Behind the scenes: moving our members' recordings to a new video platform
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Most of what we do at Stella Novus is visible: articles, magazine issues, newsletters, courses. Some of it is not. This post is about one of the less visible jobs, which we finished in October 2026: moving the Ancient Origins members' recording library to a new video platform.
What we moved
Over time, Ancient Origins has run webinars and interviews for its members. Each one was recorded, and together they had built up into a library of 179 webinar and interview recordings.
Until this month, those recordings were held in GoToWebinar, the service we used to run the live sessions.
Why we moved them
Over time we were paying a lot for what we actually used, and the price never came down. We had not gone back to them to renegotiate, but they also never came to us with a better offer.
When we compared options, a dedicated video hosting service could store and play the recordings on our own pages for roughly 90% less than we were paying. That made the decision simple.
We wanted three things from a new setup:
Members should be able to watch recordings directly on their member pages, without being sent to another site.
Each recording should be visible only to members whose membership level includes it.
The library should cost less to run and be easier for us to look after and add to.
We chose Bunny Stream, a video hosting and streaming service that met all three.
How we did it
The work itself was careful and unglamorous. In broad terms, we moved each of the 179 recordings across to Bunny Stream, linked each one to the membership levels that include it, and added the player to member pages so recordings play in place.
Most of the effort went into making sure nothing was lost and that every recording ended up in front of the right members, and only those members.
What changes for members
If you are an Ancient Origins member, the main difference is that recordings now play directly on your member pages. You see the recordings your membership level includes.
If you notice a recording that does not play, or one you think you should be able to see but cannot, please get in touch with us and we will look into it.
Why we are writing about it
A job like this does not produce anything new on the surface. The recordings are the same recordings. But it matters to the people who pay to be members, and it is the kind of work that is easy to put off. We think it is worth being open about how we look after what members have paid for, and about keeping our costs sensible so we can keep doing it.
It also reminded us of something we see often in our own businesses and in conversations at Nexus AI Advisory: a lot of useful improvement comes not from adding new things, but from reviewing how existing things are stored, organised, accessed and paid for.
Thank you to the members who have watched these sessions over the years, and to everyone who took part in them.
Most of what we do at Stella Novus is visible: articles, magazine issues, newsletters, courses. Some of it is not. This post is about one of the less visible jobs, which we finished in October 2026: moving the Ancient Origins members' recording library to a new video platform.
What we moved
Over time, Ancient Origins has run webinars and interviews for its members. Each one was recorded, and together they had built up into a library of 179 webinar and interview recordings.
Until this month, those recordings were held in GoToWebinar, the service we used to run the live sessions.
Why we moved them
Over time we were paying a lot for what we actually used, and the price never came down. We had not gone back to them to renegotiate, but they also never came to us with a better offer.
When we compared options, a dedicated video hosting service could store and play the recordings on our own pages for roughly 90% less than we were paying. That made the decision simple.
We wanted three things from a new setup:
We chose Bunny Stream, a video hosting and streaming service that met all three.
How we did it
The work itself was careful and unglamorous. In broad terms, we moved each of the 179 recordings across to Bunny Stream, linked each one to the membership levels that include it, and added the player to member pages so recordings play in place.
Most of the effort went into making sure nothing was lost and that every recording ended up in front of the right members, and only those members.
What changes for members
If you are an Ancient Origins member, the main difference is that recordings now play directly on your member pages. You see the recordings your membership level includes.
If you notice a recording that does not play, or one you think you should be able to see but cannot, please get in touch with us and we will look into it.
Why we are writing about it
A job like this does not produce anything new on the surface. The recordings are the same recordings. But it matters to the people who pay to be members, and it is the kind of work that is easy to put off. We think it is worth being open about how we look after what members have paid for, and about keeping our costs sensible so we can keep doing it.
It also reminded us of something we see often in our own businesses and in conversations at Nexus AI Advisory: a lot of useful improvement comes not from adding new things, but from reviewing how existing things are stored, organised, accessed and paid for.
Thank you to the members who have watched these sessions over the years, and to everyone who took part in them.