Tuesday, January 15, 2008

What is needed to deliver a (good) webcast

One of the things I strongly believe in in our industry is the need for quality delivery. Many start-ups in the streaming industry do think that just by downloading a free copy of Windows Media Encoder or QuickTime Broadcaster they have the knowledge to produce an entire TV show on the web. Unfortunately for them, and their customers, it isn't that easy.

Many years ago I learned the lessons the hard way. I figured that a good webcast, which should be seen as a TV broadcast using IP delivery, needed good knowledge in 4 areas: IT, audio-visual, networks and telecommunications. Remove one of those and you will see that it gets very complicated to achieve your primary goal: get the image and sound to your audience. And believe me, it isn't that easy. Some people I know well have found out by going face first into the digital wall.

The number of companies that are able to setup and deliver an event webcast to the world wide web are quite low, but increasing. With all the new tools that are available for web 2.0 and television 2.0, on top of the increased expertise of people and companies make it easier than ever to do your thing. But then why are so many web videos of such a low quality or unavailable? The answer is easy: start this article all over again. It needs expertise and a broadcasters mentality to get it done. Not the straight IT talk, but to "go for it" TV walk. You have very strict deadlines, and a large number of points of failure. Keep them under control, and your webcast will succeed.

And above all, work with people that have really delivered in the past. Ask them to show you their achievements and what part of the production they control, and what part is subcontracted. The more is subcontracted, the more that can go out of control. A one stop shop is in our industry the best bet. Then it is just a question of enjoying the show !

Labels: Telemak, Television 2.0, Web 2.0

3 Comments:

At January 16, 2008 7:38 PM , Sacha Vekeman said...: Hi Christophe, very good post and I fully agree about the quality aspect of video. The rubish that is being produced these days isn't worth the effort to watch, but people watch it... I don't think companies such as Telemak are able to change the behaviour of the consumer, but it is definitively your role to evangelize the alternative: create better quality video!

What I personally think will seriously stimulate the request for true quality video is convergence of web based video and television. The day that I can finally browse a YouTube type of site with UGC video content on my HD television... I don't want low quality fragements, but broadcast quality (even when my best friend made a silly 1-minute produciton)... That's when the real pain will start of YouTube alike companies, once they are faced with the real question from consumers and what you have learned 'the hard way...' consumers will only go for quality video and work more with professionals again instread of DIY.
At January 16, 2008 8:35 PM , Christophe said...: Hi Sacha, thanks for your comment.
One of my next posts will be about the convergence of the media. It is something we see evolve day to day. Just check out the announcement of Steve Jobs yesterday in San Francisco during Mac World. With the launch of the new movie rental services combined with the new iTunes and Apple TV you can have HD quality video on your HD screen at home. It uses regular web streaming, but brings the HD quality. Of course before you get UGC to be HD it will certainly take some time. If you see that the millions of videos are hosted for free by YouTube or Telenet, advertising income will have to increase drastically to have a x10 image quality on your TV. But one day ...
At January 16, 2008 9:58 PM , MJD said...: Christophe and Sacha, I do think there is another important aspect and reason behind the quality of today's free UGC video sites. It's because it is free ! Because it is free and massively shared there isn't a strong business model to pay for the hosting and delivery so the sites and broadcasters encode the UGC to a low resolution and quality to avoid high costs of hosting and delivery bandwidth. Try uploading high quality UGC to YouTube or the like and you'll find the published results dramatically downgraded. Where there is mass market adoption of a low quality product there is often room for a higher quality niche provider. Content owners will increasing look to protect the quality of their content and share it without degradation. Martin.