Case Study
Cluch changes the face of community sport streaming with Layercake’s Media Orchestration Platform, Streamcake
Bringing innovation, insights and exposure to sporting clubs at the local level with live and on-demand streaming.
DETAILS
Company Name: Cluch
Website: www.cluch.tv
Cluch is a live and on-demand streaming network dedicated to community sports. Cluch aims to provide sporting leagues and club teams with world-class streaming solutions that were previously limited to elite-level sport. Cluch required a cost-effective and efficient solution to manage and scale their operations.
Getting to know Cluch
Cluch exists to connect and strengthen communities through the unifying power of sport. Cluch is a live and on-demand streaming network dedicated to community sports. Cluch aims to provide sporting leagues and club teams with world-class streaming solutions that were previously limited to elite-level sport. This includes viewing options on every connected device as well as deep audience insights and commercial integration opportunities.
Cluch provides a full end-to-end streaming service offering that includes on-site production services, master control, stream distribution services as well as branded web, mobile and OTT platform hosting.
“Layercake and the Streamcake platform in particular, took our business to a whole new level far more quickly than we had previously thought possible. It has helped transform our workflows from high-touch manual processes to significantly more automated and efficient solutions.”
Challenge
Cluch required a cost-effective and efficient solution to be able to manage and scale their operations. Picture this typical scenario;
- 200 separate, remote events (~2 hours each) in a single day, each requiring separate production teams, kits and workflows to arrange the streams and related interactions and functions
- 80+ concurrent events, actively streaming throughout the day
- 4 destinations for distribution: digital, social, broadcast and an edit suite
- 3-5 operators to manage the downstream infrastructure requirements
Managing the end-to-end delivery of this service became costly and arduous with multiple pain points along the way, including:
- Where to receive and process all the vision collected, also considering network capacity, scalable endpoints, with varying sources, quality, locations and equipment
- How to communicate to all the production teams
- How to optimise resources and the workflow to reduce the operational overhead per event
- How to monitor and maintain quality control
Solution
As media and technology specialists, Layercake was engaged to transform the way Cluch delivered on its mission. Using Streamcake, Layercake’s proprietary Media Orchestration Platform (MOP), Cluch was able to implement a centrally managed hub to streamline its operations.
“Our media expertise allowed us to easily identify and address Cluch’s pain points. The Streamcake technology platform provided a scalable, automated solution that leveraged Cluch’s own cloud infrastructure, lightened their need for proprietary technology and delivered a better and more reliable experience for operational users and their partners.” Domenic Romeo, Director, Layercake.
Using cloud media services from AWS for the entire workflow, Cluch was able to have all vision received and processed directly in the cloud. With this managed infrastructure, cloud scale concurrency was made possible, and any network concerns were offloaded, with no workflow bottlenecks.
Streamcake facilitates this automation, with on-demand media service creation, automation and monitoring features via a dashboard and single user interface. The platform has enabled large-scale remote production teams with nationwide and global event locations, to be easily managed by a central operational hub.
Streamcake integrates with multiple 3rd party systems including encoders, video players, cloud services, web CMS, graphics, editing and CDN’s. This enabled Cluch to easily route video, audio and data across networks, connecting locations, equipment and functionality for seamless and secure streaming delivery.
Results
The implementation of the Streamcake platform has resulted in significant cost savings and operational efficiencies for Cluch. The ability to leverage its own cloud infrastructure has provided scalability and a reduction in operating costs that was not previously achievable. Streamcake simplified Cluch’s solution architecture, reducing problem points and complicated streaming infrastructure management. It has helped to reduce manual workloads and has supported a larger volume of events with a reduced operational workforce.
Results at a glance:
- 16K+ live events delivered in 18 months
- Average live duration of 2 hours and 5 minutes
- 122 – peak concurrent stream events
- 2M+ minutes of live vision streamed
- 5,200+ Live Events in 6 months
- Average 350 Streams Per Week
- Average 200 Streams Every Saturday
- 800% Growth in Minutes Streams
- 0% Growth in Operational Resourcing
- Cost Reduction per Stream
- Additional Functionality to Added to Workflows to Provide More Customer Features (Trimming, Live-to-VOD, Archive)
TESTIMONIAL
“The Layercake team are genuine subject and process matter experts in their field. They quickly identified the gap we were trying to fill and were able to bring years of knowledge and hands-on experience. They continue to work hand-in-glove with our internal engineers and operations team to maximise our effectiveness and efficiency as we scale. Gus Seebeck Managing Director, Cluch”
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GROWTH IN STREAM VOLUME
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