10 Things to Look For in a Good Live Broadcasting Or Live Webcasting Solution - By: jnorb007

Posting video on a website was a very exciting thing just a few short years ago. Now when people go to a website, they almost expect to see video.

Now not only can we take any YouTube or other video and quickly post it to our website, we can record video directly from sites such as MySpace without having to upload or transcode it. Pretty amazing stuff.

Even live Internet broadcasting has come a long way. Just 3 or 4 years ago, to do a quality live broadcast over the internet required expensive equipment and expensive tech people to hook up all the wires. Fortunately, like most things on the internet, technology just keeps getting better and better.

Here Are Ten Things To Look For In A Good Internet Broadcasting Solution:

1. Use a web-based solution: They store all your video files and upgrade the application on their end so you always have the best and latest and won't clutter up your computer with large media files.

2. Make sure it can accommodate a variety of Internet connection speeds: Although live broadcasting is best suited for broadband connections, you should have the ability to adjust your upload speed to accommodate viewers with slower connections.

3. Make sure it can record your live broadcast for replay on demand: This is a biggy! Doing lengthy live broadcasts takes a lot of preparation and time and being able to send them out as links or embed them on your website is critical to leveraging your time.

4. Make sure it uses flash technology: Flash is a slightly lower quality format than Windows Media, but flash is installed on 95% of all computers and is compatible with both Macs and PCs, guaranteeing your broadcast can be viewed by the most people.

5. Make sure you have adequate broadcasting time: 60 minutes is usually enough to get your point across, but I've seen solutions that offer 8 hours of broadcasting time.

6. Make sure the solution has interactive communication tools: This means the ability for your audience to interact with you, typically via text chat while they are watching you in live video.

7. Image /slide / graphic display during broadcasts: Being able to support your live video feed with supporting pictures and slides is paramount to a good presentation and any good broadcasting solution should allow this.

8. Plenty of storage: Having ample storage to park all your media is important. Five to ten gigs is usually plenty for the average user.

9. Ability to embed recorded broadcasts on your website or blog. Make sure the solution generates the necessary code to embed recorded broadcasts. Also make sure the system can generate a link that you can send out in your marketing collateral.

10. Customizable interface: Being able to use your own logos and banners in your live broadcast is important for messaging and creating a maintaining your brand. Also make sure your audience can link to external websites directly from your live broadcast.

What Equipment Do You Need?

These days, a broadband Internet connection, web cam and a broadcast solution provider is all you need. If you have a digital video camera (the kind you might take to the beach to film the kids!) you get better quality, but a web cam will work too. Using a web cam with a built in microphone is best in my experience.

What Can You Do With Live Broadcasting

Broadcasting gives you the ability to create your own mini-TV station to quickly deliver unlimited live broadcasts and even archive them for later playback.

6 Great Ideas for Your Live or Archived Broadcasts

1. Your email signature: Include a link to your latest recorded broadcast in your email signature giving you viral marketing reach.

2. Monetize Your Talent: If you have expertise in a subject that people are willing to pay for, require payment prior to accessing your live or archived broadcast. This can easily be done through PayPal or other payment services.

3. Website welcome video: Introduce your website with video and explain what your visitors will find on your site and most important how to buy your products or services.

4. Send To Your Email List: Now instead of just plain text, you can add more exciting video to your online campaigns by announcing new events, products or services.

5. Online Meetings: When you can broadcast live, you have the ability to talk live to your employees, vendors and business partners world-wide. This is an extremely powerful way to communicate and if your business is large with multiple office locations, broadcasting can help solidify your company goals.

6. Constituent Outreach: If you are in politics and answer to your constituents, having the ability to broadcast live is essential. Use it for remote town hall meetings, student question and answer sessions and much more.

Final Thoughts

It is unbelievable to me that with today's technology, anyone can become an Internet broadcaster. Imagine being able to sit down in your home or office, login to a website, click a few links and be broadcasting LIVE video over the Internet in a matter of minutes. And as more and more people move towards broadband Internet connections, the likelihood of live broadcasting and online video services becoming a fixture world wide is almost guaranteed.

See an example of a live broadcast and find out how you can use and profit from this emerging technology.

Go to: http://www.instantbroadcast.net/

About the Author

Jeff Norberg is a technology consultant specializing in Internet video communication solutions. He has developed and managed websites for the U.S. Congress and other Government agencies and is a trusted technology advisor on Capitol Hill.

Article Directory Source: http://www.articlerich.com/profile/jnorb007/83495

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