At a Glance – A Story of Stewardship Through Storage

The Belonging Co., a Nashville-based church with an international following, has become renowned for its high-energy worship experiences and multimedia-rich conferences. Each year, their team produces large-scale events including The Belonging Co. Conference. In previous years, they have faced immense challenges with fragmented storage, manual data transfer, and bottlenecks that slowed down their post-production process by weeks.

With the help of DigitalGlue’s creative.space storage, The Belonging Co. team completely transformed its workflow. From managing hundreds of terabytes of footage to remote editing literally on the fly, creative.space provided a seamless, user-friendly storage solution that has redefined their production efficiency.

Background

The Belonging Co.’s annual conference is a highlight for churchgoers worldwide, drawing thousands for an immersive worship experience and hosting over 30 cameras across main sessions, breakouts, and worship performances. For Daniel Bender, the church’s Film and Broadcast Director, and Loren Cavener, the IT Manager, capturing such an expansive event required not only advanced equipment but an equally powerful storage solution that could keep up with high data loads and demanding timelines.

With a background in film and a love for high-quality production, Daniel saw the opportunity to leverage RED Digital Cinema cameras and high-bitrate media to elevate their production to new heights. However, their previous storage solution simply couldn’t handle the workload. “Last year was rough—we spent nearly a month transferring and managing footage,” Daniel recalls. “I knew we needed a drastic upgrade to support the quality we wanted to deliver.”

Overwhelmed by the demands of capturing high-quality footage from over 20 RED Digital Cinema cameras, The Belonging Co.'s production team was struggling to keep up—they needed a more efficient and reliable solution.

The Challenge - A Pressure Cooker of Data and Deadlines

In 2023, during The Belonging Co.'s annual conference, Daniel Bender faced one of the team's biggest media management challenges to date. With 20 RED cameras capturing every moment in stunning 6K and 8K resolution, the old NAS system simply couldn't keep up. 

Bender found himself losing sleep—literally—as he spent days and nights transferring footage after the conference. The lack of fast reliable storage created a stressful bottleneck that frequently meant footage could not be accessed quickly enough for real-time editing.

"I don't think I slept for 96 hours," Daniel noted. "I couldn't ask a volunteer to manage that footage—it was too chaotic." 

As The Belonging Co. prepared for its annual conference, an ambitious, high-stakes event involving 4,600 attendees and a robust online audience, the production team faced pressing storage and technical challenges. In addition to a growing demand for high-quality video production, the team had little time to plan their storage infrastructure due to last-minute technical requirements.

They were in desperate need of a solution that would not only alleviate the logistical stress but also allow them to focus on their craft—telling moving and powerful stories through their visuals.

The team anticipated they would be working with 300TB of footage, recorded across more than 20 cameras capturing multiple sessions and performances. With such a tight timeline, The Belonging Co. needed a partner that could not only deliver the necessary storage in time but also offer real-time support during the event.

The Solution - creative.space Enters the Scene

Enter DigitalGlue’s creative.space. Introduced by their contact at RED as the "perfect solution" for handling massive amounts of high-resolution footage, creative.space offered an opportunity for The Belonging Co. to modernize its entire media management approach.

“We looked at other solutions, but none offered the combination of simplicity, support, and future-proof scalability like creative.space. It’s night and day compared to what we used before.”
‍
— Loren Cavener, I.T. Manager, The Belonging Co.

Meeting this requirement demanded extraordinary flexibility from DigitalGlue. The creative.space team quickly arranged for an additional 300TB //DEUS EX server, equipped to handle the intense data flow with reliable high-speed access. Despite the urgency, the setup was seamless, with DigitalGlue’s representatives on-site, helping to ensure The Belonging Co. was up and running before the conference began.

The //DEUS EX system allowed The Belonging Co.’s team to access and edit footage instantly, eliminating the need for portable drives and drastically simplifying the workflow. The setup was so intuitive that even volunteers without a technical background could assist confidently.

“We went from weeks of file transfers to barely thinking about it. Everything stayed on creative.space, and for the first time, a volunteer managed our entire DIT (Digital Imaging Technician) process without any issues.”

— Daniel Bender, Film and Broadcast Director, The Belonging Co.

The Results - A Transformational Shift in Production

Since implementing creative.space, The Belonging Co. has completely changed the way they approach their event production—turning it from an anxiety-inducing challenge into an exciting, collaborative, and creative process.

More Time for Creativity, Less Time on Tech

With technical bottlenecks eliminated, the production team could focus on creative decisions rather than troubleshooting. This opened up opportunities to enhance the attendee experience by capturing more engaging content from multiple angles, enabling them to produce dynamic, same-day recap videos that left audiences inspired.

“We went from a stressed, scattered workflow to being able to really focus on capturing moments that matter. We were finally free to be creative.”

— Daniel Bender, Film and Broadcast Director, The Belonging Co.

Enhanced Volunteer Experience

Nearly 98% of The Belonging Co.'s production team is composed of volunteers. With creative.space making it easier to manage the storage and editing process, the volunteers felt more empowered, capable, and excited to contribute to the production.

“For the first time, a volunteer ran our DIT process seamlessly. It made our team feel stronger—we could truly rely on everyone.”

— Daniel Bender, Film and Broadcast Director, The Belonging Co.

"We were just dragging files in from Finder," Daniel noted, emphasizing how the system seamlessly integrated into their Mac ecosystem. "It was everything we wanted but never knew we needed." The editors didn’t have to deal with slow external SSDs or cumbersome workarounds—everything remained on the server, maintaining high speeds and accessibility.

Impact on Attendees and the Broader Community

The improvements in production quality were felt by the attendees as well. From the enhanced camera work to real-time edits, the quality of the worship sessions and the video recaps left a lasting impression. Attendees could re-live powerful moments from the conference through high-quality videos available on-demand almost immediately after the event.

“creative.space truly saved us. It let us focus on our message—on creating moments of genuine connection. We’re finally able to serve our audience the way we’ve always envisioned.”

— Daniel Bender, Film and Broadcast Director, The Belonging Co.

Remote Editing After Conference

After the event, Daniel appreciated the ability to access the storage remotely. He even worked on editing projects while on a flight—a level of flexibility that was unimaginable before.

“I was able to VPN into the creative.space server while flying 30,000 feet above, continuing my edits. It’s pretty incredible to work remotely, knowing everything I need is right there.”

— Daniel Bender, Film and Broadcast Director, The Belonging Co.

For The Belonging Co., the transformation was more than just about storage—it was about being able to focus on what mattered most

"If we had gone into conference with anything other than creative.space, I would still be editing footage right now. And it's October."

— Daniel Bender, Film and Broadcast Director, The Belonging Co.

The combination of creative.space’s powerful storage, seamless integration, and outstanding support turned what was once a logistical nightmare into a manageable, even enjoyable process.

Looking Forward

Unlike competitors, creative.space offered an all-in-one solution with scalability, remote access, and intuitive interfaces that empower creative teams rather than overwhelming them. The personalized support from the DigitalGlue team made a significant difference, allowing The Belonging Co. to focus on creativity rather than technology.

Since the conference, The Belonging Co. has continued using the //DEUS EX while awaiting the installation of creative.space’s high-density //BREATHLESS system. By transitioning to creative.space, they’ve left behind a scattered and inefficient storage setup that relied on hard drives, NAS units, and inaccessible cloud storage, consolidating everything into a single, high-performance environment. “Over the years, we ended up with data everywhere—Synology, Dropbox, Google Drive—there was no cohesion, no structure,” says Loren Cavener, IT Manager. “It was so disorganized.”

The shift to creative.space has already brought substantial savings, with The Belonging Co. anticipating over $600,000 in reduced costs over the next five years.

“Just for what we’re paying to store now, if we move forward with creative.space over the next five years, we’re saving about $600,000—just from switching.”

— Daniel Bender, Film and Broadcast Director, The Belonging Co.

creative.space also gives The Belonging Co. the ability to expand storage as their needs grow, without overcommitting to massive upfront investments. This scalable approach meant they were not locked into rigid contracts and could plan comfortably for future growth.

“The team at creative.space kept reminding us: ‘You don’t need four petabytes right now—just expand as you grow.’ That flexibility was a huge selling point for us.”

— Loren Cavener, IT Manager, The Belonging Co.

For Loren, this new setup means technical operations are no longer a constant strain. “I would highly recommend creative.space to other churches, events, and conferences,” he says. “The pricing structure and product offerings—were just perfect.”

The scalability of the creative.space system lets The Belonging Co. add capacity as their needs grow, avoiding the high up-front costs of typical storage upgrades. As Loren notes, “We were looking for a solution that offered speed, high capacity, and remote accessibility—all in one place.”

Now, with creative.space’s centralized storage and intuitive interface, The Belonging Co. is positioned to keep their media easily accessible and ready to use, whether for weekly worship or major conferences. With their new storage infrastructure, they’re free to focus on creative projects that inspire their community, confident that their system will grow with them.

Ready to Transform Your Creative Workflow?

The Belonging Co.’s story shows how the right technology can do more than streamline workflows—it can transform how a team creates, connects, and communicates. creative.space didn’t just solve a technical challenge; it allowed the team to unlock their creative potential.

Whether it's a small creative team or a large-scale production, creative.space meets the demands of any size organization with flexibility that suits both budget and workflow needs. The Belonging Co. appreciated that they could scale without overpaying for storage they didn’t yet need, making it a cost-effective solution.

If you’re ready to take your production to the next level, discover what creative.space can do for you. Reach out for a demo today!

‍