Successful Webcast Ingredients

Play some music and announce from time to time when the broadcast is scheduled to begin, or point the camera at a card that includes this information. If you’ve ever watched a Webcast of Steve Jobs’ Macworld keynotes, you’ve seen how it’s done; the music and periodic announcements are there for your benefit as much as (if not more than) the on-site audience’s.

When the show is over, thank the audience for attending, and use this opportunity to tell them about upcoming broadcasts, or ways they can provide feedback both to the performers and the Webcast team.

If you can afford it, or if there is someone willing on your team, it’s always a good idea to have one person take on all these duties. Generally referred to as "talent," these folks warm up the audience, let them know what they can expect, and send them on their merry way when the broadcast is over. Television studios always have pre-show and post-show talent—shouldn’t you?

Spice up your live broadcast with audience interactivity. There are a number of Webcast solutions including audience polling, email feedback, and chat applications that allow your audience to be more engaged. The Internet is a two-way medium, and should be used as such.

Finally, always provide an archived version of your Webcast, and make it available as soon as possible. Most Webcasts see traffic many times more than what the live attendance was over the course of its availability.

Do-It-Yourself versus Outsourcing
It should be obvious if you’ve read this far that producing Webcasts to a high standard is an involved process. A number of different skill sets are involved, and there is a significant amount of risk. One way to distribute the risk and to work with highly skilled people is to outsource different parts of the Webcast to partners.

Working with a production partner reduces the investment you’ll have to make in equipment, and also provides you with a team of professionals who understand their equipment better than you ever will. This can be a lifesaver when troubles arise—what takes a novice hours to troubleshoot can be fixed by a pro in a matter of minutes.

Encoding partners provide a similar level of service, and further distribute your risk. They will have plenty of machinery mounted in professional cases, including backup machines. They may have an established relationship with the venue or with a bandwidth provider. Most of all, they’ll have the experience that is invaluable during a Webcast.

For most Webcasts, it makes sense to partner with a bandwidth provider, unless you’re Webcasting internally on your own network. Not only will they have a highly redundant server network for you to tap into, but they will also have far more bandwidth than is practical for most people to purchase. If your Webcast is wildly successful, a quick phone call to the bandwidth provider can secure more bandwidth so you never have to turn audience members away.

If you’re Webcasting to a limited audience, or just getting started, by all means do it yourself. Webcasting is a lot of fun, and it’s plenty rewarding when it all works. As you scale up both your production and your audience, you may find that working with partners is a far more effective way to go.