One of the bigger challenges faced by specialized service providers in my field, is that many individuals in too many organizations still do not fully understand the value of Live Webcasting vs. using just Video On Demand (VOD) after the event.
Naturally popularizing the use of Live Video Streaming depends on client relationships, local availability, budget, etc. – but more importantly on educating organizations like associations & corporations on its ease of use – especially when they leave the whole process in the hands of experienced operators who have provided this service reliably, many times over years and years.
One thing I find particularly fascinating about this field, as compared to shooting event video for plain old ‘VOD’ work is that client size isn’t always an indicator of need. Some very large organizations are OK with a single camera stream with little or no added production value or graphics, while some very small clients opt for the multi-camera, live-switched production with all the bells and whistles and their own branding, because they want to make a big impression.
The biggest “weakness” I see in my clients implementation of Live Event Streaming, is their lack of knowledge on how to promote & market live events.
Often, I am told that the response to their Live Webcast was “not good enough to justify holding another Live Webcast in the future” – what they do not grasp is that the apparent ‘failure’ of this event was due to 2 critical lapses on their part:
a. The Live Videocast was just an afterthought and they called for our service a few days before the event – this means they did not promote their event videocast early enough (you need to start promoting it at least a month in advance).
b. They did not promote their Live Event Videocast at all!!!
While there are long standing business models for shooting and editing video of events for ‘VOD’ purposes, the ability to provide Live Streaming Production services is a fairly new and specialized field, that, given the costs, technology & expertise necessary, is best left in the hands of the specialist provider.
Now one might gather from this last statement that Specialization somehow translates as Expensive! Nothing could be further from the truth! Costs of hardware, software and streaming bandwidth have never been lower and the truth of the matter is that even the smallest companies or individual professionals can easily afford this service – and not just afford it as an expense – they can actually make it not only pay for itself but can also use it to generate revenue and actual profit!
Call us at 604.926.5805 or visit our main site at www.mediastreams.ca to see how we can make this incredibly powerful & affordable technology work for you.