How Samford University brings campus events to audiences everywhere
Samford University uses Castr to livestream important events directly on its website, so students, families, and alumni can watch from wherever they are.
A university that brings people together through events
Samford University is a private university in Birmingham, Alabama, with a community that extends well beyond its campus.
Throughout the year, the university hosts events that bring students, families, alumni, and faculty together. These include commencement ceremonies, Hanging of the Green and Lighting of the Way, Step Sing, and student performances.
Not everyone can attend these events in person, so livestreaming plays an important role in helping the wider Samford community participate.
The university also wanted people to watch these events directly on its website, rather than sending them to another streaming platform.
Making campus events accessible to everyone
When a commencement ceremony or campus tradition begins, Samford needs its livestream to be ready for everyone watching.
Families, students, and alumni may tune in from different locations, devices, and internet connections, often at the same time.
The university’s media team needed a reliable way to handle these broadcasts without having to build a new streaming setup for every event.
Samford also wanted viewers to watch livestreams directly on the university’s website, rather than sending them to an external platform.
The priorities
- A repeatable setup for major campus events
- Reliable playback across devices and internet connections
- Capacity to handle large audiences during major events
- Livestreams embedded directly on Samford’s website
- Centralized management for the campus media team
Reliable streaming infrastructure for every campus event
Samford needed a streaming platform it could rely on for everything from regular campus programs to major ceremonies with larger audiences.
Castr provided the infrastructure to handle these broadcasts, with scalable video delivery and adaptive bitrate streaming to support viewers across different devices and internet connections.
The platform also gave Samford’s media team a central place to manage its livestreams without rebuilding the setup for every event. And with Castr’s embedded player, the university could stream directly on its own website rather than sending viewers to a third-party platform.
Simplifying how Samford streams campus events
Samford started using Castr in 2024 to support livestreaming for its public campus events.
The media team manages its broadcasts through Castr’s dashboard, where it can monitor multiple streams and prepare for upcoming events. Each livestream can then be embedded directly on Samford’s website.
Behind the scenes, Castr handles video delivery through its streaming infrastructure, with US-based ingest, scalable bandwidth, and adaptive bitrate playback to support viewers on different devices and connections.
Centralized stream management
US-based ingest
Adaptive playback
Embedded viewing on Samford.edu
Capacity for concentrated demand
Support for public university events
Managing campus events from one place
Samford’s event calendar includes everything from student performances to commencement ceremonies, each with its own production requirements.
With Castr, the media team can manage multiple livestreams from a single dashboard, monitor active broadcasts, and use a consistent workflow across different events.
The team doesn’t need to rebuild its streaming setup each time a new event comes around.
Bringing livestreams directly to Samford’s website
For Samford, it was important that people could watch campus events directly on the university’s website.
With Castr’s embedded player, viewers can watch everything from commencement ceremonies to campus performances on Samford.edu, without being redirected to another platform.
This gives Samford control over how livestreams appear on its website, alongside its other university content.
Handling larger audiences during major events
Events like commencement can attract a much larger audience than regular campus programs, with many viewers joining around the same time.
Castr’s streaming infrastructure is designed to handle these increases in demand, while adaptive bitrate streaming adjusts video quality based on each viewer’s connection.
A consistent way to stream campus events
Since moving to Castr, Samford has had a consistent way to manage its public livestreams and share them with audiences beyond campus.
The media team can manage different events from one platform, while viewers can continue watching directly on the university’s website.
With Castr, Samford can:
Give remote audiences a familiar place to watch campus events
Manage different campus events through the same dashboard
Adapt playback across devices and network conditions
Support both regular programs and larger university events
Keep broadcasts within Samford’s own website experience
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Tell us about your event calendar, production tools, website, audience patterns, and support needs. We’ll help you create a repeatable experience for your media team and your viewers.
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