In 2025, we partnered with Sardius Media to support their global broadcast of the YouVersion "Beyond a Billion" celebration, marking one billion downloads of the YouVersion Bible App. Sardius Media architected and managed the full broadcast infrastructure for the event, integrating our content delivery optimization solutions as part of its global distribution pipeline.

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Designing the delivery architecture

“Beyond a Billion” was expected to draw in viewers from around the world, meaning unpredictable audience surges. So, to counteract the potential risks of such high concurrent viewer numbers, Sardius Media designed a comprehensive delivery architecture built on its EMLA encoding pipeline and AWS infrastructure. The result was zero lag, crystal-clear video, and rock-solid reliability from start to finish.

As part of their optimization strategy, we layered in Edge Intelligence to their global CDN infrastructure to continuously evaluate network behavior and reroute traffic to avoid congestion. Edge Analytics also provided Sardius's engineering team with real-time insight into bitrate performance, offload rates, and viewer quality of experience across regions.

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Measurable resilience during high-traffic live events

As expected, the "Beyond a Billion" livestream attracted tens of hundreds of thousands of viewers across the globe. Sardius Media's encoding infrastructure and distribution management delivered a seamless broadcast experience, while our optimization layer helped manage traffic across the delivery chain and maintain consistent playback quality as audience numbers shifted.

Across events of this scale, System73’s Edge Intelligence has demonstrated the ability to offload 50-70% of CDN traffic during peak load periods, with more than 90% of viewers typically reaching the highest available bitrate. These capabilities added an extra layer of resilience within Sardius's broader delivery stack for the “Beyond a Billion” audience.

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The success of the YouVersion “Beyond a Billion” livestream shows what’s possible when experienced broadcast infrastructure meets intelligent delivery optimization. Sardius Media's comprehensive approach to global event delivery alongside our traffic optimization capabilities have established a successful model for future high-traffic live events, both as part of this partnership and others.

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About Sardius Media

Sardius Media is a broadcasting technology company that partners with mission-driven organizations, churches, nonprofits, and professional broadcasters to deliver enterprise-grade live and on-demand video worldwide. With deep expertise in AWS Elemental encoding, global CDN infrastructure, and fully managed broadcast services, Sardius simplifies the complexity of reaching audiences everywhere. From 24/7 broadcasting operations to large-scale global events reaching millions of viewers, Sardius combines industry-leading technology with a collaborative, people-first approach to ensure every broadcast achieves its full potential.

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