How to setup your own Live Webcast

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Video Conference is a part of business operation. Video conference allows you to have web meetings among your business people around the world. In the same way Webcast is another feature that helps business to share their ideas over web. Unlike press release, Webcast consist of Webinars. This webinars are then distributed or broadcasted over web. Webcast is a kind of affordable solution to hold up business ideas among people. You simply share your media content on internet which is free for all to view.

This Webcast consist of videos that provide information on new company projects, any important information, presentation video, etc. Compared to a graphical presentation a video is considered to more rich and informative. It comes with set of audio and visuals which clearly initiate an idea among the people. Webcast is a process of broadcasting video over internet. There are prescribed viewers who wait for the same. Webcasting requires appropriate license to stream videos. You can use software or third party server for that depends on your need. Webcast is only applicable for those who have viewers.

This is widely used in day to day business. It helps online learning, e-seminars or simply provides information related to any upcoming even or project. If you do not bear much cost on providing a media news or publish some information on local newspaper, then webcast is the right solution for you. It is not actually video conferencing, but it is a kind of web conference meeting. Webcast is easy to configure and anyone can afford it. The media lies free over the web and with appropriate webcast service you can simply stream the regular media's on internet.

There are some free services on web that can give you a demo of Webcast. For example, Ustream. There is simple 6 step method provided by this website to broadcast your video on web. Just signup, turn your camera on, create your channel, set a category, broadcast settings and done. I will recommend you to test Ustream once to get an idea how this Webcast actually works. There are some free channels on the website that you can view to find out how it actually works. Webcast gives a very affordable choice for Education. You can broadcast your classes to help children’s around the world to share your knowledge. So if some of your student is absent or not available cannot miss the class. The same is applicable for training and business purpose.

In Training you can help people at different location share your content of live training. Nothing is missed. All you need is a good headphone or speaker depends on the user requirement. Broadcasting simply works well and it depends on your internet bandwidth. So there are really no major expenses here. There many other services and software available for Webcast. I will list you ways how you can host your own Webcast. There are number of things that you can try out.

• Webcast on your own Web Server
• Webcast via third party website services
• Webcast via simple Webcast Software

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Above there are three methods that you can go form. First on web server. You have a website or a web space with you. You can utilize by hosting up a video webcast. You can either use any simple cms like wordpress on it or put a box of your live streaming video inside existing website. Making changes in existing website will need developer skill. So if you know then you can alter the design or you will need to take help of a website developer.

Second the third party free services like Ustream which offer you a complete platform to host your Webcast. They give you everything, all you need is to create an account and turn your camera on. Third you can install simple Webcast software on your computer. You have to provide web settings to stream the media. This is the most easy and affordable solution. You can also buy a good license tool for that. The software usually takes the responsibility of streaming your video content over web.

Things needed for Webcast

• First you need a good camera. As this is the prime hardware on your system, if the camera quality is not fine, you might face poor video and audio quality. There are only some camera models which capture audio with video. While other mostly are dedicated to video only. So if you are going to run Webcast continuously then best get a camera that offers you audio input also. If you just want to broadcast any place, then video output is enough.
• Second, you can keep a recorder also on the other end. I am talking about recording software, so that you can record your broadcast video. This is because you can use it for future reference. Or you can also re-webcast it when needed.
• You should have a good internet bandwidth (recommended up top 4mbps). It is better to keep a separate line for webcast. Many ISP provides you high speed internet line for media content. You can sign up one of them. But if you want that for your home use only then you can configure that on your regular internet connection.
• Webcast and Webinars mostly depend on promotion. If you do not promote them you cannot collect viewers for it. It is also advice that you must have a good author for this process.
• Do not run any unnecessary application in be background. The pc which is stream the video must be smoother in performance. Latest flash player update is needed. Because the video that is stream over web is broadcast in the form of flash media. Flash is the most common way to have live video on your screen.
• Check the Webcast before broadcasting it finally. Do not just stream that directly. Check for hours what issue you can see.

Methods for setting up Webcast

Webcast and video sharing are two different things. Like on YouTube you can upload a video and share with your friends. But in Webcast you can give a link to view live video. This video can be of a meeting, event or training. Many websites follow the method of webcast to give digital content to their viewers. For example if you own a tech site and there is an even around in your area, you can share the live video of that even on your website via Webcast. This is done by many. This does not mean you will need to invest heavy and fit a camera in the event area. You can do that with your regular camera and share that over wifi. This helps a lot to news and media website. Webcast are broadcasted only for specific reason. Once you are done it is discontinued. So in short this is a kind of temporary solution for your business to quickly share news or even on the web.

The first method that I had told you above is hosting the webcast on your web server. This is good for training institute and business network. In a Webcast you do not need to worry about the web space. As under this the video is only stream and is not recorded. The streamed video is not recorded that consume space. For example if you want to host your annual general meeting. You can buy up some web space and configure your camera on it. Then the link can be shared among people who are invited for the webinar. For running the same you can either use your business website or get a separate space. You can add an additional section on the website like Webinar or Current Events, etc. This section then can be visited by people regularly. There are many cheaper hosting available with limited web space. Just add up a plug-in to your site and stream the content with others.

The second method is the most recommended one. Like Ustream there is one more service on the web that does the same job. Called as gotomeeting. It offers you a 30 day free trial to host your Webcast and test it. Later on if you like the service you can sign up for a small fee. Similar to that is Webcaster which does the same job. It offers you a live demo to host your webinar. Mostly webinar links are share via email.

The third option is using Webcasting software. One of the widely used software is Wirecast 4. This software works from your desktop and help you to stream videos. There are two version of this tool. The first is regular one which cost $449 and the Pro version which cost $995. The software helps you to capture video via various modes. You can switch videos or simply provide an additional audio source. The software is rich in features and output.