Webcasting an event for your company is a fantastic idea. You can reach a large audience, with little interruption of employee schedules or downtime in productivity, and much less of an impact on leadership’s time. It’s also one of the most complex events to produce. Not only can many things go wrong, but when things do, they must be fixed on the fly, right away, and that requires a certain level of expertise. Simply put, you need a professional crew, with many webcasts under their belts, to make it happen.
An experienced webcast production company, with specialized equipment and access to the event location in advance, will be able to prepare and test your live stream setup well before the event. They will also be able to react and respond to any issues that occur, such as a speaker’s slideshow not working properly, subtitles or closed-captioning not showing up correctly, or a microphone going off unexpectedly.
While it’s tempting to use the well-meaning guy down the hall who has done some webinars or WebEx meetings in the past, resist. Webinars and webcasts are completely different beasts, calling for different skill sets. Webcasting is much closer to live Television production. That is why our crew has backgrounds in television, film making, and live sports.
Here’s why your webcast needs a professional crew:
We Use Multiple Camera Angles
With a piece of equipment called a switcher, we can quickly shift between camera angles during the live stream itself. The switcher and the angles must be setup in advance with consideration to the general flow of the event and the points that are important to emphasize.
Don’t worry, our professional crew takes care of it.
Using multiple camera angles makes the stream more interesting and can add a dramatic element, while also allowing you to highlight certain aspects of the feed. Multiple cameras give your online audience the opportunity to see the in-room audience, making the experience more immersive.
We Get the Lighting Right
Lighting has quite a lot to do with whether a video is perceived as being amateurish or professional. But proper lighting is not easy to attain, and often requires an experienced eye and specialized equipment. A professional crew will factor location, time of day, and sources of light and shade. And we’ll know how to best display/present/showcase your speakers, taking into consideration their individual coloring and how it’s affected by shadow, glare, etc. If you’ve ever see video that is in high definition but still looks… bad, it’s because there isn’t good lighting. We can achieve a more professional look by setting up the lighting appropriately and testing it in advance.
We Prepare Your Presentation in Avance
Using slide shows during webcasts is a popular option because they engage the audience well, providing a focal point and giving them something to reference. And even more important than having your materials prepared in advance is testing them out in advance. If the audio drops out when the video feed starts, or the slide show freezes in mid-frame, you will lose audience attention and engagement right away. Our professional crew formats all slides and videos so our videos always play nicely.
Your webcast can be an incredibly valuable tool, but it must work and look good. If you want to learn more about the extensive benefits of live streaming or talk to us about scheduling an event at your company, contact us today.