Introduction

There’s something about a live event that captures the imagination, whether it’s the final round of a sporting event or a special performance by a popular musical act. These days, you’re likely to see both during the same broadcast. So it’s no surprise that as soon as streaming media technology was developed, people wanted to broadcast live events on the Internet. While there are some arguments on what the word webcast means, most people typically refer to webcasting or cybercasting as a live stream on the Internet.

Initially most Internet broadcasts, or webcasts, consisted of entertainment or sporting events. The impetus was to generate buzz by producing the “largest” webcast to date, as each subsequent press release gleefully announced even if there was no business logic behind it. However, as the technology has matured and the initial fascination evolved, webcasting is being used for more practical purposes, such as investor calls, CEO addresses, religious ceremonies, and terrestrial radio simulcasts.

Webcasts can include audio, video, and other data types such as PowerPoint slides, animation, or whiteboard-type applications and are typically referred to as an interactive webcasts when such components exist. Many webcasts also include some form of communication between the audience and the talent. This is one of the advantages that webcasting has over traditional forms of broadcast. There are a number of others:

•    Lower Cost of Entry: Webcasting does not require a multimillion dollar infrastructure

•    Unlimited Spectrum: Webcasting is not currently regulated by any governmental agency and does not require a license

•    Not Limited by Geography: Webcasting can be local or international

•    Can be Targeted: Webcasting can be cost-effective for smaller audiences

Webcasting also has some Limitations:

•    Smaller audiences: The Internet is not yet capable of sustaining audience sizes that rival traditional TV broadcasts

•    Incremental cost per viewer: Bandwidth costs money, and each additional viewer adds to this cost compared to a terrestrial broadcast where the volume of users does not increase the cost

•    Quality: Though technically possible, broadcast-quality webcasts are not yet a reality

Despite the limitations of webcasting, there are still many situations where webcasting makes good financial sense. Many large scale enterprises realize this and are actively deploying webcasting as a cost-cutting exercise for internal and external purposes. Educational institutions use webcasting as an integral part of their distance learning courses. Nonprofit organizations are using webcasts to reach and expand their membership.

So how are webcasts produced? Essentially a webcast combines traditional broadcasting practice with streaming media technology. On the broadcast side, solid audio and video engineering practice is applied to produce a high quality source signal. However, instead of sending the signal to a broadcast tower, it is fed into a streaming media encoding system, and then sent to streaming media servers for distribution on the Internet.

Producing a webcast is basically the same process as creating an on-demand streaming media file. Webcasting, however, is a little trickier because there is no room for error. Webcasts are produced in real-time; this affects each stage of the streaming media process. But with a little forethought and a lot of planning, a successful webcast is well within your reach.

Successful Webcast Ingredients

The webcasting process is the same as creating on-demand streaming media files, with the important addition of a planning phase:

•    Planning: Justifying the costs, securing the location, tools, and crew

•    Production: Capturing the raw audio and video feeds, any other data types

•    Encoding: Converting the raw media into formats that can be streamed

•    Authoring: Connecting the audience to the webcast via a link on a web page

•    Distribution: Securing the infrastructure to distribute the streams

Each phase has unique requirements during a webcast. The most important thing to remember is that you only get one shot at a webcast. If something goes wrong, the webcast may grind to a halt if you haven’t planned appropriately. Bearing this in mind, the planning phase becomes paramount, and the key to all other phases can be summed up in a single word: redundancy.

Planning is the key to a successful webcast. There’s only one chance to get it right, so everything must be in place well before the webcast begins. The right tools, sufficient personnel, a robust streaming architecture, and plenty of bandwidth all must be provisioned in advance. Once everything is in place, each and every component must be thoroughly tested.

First, check out the proposed location for the webcast. Does it have enough power? Is there room enough for your equipment? Is there enough light? Are the acoustics suitable? Is there Internet connectivity on site? How will you get your feed to the streaming media servers?

For the production phase, a full complement of audio and video gear is needed to create a broadcast quality stream, including backups in case of failure. It’s crucial to have extra microphones, cameras, mixing desks, and anything else needed to produce the webcast.

Bring extra encoding hardware for encoding redundancy. At least one backup encoding machine is required, more if you’re encoding multiple bit rates or formats. If you can afford it, you should also invest in redundant connectivity—the broadcast will grind to a halt if the connectivity disappears.

A robust streaming server infrastructure is required to handle the demands of the projected audience. Bandwidth requirements increase dramatically during a webcast, as does the load on the servers. Depending on the streaming platform you’re using, you may have licensing restrictions on the number of streams you’re capable of broadcasting simultaneously.

Make sure you have enough personnel and good lines of communication. Webcasts are far too complex for small crews to pull off. You need individuals responsible for each and every aspect of the broadcast, and they need to be able to communicate with everyone else involved in the webcast.

Finally, the importance of testing cannot be stressed enough. Test the connectivity on site well before the broadcast. Test the production equipment before the broadcast begins, preferably the day before the broadcast. Test the encoding equipment and load-test the streaming media infrastructure. Test the links on the website, and have as many people as possible participate in a dry-run of the webcast. The only way to minimize the chance of failure is to test as much as possible before the actual event.

Producing webcasts to a high quality standard is an involved process. A number of different skill sets are involved, and there is a significant amount of risk. However, broken down into its component parts, webcasting is not rocket science. There is no reason you shouldn’t be able to pull off a successful webcast provided you give yourself enough lead time. Producing a webcast, especially on a small scale is not as hard and difficult as people make it out to be and this book will help assist you in making it even easier.

How to Use This Book

This book is organized roughly in the order which a webcast is executed, and divided into chapters that correspond to the different components of a webcast. Chapters generally start with a conceptual overview and get more detailed as they go on. Though the webcasting process is a continuum, each chapter is relatively self-contained, so feel free to jump directly to a chapter that addresses your area of interest.

Organization

The book begins with a Quick Start, which shows you just how simple webcasting can be. If you want to start webcasting immediately, start here.

Chapters 2 and 3 provide some background about streaming media and digital audio and video. If you’ve never worked with digital audio or video before, or need some background about what streaming media is and how it is created, you’ll find a good overview here.

Chapters 4 and 5 are focused on the business of webcasting. Before planning a webcast, a frank discussion about the legal and financial implications must be had. These chapters discuss the legal intricacies of a webcast, along with expected costs and revenues. Partnering opportunities are also discussed. Many webcasts are produced by a number of companies working together, similar to the traditional broadcast world.

Chapters 6 through 8 deal with webcast production practice. To a large extent this is where the heart of the book lies, because this is where webcasting differs from creating standard streaming media files. Planning, equipment, crew requirements, connectivity, and audio and video production techniques can be found here.

Chapters 9 and 10 cover encoding and authoring best practices. There are a number of concerns you need to take into account such as the scale of the webcast, and other concerns such as bandwidth and hosting costs. This section also covers how to author simple metafiles and HTML pages with embedded players and how to ensure that the method you use scales properly during large events.

Chapter 11 is concerned with distribution, which is obviously the key to a successful webcast. This section discusses how to plan and implement a redundant server infrastructure, and how to estimate what your infrastructure needs are.

Finally, there are a number of case studies, both successful and not so successful. These case studies provide you with some real-life examples of how webcasts are planned and executed, how they were justified, what went right, and possibly more important, what went wrong.

Sidebars

There are three types of sidebars used in this book: “Author Tip,” “Inside the Industry,” and “Alert.” Each is separated from the text and gives you quick, helpful information that is easy to find.

A Quick Word about Platforms

While there are open standards in the world of Internet streaming (most notably the MPEG standards), the reality is that there are a number of streaming systems out there, and very little true interoperability. While those of us in the industry would love to see a universal standard, there are good reasons it has yet to happen, and there is little chance that it is going to happen soon.

This book tries to be as even-handed as possible in its treatment of the different streaming systems, and endeavors not to recommend any particular system. Each platform has its advantages and disadvantages, which should be carefully considered in the planning phase of your webcast.

This book can not possibly cover every possible webcast topic, but should give you a firm understanding of the technologies involved, and the planning that is required for a successful webcast. Although the technology and infrastructure are still evolving, the information in this book should remain relevant for some time.

Webcasts are exciting, and with adequate planning, even fun. Just remember the cardinal rules:

•    Take the time to plan appropriately

•    Keep it simple

•    Bring two of everything

•    Be kind to your distribution partner(s)

•    Start early

Welcome to the world of webcasting.

Support: We’re Here to Help

While this book’s aim is to be easy to follow, further follow-up questions and feedback are welcomed at anytime. We’d love to hear from you, even if it’s just to request more statistics, be added to our mailing list, or have any streaming and digital media related questions answered. If you are looking for insight on new service offerings, a recommended service provider, or have questions regarding your webcasting implementations, we’d be glad to answer them. You can reach us directly at:

[email protected]
(917) 523-4562