CHAPTER 6

Webcast Production Planning

There are two main reasons why production planning makes or breaks a webcast. First, and most obvious, webcasts are live events, so everything has to work. You can’t start over if something goes wrong. Good planning prepares you for problems that arise.

Second, unlike other forms of streaming, everything happens at once. Webcasts are produced, encoded, and distributed in real time. This increases the level of complexity, and requires tighter integration and cooperation on the webcast team.

Taking the time to plan a webcast well in advance makes things run more smoothly. You’ll be surprised how issues that could kill a webcast are simple to fix when they’re brought up at a meeting a month in advance, rather than ten minutes before a webcast begins.

This chapter covers most (but certainly not all) of the issues you should consider when planning a webcast. The issues are discussed in order of importance and the order they should be addressed:

•    Location

•    Signal Acquisition

•    Equipment

•    Crew

•    Presentation

Location Concerns

The first thing to consider is the location. Is it appropriate for a webcast? You need to consider the same things traditional broadcasters are concerned with, in addition to some webcast-specific issues:

•    Is it large enough to accommodate the required equipment and crew?

•    Is there sufficient power and ventilation?

•    Is it quiet?

•    Is there enough natural light or is additional lighting required?

•    Are there union issues?

•    Is there Internet connectivity on site?

•    Alternatively, is there fiber available and/or is there good access for a satellite truck?

Many of these questions can be answered with a few telephone calls; others may require a scouting trip. If you’re webcasting from a remote area, a scouting trip is always a good idea, if only to meet the people in charge. It’s a lot easier to get things done when you’ve established a relationship with the people in charge. Also, on-site connectivity testing is highly recommended—it can save you a lot of trouble later on (see “Connectivity Testing” later in this chapter).

Consider the demands the proposed webcast is going to place on the location. Is there enough room for the equipment, the crew, and the audience? Each camera is going to require a safe, isolated space, preferably with a riser so that people can’t walk in front of the camera. Audio/visual (A/V) production can require anything from a six-foot table to a sizeable chunk of the room. The encoding (if done on-site) can usually be squeezed onto a six or eight foot table (see Figure 6-1).

Typically you want to place the encoding station near A/V production, because that minimizes the cabling required. You should also run the encoding stations from on the same power circuit to avoid ground hums. For more on ground hum, see the “Get Rid of Ground Hum” section in Chapter 7.

Running all this equipment places demands upon the building. Most commercial venues are well equipped to handle the extra power and ventilation requirements, but it never hurts to ask the folks in charge. It’s also a good idea to ask if extra charges are incurred.

If your webcast is outdoors, you face a unique set of challenges. By definition outdoor locations are not controllable. You don’t know what the light will be like on the day of the webcast, and even more troubling, you don’t know if the weather is going to cooperate.

Figure 6-1
A typical setup for a medium sized webcast: 3 cameras (establishment, medium, and close up), A/V production, and encoding.

Make sure you have protected locations for all the equipment. Figure out where power and connectivity are coming from, and how much extra cabling you’re going to need. Be sure to hire extra production assistants—you’ll need them, whether it’s to hold an umbrella over a roaming cameraman, or to buy dry socks for the entire crew.

One of the biggest challenges to outdoor webcasts can be securing some sort of connectivity. If your location is particularly isolated, you may have to get creative, but it’s amazing what you can do with a little cajoling and enough time to get things installed.

At the first Tibetan Freedom festival, multiple ISDN lines were bonded together to create the rough equivalent of a T1 line in the middle of Golden Gate Park (which actually caused all payphones in the vicinity to stop working). At the early South By Southwest webcasts, ISDN lines were nailed to trees in the middle of the field behind Stubb’s Barbecue. For Bumbershoot, a T1 line was strung through trees from the Seattle Center House to Memorial Stadium, about 500 yards away. In fact, it was re-strung during the middle of the third day when the original cable developed a fault!

 

Author’s Tip

Signal Acquisition

If the location looks suitable, the next thing you have to figure out is how you’re going to get the signal to your streaming media servers. There are two basic methods of doing this:

•    Send raw media feeds back to the broadcast operations center (BOC) via satellite or fiber channel, and encode at the BOC

•    Encode on site, and send encoded streams back to the BOC via IP (Internet protocol)

Sending raw feeds back to the BOC can be advantageous because it minimizes the amount of computer hardware needed on site. However, to do so requires a satellite uplink or fiber connectivity on-site. Both of these options have a high degree of reliability but can be cost-prohibitive. To encode on site, you’ll need enough computer hardware and connectivity on site to send the streams to the servers reliably.

Figuring out which method you’re going to use is important because it determines what kind of equipment and manpower you need on site. Arranging for either one is time consuming if it isn’t already available. For example, you need a minimum of six weeks to get connectivity installed, and that may be too aggressive in some areas. Satellite time and crew must also be booked in advance, though they can usually be turned around in a couple of weeks and even quicker if you are willing to pay a “rush” charge.

Of course, in an ideal world, you’d have both satellite and dedicated IP connectivity at your disposal, but this falls outside the budgetary constraints of most webcasts. Most webcasts today are encoded on site and sent back to the BOC via the Internet.

Dedicated vs. Shared Connectivity

Sending encoded streams back to the BOC via the public Internet is something that has only been possible the past few years. It is never ideal, because the Internet is a shared resource, and bandwidth is never guaranteed. In the perfect world you should have dedicated bandwidth from your encoders all the way to the servers.

For many years this was the way webcasts were done. ISDN circuits and frame relay connectivity offer dedicated, point to point connectivity, which is ideal for a webcast. But both ISDN and frame relay are expensive, often requiring an extended time commitment. The near ubiquitous availability and low cost of DSL lines has led to their rapid adoption for webcasting.

DSL lines come in many varieties, generally specified as a pair of numbers that refer to the maximum download and upload bandwidths. For example, a 1.5/768 DSL line offers a potential 1.5 megabits of download and 768 kilobits upload bandwidth. For a webcast, the upload bandwidth is crucial, particularly if you’re sending out more than one stream.

The Importance of Connectivity Testing

There is no way to be sure that the connectivity a location is offering is what they say it is without testing. The connectivity needs of a webcast are far greater than what most providers are used to. For example, most connectivity at hotels and conference centers is shared amongst a number of users. This is fine for web surfers who are checking email, but completely unsatisfactory for a webcast.

Case in point: A small professional organization hired a webcasting provider (read: one of your authors) to broadcast a discussion panel being held in a small hotel conference center. The hotel claimed dedicated T-1 connectivity, which would be more than adequate for the webcast. The organization wanted to keep costs to a minimum, and declined to have the connectivity tested in advance.

When the broadcast began, audience members complained about video quality. Testing revealed that the live streams were dropping frames and stuttering. To remedy the situation, the bit rate of the stream had to be dropped from 300 Kbps to 150 Kbps. This involved stopping and re-starting the encoders, interrupting the webcast, and further aggravating the online audience.

It turned out that the T-1 connectivity at the hotel was not dedicated, but shared by the entire hotel and conference center. When a significant number of users went online, the bandwidth was drastically reduced, leaving insufficient bandwidth to send the higher bit rate streams to the server.

The audience members were livid (they had paid to access the broadcast). The professional organization wanted a refund, but was chagrinned when shown the clause in the webcast contract specifically indemnifying the webcast provider against all responsibility—if connectivity testing was waived.

Luckily, an archive was made of the webcast, and distributed to the audience. However, it was barely enough to satisfy the clients. A lot of pain and stress could have been avoided if the connectivity had been tested.

Equipment

There’s one simple rule when it comes to equipment for a webcast—redundancy is key. If a camera stops working, another camera must be available to replace it. Similarly, every critical piece of equipment must have a backup in case of failure.

Look closely the next time you’re watching the news. On the newscaster’s lapel, you’ll see a small black clip with not one, but two lavaliere mics. They’re not there for decoration.

If you stop to think about what this means, you’ll quickly realize that your equipment requirements just increased dramatically. Suffice it to say that you need redundancy in the following key areas:

•    Microphones: Bring at least one spare mic for the talent, and a spare for the audience.

•    Cables: Bring lots of extra cables, not only for replacements, but also for that last minute addition to the panel.

•    Cameras: It’s usually too expensive to bring more than a single extra, but make sure you have at least one.

•    Audio/Video Mixers: The backups may not be as fancy as the main mixers, but it’s always good to have a spare.

•    Distribution Amps: You must ensure you can split the media feeds to all the encoding machines.

•    Isolating Transformers and Video Humbuckers: It’s absolutely crucial to have in your kit bag, for solving those unsolvable noise problems.

•    Batteries: For wireless mics, flashlights, etc.

•    Encoding Computers: Take at least one, but better to have two or three, depending on how many streams you’re encoding.

 

Author’s Tip

The amount of spare equipment you bring to a webcast will be dependent on your budget. This is a perfect example of why hiring third-party production for larger webcasts is a great idea. Professional production houses have trucks that include all the equipment you need for a webcast, with plenty of redundancy built in. Remember, they do this for a living.

The final consideration for equipment is shipping. Shipping is the main causes of equipment failure. Production equipment is delicate and generally transported in large, heavy flight cases, but nothing can insulate equipment from aggressive baggage handling.

The Crew

Webcasts require larger crews than other streaming media productions. This is because everything is happening at once, as mentioned earlier in this chapter. Each task must have a crew member attached to it. It’s also a good idea to have a few extra crew members available, budget permitting, in case of emergency. At a minimum, you’re going to need:

•    Camera Operators: One for each camera, perhaps more if you’re shooting long days and you need to give people lunch breaks.

•    Audio Engineer: To set up and monitor all the audio equipment.

•    Video Engineer: Ditto, but for the video equipment.

•    Technical Director: The guy who calls the shots for the camera operators, and pushes the buttons on the video mixer.

•    Encoding Technician: The person in charge of all the encoding equipment.

•    Production Assistants: Also known as gophers, because they’re always being told to “Go for” something or other. The more the merrier!

•    Executive Producer: The person often speaking on two cell phones simultaneously that coordinates the event. This may be you.

You can add or subtract from this list as appropriate for your webcast. For instance you may be hiring third party production, in which case you may only need to provide an encoding technician. Beware of false economies, however—you might think that you won’t need a production assistant, until something goes wrong. At that point, $250/day is a bargain.

Communication

if you’ve got a crew with more than a few members, it’s important that you have a way to communicate. The director needs to communicate with the cameramen. The encoding technician will need to talk to the audio and video engineers, and with the BOC. On smaller webcasts, it might be possible to lean over and whisper in someone’s ear. For larger webcasts, make sure to set up lines of communication.

 

Author’s Tip

Professional A/V houses rent out communication (“Com”) kits, which enable directors to communicate with the camera operators. These can be expanded to include other crew members. For external communications, cell phones are usually okay, but be sure to test cell phone reception on the scouting visit. Some venues are notorious for having bad reception. In this case, you may need to have a POTS line (plain old telephone system) installed.

Presentation

One thing that should be considered well in advance of the webcast is what the presentation is actually going to look like, and what the experience for the end user is going to be. It’s all fine and good to plan on webcasting an event, but what happens before and after the show begins? People tend to arrive early and stay after webcasts are over, so you should take advantage of this and plan accordingly.

The Pre- and Post-Show

If you’ve ever attended a live television broadcast, you’ll recall that before the actual event there’s generally a warm-up act. After the show is over, someone else usually comes out and thanks the audience, and reminds them to tune in to watch other related programs. There is no reason you shouldn’t do the same thing.

People who arrive early to webcasts should be a) thanked and b) told what time the webcast is scheduled to begin. It may seem like a small thing, but a little common courtesy goes a long way. Background music is good, as well as either a wide shot of the event or a static slide with information about the webcast. Essentially you want to let people know they’ve come to the right place. There’s really nothing more unprofessional that a webcast that begins with a black screen and silence.

Use the pre-show time wisely. Before the show begins is a prime time for marketing messages, or reminders about other events. If folks have tuned in, they’re there for a reason, and receptive to the message in the first place. Similarly, when a show is over, thank the audience for attending; remind them about other upcoming webcasts. Let them know where they can find more information about the subject, if applicable, or an email address where they can send feedback.

Use Talent

Taking advantage of the pre- and post-show requires that someone actually get on camera or at least a microphone and address the audience. Make no mistake—this is a skill that not everyone possesses. Ideally you should find someone suited to the task and let them become your on air talent. If you find the right person they’ll enhance the webcast, and they may even develop a following of their own.

Technical Difficulties

Another way talent can be helpful is during technical difficulties. For example, if a webcast is running late the audience will be a lot happier if someone goes on air and lets them know what is happening. This might seem like a small thing, but one that will distinguish your webcast and make you look more professional. Of course, starting on time should be one of your main goals, and proper planning will make this a lot easier.

Conclusion

Good planning is essential for successful webcasts. If the proposed location is suitable, get on the phone and make sure you can get the required connectivity on site. Think about what the presentation is going to look like, and what resources it is going to require. Once you’ve got that process rolling, arrange for equipment and crew, and any talent you might want to use during the broadcast. Have lots of pre-production meetings to make sure everyone involved knows what is going on. Keeping everyone on the same page is half the battle.