Transcript Steve-Mack-2005SMEAST

Webcasting:
From Start to Finish
Steve Mack, LUX Media
[email protected]
Live Concerns
• No room for error
• Redundancy is key
• Real time
– Equipment
– Crew
– Bandwidth
• $$
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5 Phases of a Webcast
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Planning
Production
Encoding
Authoring
Distribution
3
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
4
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
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Audio?
Video?
Power?
Footprint?
All of the above must be satisfied
5
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
6
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
7
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
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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
9
Authoring
• Simplify web sites to speed up access
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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
10
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
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Justify
• Analyze the log files
– Keep an eye on them for two weeks minimum
• Do cost/benefit analysis
– Cost per user (savings?)
– Intangibles
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Goodwill
Participation
Communication
Brand extension
• Tell the folks that need to know
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Q&A
Thank You
Steve Mack
[email protected]