Building the future by preserving the past

Touching Lives has an evergreen mission. Its purpose is to “touch the lives of lost people and enrich the faith of the found.” For over 40 years, Dr. James Merritt, the host of Touching Lives, has enabled this mission through his video sermons and radio and TV programs. Today, Touching Lives broadcasts all over the world, including the 50 states and over 140 countries.

To enable Touching Lives’ global reach, content such as sermons, articles, and devotionals are offered via various digital media formats on the web. Content must be posted for daily devotionals and weekly sermons, mandating substantial new content creation.

During its 40-year tenure, Touching Lives has produced a substantial library. However, videos produced before 2015 — about 75% of all content — existed in various tape formats that became inaccessible as the formats aged out. That’s when Touching Lives, after being referred by Amazon Web Services (AWS), turned to Iron Mountain for help in preserving this treasure trove of content and digitizing the legacy of Dr. Merritt’s work for ongoing use.

Building the Future by Preserving the Past

For Touching Lives, future-proofing its mission means preserving its past. That’s because TV and radio presence can live on for years to come. The content is enduring because it is built on unchanging Biblical principles. The impact of ministry content sends out ripples that increase in reach and magnitude over time. That’s exactly what Touching Lives content seeks to accomplish, making its preservation, or digitization, a key factor in building a stronger future.

The majority of Touching Lives’ historical video content was locked in a host of unusable formats, spanning from Betamax, and MPEG-1 to Linear Tape Open (LTO) and everything in between. Touching Lives could not play any of these tapes because the video format became obsolete. For example, Betamax ceased production of video recorders in 2002.

“Preserving Dr. Merritt’s powerful ministry was a top priority for us. It’s a way for us to continue to amplify and further expand his ministry and life’s work and reach more people. In ministry, we constantly need content, at least every seven days or 52 times a year. Repurposing timeless content, built on the steadfast principles of the Bible, is a must-have,” shares Jared West, Director of Marketing, Touching Lives.

Industry

Ministry

Challenge

Obsolete video formats rendered content unusable

Solution

Iron Mountain Data Management

Value

• Preserves the life work of Dr. James Merritt
• Enables repurposing content in a high-content-demand industry
• Provides unified, reliable, efficient, and organized content storage

Learn more about Iron Mountain Digital solutions including the preservation of your assets.