What is webcasting?

Since 2009, Envirodigital have been pioneers of webcasting – introducing the interactive webcasting of live cultural events, presentations and conferences to Scotland, at a resolution and bandwidth suitable for Scotland’s rural broadband capability. Webcasting has become a mainstream technology – the platforms and broadband and now good enough for most event production companies to offer it. People and the planet are better off with the new technology – webcasting is a good, sustainable technology, and it’s here to stay. We’re interested in working with emerging digital technologies, but if you need some ideas about companies that do webcasting well, get in touch.

Webcasting is a great way of improving your event, presentation, conference or training session’s scale, reach, impact and legacy to a global audience – without increasing its carbon footprint. With webcasting, it is possible to create a good quality experience online for those who chose not to travel to attend a live event.

A webcast is a media file distributed over the internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single linear content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live, or on demand. Webcasting used to be defined as “broadcasting” over the internet, but that no longer quite fits: many webcasting platforms now offer tools that encourage online audience interaction – with the live event and with other online participants.

Webcasting can be described as a live stream, because the same principles and set-up are in play, but I tend to differentiate between the terms: a live stream is a simple, live, stream from a camera; a webcast is a web broadcast, curated for the online user to receive the best possible experience.

What isn’t webcasting?! Webcasting is not web- or video-conferencing, which is designed for many-to-many interaction.

Nor is webcasting the simulcasting technology that delivers NTLive! http://ntlive.com or the Met Opera (or recently The Traverse experimented simulcasting rehearsed new play readings – read Envirodigital’s case study) into cinemas around the country. Simulcast uses satellite and digital broadcast systems and spectrum to deliver a live broadcast to cinemas equipped with receivers and high spec digital data projectors and screens. Simulcasting produces an exquisite aesthetic (millions of colours, 5:1 surround sound) but requires a completely different level of production and delivery for this quality to be guaranteed. It is therefore extremely costly and out of range for many cultural organizations. It is high definition, and therefore the file sizes are too big to send and receive via standard broadband connections over the internet.

Neither is webcasting the technology behind the BBC’s £125m iPlayer; nor is it the approach or technology behind Digital Theatre.com. Both of these film in HD shows created for the camera, then crunch down and optimise the result for streamed delivery via the internet, or via download, so its important not expect the same result.

Email us to find out more about the great production companies who provide webcasting services.

Also, read this great guide about webcasting, written by Hannah Rudman and published by AmbITion Scotland in 2010.