Engaging with your remote audience is crucial I’d argue more so than the audience in the room who probably can’t just get up and leave. The online community however are less forgiving and will very quickly decide whether to stay or tune out

So to keep your audience and make sure your key messages are heard you might want to consider the following.

1. Timing

People are busy so don’t keep them hanging around. Start at the advertised time, keep to schedule and finish at the designated time. Create an agenda holding slide or video which can be looped on the streaming website weeks before the event.

If there are delays (very common) or deviation from the agenda make sure these are communicated to the online viewer, we do this by overlaying messages on bars at the bottom of the webcast (similar to a newsflash.)

2. Beginning your webcast

At the start of your webcast acknowledge and welcome the remote audience, smile, gesture, talk to them enthusiastically. Communicate with the remote audience in exactly the same way you would with a live audience ask the camera team which is the close camera and talk directly into it.

Promote any interactive features you may have on the webcast and encourage them to get involved by emailing questions, tweeting or sharing thoughts in chat rooms.

3. Make sure your message isn’t lost

Whether the audience is in the room or across the globe, your audience have limited ability to retain information ensure your key messages are clear and include all call to action.

Don’t do a financial report in bullet point 6, keep any slides bold, simple and inspiring

Short videos and animations are awesome (yes awesome) and are a great way to bring your story and key message to life (and keep people awake.)

4. No audio no story!

Number one reason a webcast fails is poor audio – your online audience can only hear what has been said if it’s said into a microphone, audio is 100% more important than video or graphics

If content is discussed or questions asked without a microphone, the presenter or host should repeat the question or statement for those viewing remotely. There is nothing worse than half a story to confuse and disengage your audience.

5.Interaction

A 2 hour presentation followed by 3 questions is never going create debate or enthral any audience (especially if that audience is close to a kettle and a biscuit tin).

Make it interesting invite viewers to submit questions via email or social media, use online polls and let them vote, encourage viewers to express opinion and debate with other audience members.

When it comes to Q&A no one ever really wants to go first, have a couple of dummy questions prepared around the hot topics of the event, and watch responses flood in.

6. Stretch the message

Arrange with your webcasting company to have an instant “Watch Again” or video on demand feature, either in its entirety or split into individual bite size presentations.

In our experience more people view on demand than watch the live stream, so keep the engagement going by still allowing questions to be submitted and answered long after the live show.

7. Closing your webcast

Thank the remote audience for their time and their participation, sum up the hot topics and comments that have been submitted via the online community and keep the dialogue going by promoting your social media channels.

On any live event and webcast there will be multiple cameras (wide, close, audience etc.) as we mentioned before ask the camera team which camera is the close camera (the one directly on the presenter) and talk directly into that.

Oh and finally smile…

Adrian at EventStreaming.TV commented: “The best webcasts are the ones when the host or presenter fully gets that his biggest audience is behind the camera”

If you would like to discuss your latest social media webcast or any venue or connectivity concerns, call us on 01223 855669 or email adrian@eventstreaming.tv – when it comes to webcasting and events we love a good chat!

#webcast #cambridge #london #streaming

An on-line consultation about the future location of mental health facilities for people in south west London was filmed and streamed live by NHS webcast company EventStreaming.TV

The consultation was seeking views on the future use of facilities at Springfield Hospital in Tooting, Tolworth Hospital in Kingston and Queen Mary’s Hospital in Roehampton.

Webcasting the presentation allowed viewers who might not be unable to attend through time-restraints, disability and other commitments the ability to hear all the proposals and also interact and contribute via email, chartrooms and online polling.

EventStreaming.TV provide the on-site crew, equipment, streaming platform and 24/7 support

Adrian Taplin on behalf of EventStreaming.TV commented: “This webcast was the first time we’ve used a British sign language signer to support deaf and hard of hearing viewers. We simply used an extra camera dedicated to the signer and then reduced and included that shot in the bottom corner of the output via out Tricaster vision mixer, we’re really happy with the results”

Whether you require single camera coverage of your event, or a multi-camera set-up with full AV support, EventStreaming.TV can supply the right equipment with highly experienced friendly crew.

If you’d like to discuss your latest NHS webcast or event please call EventStreaming.TV 01223 505600 or email hello@eventstreaming.tv

Great British Racing is the sport’s official marketing and promotional body, working with all of racing’s stakeholders.

The QIPCO British Champions Day entries were announced live from Tattersall’s in Newmarket this week and local event webcasting company EventStreaming.TV were commissioned to produce and stream the event live on YouTube

Presented by Channel 4 Racing’s Gina Harding the live webcast was watched by over 1000 online viewers with many more watching the instantly available “video on demand” stream.

James Yellen, Digital Executive at GBR commented “It was a pleasure working with EventStreaming.TV. Our live streaming event needed professional hands to ensure that it ran smoothly and, thanks to the help of the team, it was a huge success. I would recommend them to anyone.”

The EventStreaming.TV team provided all the necessary equipment from cameras, vision mixer, encoder and sound, in essence a TV production without the high cost.

See the video live on YouTube https://youtu.be/CrkG21JKPrw

If you’d like to discuss your latest webcast or event please call webcasting company EventStreaming.TV 01223 855669 or email hello@eventstreaming.tv

www.eventstreaming.tv

#eventstreaming #webcast #videoproduction #london #video #edit

So you’ve drawn the short straw and it’s your turn to organise the company conference, the brief make it better than last year and with less budget – Oh and the boss wants it live streamed!!!

Don’t worry; hopefully our little guide will help when choosing a venue.

Is there adequate internet access?

Obviously without the internet there is no web-cast, most venues will offer some kind of internet but you need to make sure it’s capable of handling the bandwidth needed to stream.

The golden rule is never use the WIFI it’s normally not stable, not secure and fluctuates too much. Plus when your delegates start using it via their tablets, laptops and phones they’ll be very little bandwidth left.

Ask for a fixed line dedicated to you, you’ll probably have to pay extra but it’s worth it, you don’t need much bandwidth 5mb upload will be fine.

Visit the venue, test the internet line and make friends with the IT department.

Look Feel and Ambiance

A beautiful country estate, hotel or impressive office block is all very well for delegates attending your event but will be completely lost on a remote audience.

Create a presentation area with both the local and remote viewers in mind, a simple backdrop; good lighting and a little branding will go a long way to enhance the on-line viewers experience.

Check what the venue supplies as part of the room hire package and what the extras are for example are seats, tables, AV equipment, lectern and staging included?

Is there adequate lighting?

Lighting on the presenter for video web-casts is an essential consideration; it gives depth to the cameras view of the presenter and will set the presenter apart from the background.

If you have a local audience attending they may require the house lights low if slides or video are shown on a screen, which can easily throw the presenter into darkness for the remote viewers.

Ask the venue or AV company for some staging lights, or a brighter projector so the house lights can be kept up.

AV equipment

The standard of in-house AV equipment differs greatly from venue to venue; some have state of the art integrated lights, audio and projection systems other a battered domestic projector propped up on a desert trolley.

Remember it’s not just the equipment you’ll need but also a technician to set-up and operate. Additional equipment and crew may be needed they’ll need time to set-up and have a cost implication.

Venue staff names, numbers and shift patterns

When you do the site visit make sure you meet or log contact details all the venue personnel that you will require on the day. There is nothing worse than finding out that helpful event manger or venue technician shift finished 10 minutes ago.

We’re always happy to work alongside any venue teams to ensure your event run smoothly, backups are in place and your event is a success.

If you would like to discuss your latest web-cast or any venue or connectivity concerns, call us on 01223 855669 or email adrian@eventstreaming.tv – when it comes to webcasting and events we love a good chat!

#webcast #cambridge #london #streaming

Around the world companies of all sizes are realizing the benefits of directly communicating with staff and customers via webcasting, some more successfully than others!

So how do you quantify the success and value of a webcast? For each company it will be different but here are our key markers.

Viewer numbers: Total number of viewers that tuned in, did it meet expectation?

Viewer relevance: More important than numbers did the target audience tune in.

Reach: Geographical locations of viewers, 5 viewers in 5 different continents saves a great deal time and money on travel.

Viewer duration: How long the viewer watched the stream – so the right people watched but crucially were they engaged enough to watch the whole webcast?

The answer lies in what your company wants to achieve from a webcast, deciding this beforehand is crucial to the planning, promoting and format of the event.

We love a list and here’s our top 5 points to consider.

1. Content is king. Keep the viewer in mind, dull presentations can send most of us mere mortals to sleep in seconds, if you don’t engage the viewer then they will switch off.

Put yourself in their position and ask why this audience would be interested, and what can we do to make the whole experience more interactive/relevant?

2. You are putting your company name, brand and credibility out there for all to see and scrutinize so make it as professional as possible.Use at least two cameras (one wide the other close), light the set well, and use a professional sound technician (bad sound, equals no story and no audience)

3. Rehearse and then rehearse again, make sure you have a clear introduction and call to arms ending.

4. Engagement: Keeping your virtual audience engaged is crucial, it’s hard to walk out in the middle of the CEO’s key note session, easy to walk away from a screen. Include interactive features. Allow the viewer a voice with Q & A sessions, chartrooms, voting and polls.

5. Promotion: Viewing figures will be low if people don’t know about your webcast.

Create a targeted awareness campaign around your desired audience before your live stream and put it into action with enough lead time.

Keep people updated as to when the webcast is going live and remember that it is always advisable to stream at multiple bit rates so viewers can watch on any device anywhere.

If you’d like to discuss your latest event, webcasting or project please call Adrian at EventStreaming.TV 01223 855669 or email hello@eventstreaming.tv

www.eventstreaming.tv

So sorting the webcast for the next company meeting has landed on your desk, don’t panic!!

Here are eight questions that should help you on your way when choosing the right supplier.

1: Have they got a quantifiable and proven successful track record?

Quickly select the top 3 candidates by checking out their website portfolio page; there is nothing wrong with hiring a start-up they can be some of the most innovative companies around but you need to know they can do the job.

Customer testimonials and reviews are also a great indication of service and past successes; don’t just rely on their website check out FaceBook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Ask: If it’s ok to contact a few recent clients for references.

2: What fail safes and backup plans do they have in place?

Things go wrong; the trick is to be prepared for when they do, any reputable supplier will be packing a backup and have multiple options if the webcast glitches. (the viewer should never know it happened)

Ask about how they deal with the encoder going down and also the internet?

3: What client support do they provide pre during and post event?

This is purely about customer service and the ability to walk and talk you through the whole process both before and after the webcast, prior to the event a good webcasting companies should 100% insist on a visit to your venue to test the internet connection for speed and firewalls. (If they don’t it’s not a good sign)

After the event it’s important that you get a full set of analytics, who watched, where and for how long. It’s also worth considering that some viewers won’t have watched live and other might want to watch again, so ask about their video on demand service.

Ask: If they do site visits prior to an event, what analytics they offer post event and watch again?

4: Is their service multi-platform, will it work?

Not one person will watch the webcast in the same way to the next so you need to ensure your chosen webcast supplier is adaptable and flexible.

You should insist on streaming in multiple bitrates from HD to mobile and also have a player that automatically determines the bandwidth and streams the correct version of your webcast. This way, your viewers will be able to watch the highest quality version of your video, without stuttering or buffering.

Ask: Can the webcast be viewed on any device, anytime, anywhere?

5: How secure is their service?

For many companies security is key, especially when dealing with confidential information, most webcast platform should have multiple security protocols and at the very least the ability to login and data capture the delegates name and email.

Ask how delegates can login securely?

6: Interactivity, can I ask a question?

Interactivity is vital for the viewer to feel engaged, a good webcast should at the very least have the ability to email a question to the panel or host. More advanced webcast could offer chat rooms, polling, voting and social media.

Ask how the viewer can interact and how this is managed?

7: Scalability can they do more?

If you’re not using an event production company you may need extra audio visual equipment for example microphones, lights, staging or a lectern.

Most webcasts fail because of poor sound it’s essential to use a professional audio solution.

Ask what else the company can offer to enhance the webcast?

8: Transparent costs?

Ensure that there are no extra charges and that all costs are fully broken down, added services that you assumed were included can quickly bump an invoice!

Ask for itemised costs, including crew, equipment and travel.

About us

Internet streaming today is perceived as incredibly complicated and expensive, we think we buck the trend as our webcasting solution is extremely cost effective and packed full of interactive features that we’ve included absolutely free.

The company EventStreaming.TV was born to offer a realistic price for event webcasting whilst still insuring the highest possible service – all our costs are transparent, video crews professional and above all we’re flexible and proactive.

We work with many high profile clients, such as Tesco, Microsoft and Siemens as well as local agencies and production companies. Our focus is always aimed at delivering a great webcast every time…

We believe in a friendly yet professional approach and a collaborative working relationship, we’ll work closely with your event organiser and AV company to ensure smooth running of your webcast.

Adrian streaming technician for EventStreaming.TV commented “As with any technology there are things that can and will go wrong, I can guarantee on a daily basis the BBC, ITV and SKY have multiple problems but their programmes still air and “we” the viewing public are blissfully unaware.

This should be the same within the webcasting community, with good account management, pre site visits and multiple backups; short of meteors colliding with satellites and spilling coffee on the encoder a webcasting companies should be able to solve any problem before and during a live webcast – the viewer will never know.”

If you’d like to discuss your latest event, webcast or project please give Adrian a call at EventStreaming.TV 01223 855669 or email hello@eventstreaming.tv

www.eventstreaming.tv

#eventstreaming #webcast #videoproduction

Webcasting, live streaming, call it what you will, it is here to stay and now should be a consideration for any size of event, enabling far greater reach and an interactive experience for remote audiences.

It is fair to say that pretty much anyone these days with a bit of tech savvy knowledge and minimal kit can produce a live stream, any in house IT department worth their salt can bolt together a solution which will work and low and behold you can broadcast over the internet.

However a solution that will “work” just isn’t enough these days, years of watching professionally produced television programs, sporting events and festivals, audiences have become conditioned to expect and demand high end production quality.

With a bit of thought and the addition of some simple room dressing, lighting and a proper audio solution (not the inbuilt mic from a camcorder), a small event can have a great impact. With a bit of creative know how, any sterile board room, run down hotel conference room or even an old church hall can be transformed into spectacular backdrops and sets. Get a bit of branding up, personalise your event, rehearse, after all it is your event you are showcasing to the world, make your webcast shine!

Jamie Founder of eventstreaming.tv “It is always exciting to see more and more small companies, festivals and events contacting us and embracing live streaming. Clients are constantly astounded by the level of production that can be achieved with minimal outlay”

If you’d like to discuss your latest event, video or webcasting please call eventstreaming.tv 01223 855669 or email hello@eventstreaming.tv