Overview

Sardius Media produces and distributes video for churches, nonprofits, and educational institutions worldwide. The platform handles both large on-demand libraries and high-volume live streaming, and the team has built it around one principle: no single vendor should be able to take it down.

Sardius Media has intentionally built a multi-provider video architecture designed for resilience, cost control, and long-term flexibility. At the core of this strategy, Backblaze provides high-performance, S3-compatible object storage that integrates seamlessly with Qencode’s video transcoding and optimization features, as well as other infrastructure partners. This open, interoperable approach enables Sardius Media to deliver reliable video experiences as audience demands and production complexity continue to grow.

The Challenge

Video workflows today must withstand increasing operational risk. Industry-wide outages, rising cloud costs, and vendor lock-in can quickly threaten reliability and margins, especially for media companies supporting large live audiences.

Sardius Media needed to:

• Support high-volume live streaming and on-demand delivery for client audiences
• Ensure resilience against outages and provider-specific failures
• Avoid dependency on a single cloud vendor
• Control storage and processing costs as video volume scaled
• Unlock new capabilities without rebuilding the entire pipeline

The Solution: A Decoupled, Multi-Provider Video Stack

Sardius Media designed a decoupled, multi-provider video workflow that allows each layer of the stack to scale independently and recover gracefully from failures.

Backblaze serves as a cost-effective, durable cloud object storage layer for high-resolution source files, archived content, and long-term retention. Its predictable pricing model enables Sardius Media to store large volumes of video without unexpected cost spikes, and because it’s always-hot storage, there are no delays to access. Built with S3 compatibility and an open cloud approach, Backblaze integrates seamlessly with existing tools and workflows, giving Sardius Media the flexibility to avoid vendor lock-in and move data freely. Sardius Media is part of the Backblaze Powered by program, making it one of the first production deployments on that platform.

Qencode integrates as the transcoding and optimization layer, providing an ML-powered compression engine that automatically adjusts encoding parameters for each scene in each asset, producing renditions that are on average 60% smaller than at equivalent perceptual quality (measured by VMAF). Each asset is output as multiple renditions optimized across different devices, bandwidth conditions, and delivery environments. 

By separating storage, processing, and delivery across multiple providers, Sardius Media gains:

• Built-in resilience and redundancy across the entire video pipeline
• The ability to introduce new features without re-architecting the stack
• Flexibility to operate Qencode and Backblaze in parallel with other cloud providers

This architecture supports Sardius Media’s focus on delivering ultra-high reliability and viewer experience by ensuring consistent encoding quality, minimizing processing failure, and maintaining the state-of-the art performance as their platform and audience grow.

“Backblaze is typically the fastest cloud provider to deliver video files. They deliver files faster than other providers up to 80% of the time globally, depending on the location, which is impressive. It shows that Backblaze is not only low-cost, but also one of the highest performing storage solutions on the market.”

Jason Shore, Co-founder and CEO, Sardius Media

“We’ve been partnering with Qencode for years, and they’ve consistently delivered. As a broadcast and streaming platform serving some of the largest ministries and media organizations in the world, reliability in transcoding isn’t optional, and Qencode has proven themselves time and again. They’re versatile, cost-effective, and the support is genuinely exceptional. Murad and the team bring a level of responsiveness and care that you just don’t find everywhere. Qencode is a partner we trust, and one we recommend without hesitation.”

Ari Burt, Co-Founder, Sardius Media

“Sardius Media is the kind of partner that makes us better at what we do every day. They have a clear vision for the ideal media platform for their users, and they constantly push us to deliver new solutions that match their ambition. What they’ve built on top of Qencode and Backblaze is a testament to what happens when you pair the right architecture with the right people and ideas. Sardius is a team that truly understands great technology, and proof of what’s possible when all the pieces fit together.”

Murad Mordukhay, Co-founder and CEO, Qencode

Results

With Qencode and Backblaze as core components of its multi-provider strategy, Sardius Media has achieved measurable improvements across its video operations:

• Improved resilience across live and on-demand video workflows, with redundant processing paths ensuring continuity during provider outages
• Meaningful cost reductions through efficient compression via Qencode and affordable, predictable object storage via Backblaze
• Faster processing and publishing times, enabling quicker turnaround for client content
• Consistent playback quality across devices and platforms
• Greater confidence in scaling live-streaming viewership for high-profile client events

By the Numbers

• 70% cost savings on storage with Backblaze compared to previous providers 
• 50% cost savings on encoding with Qencode compared to previous providers 
• 80% of storage races won by Backblaze globally, based on file delivery speed 
• 60% average file size reduction via Qencode ML compression at equivalent perceptual quality (VMAF)

Most importantly, the team can now focus on delivering impactful video experiences for their clients rather than managing infrastructure risk.

Resilience and Flexibility at Scale

Sardius Media deliberately avoids tight coupling to any single infrastructure provider so that its platform can adapt as requirements evolve. By integrating Qencode and Backblaze alongside existing systems, the team runs video processing and storage in parallel with other cloud environments.

Qencode functions as an independent processing layer that can be activated as a secondary or alternative path when needed. This allows Sardius Media to maintain continuity during planned migrations, to easily scale capacity, or to include other specialized providers in the tech stack without interrupting production workflows. 

This architecture also enables faster experimentation. New encoding profiles, formats, and optimizations can be introduced through Qencode without changes to upstream systems or delivery logic. Storage remains predictable and cost-efficient through Backblaze, supporting long-term retention and rapid access when required. Because Qencode integrates through well-documented APIs, the team gains safer redundancy, reduced operational risk, and a clear path to scaling video services without infrastructure lock-in.

Looking Ahead

As Sardius Media continues to expand its video offerings and client base, its multi-provider approach provides a strong foundation for growth. With Qencode and Backblaze enabling both resilience and cost efficiency, the team is well positioned to experiment, scale, and support new use cases, while maintaining control over performance, spend, and operational complexity.

About Sardius Media
Sardius Media is a digital media company producing and distributing high-quality video for mission-driven organizations worldwide. To learn more, visit https://sardius.media/.

Technology Partners

Qencode – Video transcoding and optimization 

Backblaze – Cloud object storage

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Co-authored by the teams at Qencode, Sardius Media, and Backblaze