The world’s biggest cruise lines have picked up a video scheduling system that a local business designed.
CASTUS, the technology company established and operated out of Issaquah by locals Nathan Bosseler, Jonathan Campbell and Bosseler’s mother, Elaine Bosseler, recently outfitted five Carnival cruise ships with its system, and will soon be the source of video service for the entire 25-ship fleet. Seven Norwegian Cruise Line ships bought Bosseler’s system last year, and will be outfitting their fleet as well.
CASTUS allows cruise ships using its interface to schedule programs and also to create their own content while out on the high seas. Bosseler explained that because cruise ships don’t get TV reception in the middle of the ocean, they need to have their own pre-scheduled program list. Some of these are TV episodes the cruise company has bought, the same way airplanes buy certain movies and shows to screen on board. The ships also show their own custom slide shows, ads and schedule guide using CASTUS’s format.
With CASTUS, ships can also film a program in the afternoon, such as a game show starring passengers, then “take the video file and quickly schedule it using CASTUS, and that evening, the video plays,” Bosseler said.
This can be a fun way for passengers to see themselves on TV.
The program is especially suited for the rough waters of the ocean because it’s extremely durable, Bosseler said. The system withstands the waves and power outages that are quite frequent in open seas. A power outage is no problem because the system picks right up where it was before in the program that is showing.
Bosseler’s video system will be very well-traveled; Carnival cruises journey to the Bahamas, Alaska and Europe. Bosseler himself has gotten to go along on some of these tours, such as to Greece and Italy, so he could teach the ship technicians how to manage the system.
“It’s quite exciting,” he said. “Before this, I’d never been on a cruise ship in my life.”
Bosseler, a Bellevue College graduate, first got into video editing in 2000, and originally set out to be a producer and director. He and partner Jonathan Campbell started their own video production company in 2004, but over the years switched from making videos to scheduling them. Now CASTUS is used by public access stations throughout the Puget Sound, East and West Coasts, Canada and even as far away as Darwin, Australia.
Despite its worldwide success, CASTUS still maintains a small business feel. With just 13 members in the organization, “we’re able to do things that bigger companies are not,” Bosseler said. “I’m able to [personally] listen to my customers’ needs.”
When it comes to hiring employees and interns, the company looks no further away than Bellevue College; in fact, the local school is the alma mater of nearly every member of the company.
The company also gives back to the community in which it’s rooted. CASTUS donates video services and funds to the Issaquah Food and Clothing Bank, the Issaquah Schools Fund and the SeaTac Back-to-School Program.
“At heart I’m an entrepreneur,” Bosseler said. “We created what we thought worked from the ground up. We did it without any investors, but from our own revenues.”
Perhaps Bosseler’s community company gone global truly represents the American dream.
