Lights, Camera, Action! Not So Fast...

The first live television production I was involved in was a local cable access call in show on the campus of Michigan State University in 1982. The production quality left a lot to be desired...but I'll never forget the sense of awe I had at seeing the technical director fade up from black on his little Grass Valley 400 production switcher...and then seeing video of me magically appear on monitors around the studio. A few moments later, the phone began to ring. The signal was beaming out...and we were garnering immediate feedback via inbound questions from viewers around campus.

This picture is often what corporate streamers have in mind as they ready for their first live webcasting experience. Ultimately though, streaming can be a bit more difficult than television. Here are a few reasons why:

1. Your video and audio must be converted to a digital format before it can be webcast. To make this happen, you have to employ an encoder at the venue where the camera and microphone are. There are software encoders. There are hardware encoders. They all do the same thing-turn your source media into a format that is appropriate for distribution on the Internet. Flash and Windows Media are the most popular streaming formats. Both companies offer free software encoders that you can use to properly "capture" your source media.

2. Feedback is generally not immediate. Because your "signal" is traveling as a series of packets of information...which must be viewed in order by your audience...latency is inherent in webcasting. That latency is the reason why live webcasting can be more challenging than broadcast television-because those packets don't all take the same amount of time to reach each viewer. In fact, it is possible that during a live webcast originating from New York City...a viewer in Richmond, Virginia could experience more latency than a viewer in San Jose, California. Of course, a CDN (Content Delivery Network) can circumvent much of this latency...but not all. Where latency is concerned, streaming is most different from television because an action occurring on camera during a live webcast may be witnessed by many viewers at completely different times. When Simon makes a snide remark on American Idol...all of America sees it happen at generally the same moment...that's because there is fairly consistent latency in broadcasting. Not so with streaming. Ultimately though, with a little planning...the impact of this phenomena can be reduced. Rather than using phones for that feedback from the audience for instance...it may be smart to employ a chat client adjacent to your video screen. To further reduce confusion among viewers...it might be smart to appoint a single "moderator" to receive questions via chat and in turn feed them to the speaker.

3. Simpler is better. All of those flashy motion graphics and visually explosive animation elements that are so prevalent on broadcast television today...won't improve your streaming program. They are what I like to call "high information elements"...elaborate motion graphics...camera movement (abrupt pans, tilts or zooms) are all things you should keep out of your live webcast. Simply put: The more motion you have...the more pixelated the result. Simple 15 frame dissolves are about the only effect I like to see in a webcast. Of course there are exceptions. If you're lucky enough to be propagating a 3 Megabit Windows Media stream to a limited number of board rooms around the country, and you're using a CDN...these television style visual elements will have little negative impact.

Finally, it's important to remind you to "measure twice...and cut once". Like any good live television program, a live webcast should be rehearsed multiple times prior to your scheduled day and time. Technical issues like "how bad is our latency among the different viewing locations"?, "does that 500K stream really look good enough"?, and "how long do those chat questions take to get back to our moderator"? can all be dealt with prior to the live webcast. In this regard, webcasting is not at all different than broadcast television. Break a leg!