Webcasting: From Start to Finish Steve Mack, LUX Media

2 Live Concerns No room for error Redundancy is key Real time –Equipment –Crew –Bandwidth $$

3 5 Phases of a Webcast Planning Production Encoding Authoring Distribution

4 Planning: Make the Case Who? What? –What makes this webcast different? Where? –Suitable location? Costs? Why? –Does the webcast satisfy a need? When? –Enough time to plan? Think in terms of marketing, reach, brand, communication – not IT

5 Planning: The Decision Tree Connectivity on site? –Can connectivity be installed in time? –Test, test, test Has Permission been granted? –Call all partied involved (talent, venue, label, etc) Sufficient Budget? Suitable Location –Audio? –Video? –Power? –Footprint? All of the above must be satisfied

6 Connectivity (Signal Acquisition) Send raw media back to Broadcast Operations Center (BOC) –Satellite –Vivyx (fiber) –Wireless Send encoded streams back to BOC –Need IP connectivity on site –Minimum 8 week install window

7 Production Additional equipment –At least one backup of all critical hardware –Signal processing Additional crew Remote locations are tricky –Equipment, unknowns Communication is key –Don't rely on cell phones –Land lines are best –AIM a great tool

8 Production (cont’d) May need additional a/v for pre & post show –Talent? –Slide? –Music? Licensing Thanks – before & after Use pre & post show for marketing/promo

9 Encoding Longer listening times, larger audiences –May want to be conservative with bit rate –May be constrained by outgoing bandwidth Faster machines required to encode highest quality in real-time Push vs. pull –Firewall issues –Hard-coded IP issues –Public internet encodes Backup machines required

10 Authoring Simplify web sites to speed up access –Nobody likes having to register –Don't make them traverse entire site –Complicated pages increase the probability of failure –“The web servers never crash.” Beware of web publishing systems –Caching –CMS/authorization If you must use an embedded player, at least offer a metafile link

11 Distribution Vastly increased bandwidth demands Increased server licensing demands Need more servers –Load balancing system is crucial Use multicast if possible –LAN / WAN segments Befriend the Network Admin(s) Make archives available

12 Justify Analyze the log files –Keep an eye on them for two weeks minimum Do cost/benefit analysis –Cost per user (savings?) –Intangibles Goodwill Participation Communication Brand extension Tell the folks that need to know

Q & A Thank You Steve Mack