Hope Media Ukraine began relocating its broadcast servers after airstrikes struck near its studio in Kyiv, Ukraine. The Hope Channel Ukraine team is working to preserve years of original programming with support from its technical partner, Hope Channel International (HCI), which provides video delivery and stores backups of part of the team’s content outside Ukraine.
Justin Woods, senior director of technology at HCI, explained that a power failure at the Kyiv studio would stop the channel’s broadcast and make its streamed content unavailable. “If it is hit by a missile, then years’ worth of original content could be destroyed, as well as the infrastructure that makes it available to the world,” he said.
“At any moment, it could come down, cause damage, or take someone’s life,” Volodymyr Mykhed, chaplain of Hope Media Ukraine, said of the drone threat in the team’s video report. “You can hear explosions over the capital of our country, Ukraine.” He described the server room as “the heart of everything our media team does” and explained that increasing danger prompted an important relocation.
The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine reported renewed attacks on electricity and heating infrastructure this autumn. Its account of strikes on Kyiv’s power stations on October 13 and 14 cited Ukrainian authorities’ estimate that 600,000 people in Kyiv temporarily lost electricity.
Hope Media Ukraine operates the local broadcasting channel and runs eight studios. The channel transitioned distribution platforms after the deterioration and repeated interception of the ASTRA-4A satellite signal on July 1.
Hope Media Ukraine confirmed that its programming is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through streaming services, cable operators, and its website. Viewers could find it on platforms including Megogo and Kyivstar TV, as well as through cable providers such as Volia.
HCI provides the Ukrainian team with Jetstream, a video platform, along with technical support and backups stored outside Ukraine, Woods explained. Jetstream includes automatic backups, and HCI’s global server network delivers the team’s content to viewers worldwide. The Ukrainian team acquired a server to run Jetstream, and HCI was already backing up the team’s content before the purchase.
“Our engineers are doing everything they can to move all the necessary equipment and get everything set up properly,” Mykhed explained. He reported that the server rack was assembled and inverters and batteries were installed, providing up to 8 hours of backup power. The reserve power is intended to keep the servers operating during electricity outages. At the time of the recording, the relocation was almost finished, according to Mykhed.
In addition to protecting equipment and providing backup power, the Ukrainian team requested HCI hold a complete copy of their content outside of the country.
“They called and asked us if we could back up more of their content. All of it. 100 terabytes,” Woods said. HCI was already hosting backups for the channel when the team asked it to copy the complete archive.
“We coordinate with them to ensure that the server is ready to be moved, so when it is in its new location, it comes back online healthy,” Woods said.
Mykhed explained why the team continued its work: “Despite all the difficulties and dangers, together with you, we continue to spread the Good News of the Gospel, through which the Holy Spirit transforms human hearts.”
The original article was published on the Hope Channel International news site.
