I’ve been thinking a bit about multi-campus issues lately.  We’re not there yet, but I think sooner or later we will be, and I want to be ready to roll when it happens.  Being a dude that has no formal IT training and has only managed a single-site network, I’m both excited and a little anxious about the prospect of taking our IT and video infrastructure outside the walls of what would eventually be the "Central Campus."

Last week I had a chance to talk with Jared B. from NewSpring Church and get my mind around what it will take to stream live buffered video from one campus to another.  The tools that they’re using are amazing, and seem to be just the fit for what I like to call "North Point-style video" (IMAG on the sides with a HD image of the communicator in the center). The idea of being able to get our services streamed to another location is insanely cool to me, and next week, I’ll be calling around to see just how big of a data pipe I can bring in to NewPointe, as tihs project will require a HEAP of bandwidth for both locations.  (One of our contractors told us there’s fiber possibly running along our road already, how sweet would it be to ride that.)

Another item to consider will be our network.  When it was set up in our current building, I wasn’t even thinking about multi-site ventures.  As a result, the network isn’t in prime condition to be bridged off just yet.  I want to keep our domain intact across our organization, so eventually I’ll need to convert everything from 10.0.0.0/8 to 10.0.0.0/16 and then begin testing site-to-site stuff.  I really don’t want to spend on on new firewall hardware unless it’s absolutely necessary, so I’m gonna be banking on Brutus (our pfSense box) to make it happen.

Like I said, this stuff has me a little anxious, but VERY psyched at the same time.  We don’t have a set date or anything like that for acquiring a second campus, but if I can get some preparations done before that all hits, I’ll feel real good.