” it certain experiences and times of the year, but it is always “weekend-of”
Bob,
I’ll hit the questions regarding companies and staffing in part 2 tonight or tomorrow.
John,
You are correct…we have a redundant uplink at our Edmond campus that we are able to use in case of a disaster or something. The cost I gave does not account for that.
Question: How are you streaming on your internet campus. ARe you using a seperate hosting company then inserting then integrating it into your site? What equipment have you gotten to help with this process.
Everything is subject to change of course. Right now we are currently streaming using Akamai. We encode using encoders from Viewcast. We send about 8 different stream (different bit rates and redundant streams) to Akamai who relays it to several servers around the world.
Is there someone that I could talk to at LifeChurch.tv about satellite? We are looking into this seriously, so I would love to hear some deeper details.
[...] This information may be a bit technical, but I (or our team) continue to get several questions about this topic so I will do my best to post the answers here so that it can benefit others of you. This is a continuation of the previous post on the topic. [...]
[...] Post 1. Post 2. [...]