So, you’ve planned your online event, recruited the speakers, marketed it with great response, and gotten complete stakeholder approval on an online event that you expect will bring in hundreds or thousands of viewers, making months of work entirely worth it! But there’s one last piece that you need to be mindful of before the big day - how do you webcast it?
Webcasts, for the uninitiated, is “broadcasting over the internet,” and this can be anything from a meeting, a live event, a recorded webinar or a conference.
Mainly, it serves as a way for a webinar or a videoconference to be accessible and even interactive by a large audience.
When evaluating webcasting platforms it’s important to keep a few things in mind when vetting your options:
- What’s the quality of the audio and video?
- Does it have the right tools for engaging your audience?
- Is it cost-effective for your needs?
- Can it actually extend your reach and get you in front of as many people as possible?
Below we examine some of the current names in webcasting software and evaluate how usable they might be for your organization.
Samba Live by Digital Samba
The recently released Samba Live is a complete rebuild of the well-regarded OnSync platform. When you take 17+ years of webinar software experience and put it towards building something new from the ground up, you get a fully-featured web conferencing platform that performs beautifully and comes with every feature you would need for a successful and highly engaging webcast.
Even better, Samba Live is built entirely in HTML5 meaning that, unlike some of the other contenders on this list, there’s no need to download any software to either broadcast or view your online event.
Wirecast by Telestream
This software lauds itself as the “everything” platform that essentially gives you the power of a news station in its ability to stream out the video to thousands of viewers. However, its major selling point is also its biggest drawback.
Multiple inputs, animations, live captions all sound like “nice to have” features - but unless you’re a mega-corp with a need to stream to millions, you’ll just have a lot of options at your disposal that you will never touch. And this privilege of not using 80% of your features - also comes with a big price tag.
GlobalMeet by PGI
Much like the other platforms on this list, GlobalMeet can broadcast to audiences large and small. But really makes its mark with its analytics platform and event services. They provide a variety of solutions, with comparable features, serving a good many Fortune 500 companies.
Their starting prices are on the lower end of the pricing spectrum, but upgrades do cost more. More importantly, it seems that unlike most platforms that offer webcasting as a part of a larger solutions package – PGI pieces it out. You can’t see pricing til you request a sales call, and this is a needless hurdle in a transparent industry.
Webcast Elite by ON24
These guys have been in the business for a long time and have built a product that offers a full range of capabilities with a focus on webinars that promote engagement. But, between no pricing shown and software that is dated by today's standards, they leave a lot to be desired. When it comes to broadcasting your online event and reaching as wide an audience, as productively as possible, you want to work with a platform that is up-to-date and fits your budget.
Facebook & YouTube Live
With the rise of live streaming video, whether planned or impromptu, social platforms have emerged as one of the best ways to get your audience all in one place on a platform they already know and to also reach to audiences that are outside of your marketing.
But, while they’re great places to ultimately broadcast your webinars and online events, how you get your video to your social feed is a lot more important. Sure, simply holding up your camera and going with the flow works - but to really make an engaging and valuable webcast for your audience, you need to pair your social sharing with the proper cross-platform webcasting software.
Choose the right webcasting software
To sum it up, you have a lot of options when it comes to choosing the right webcasting software to broadcast your online events and webinars. But, remember to strike a balance between the right webcasting features that support your presentation and your audience's engagement, with a platform that can be flexible to the potential size of your audience.
Digital Samba is a budget-friendly all-in-one solution that works for organizations of any size, without being bloated with too many features or downloads, and still gives you all the tools you need for crystal clear and highly engaging webcasts and webinars.
Book a demo to see v in action. Our dedicated specialist will spend 30 minutes showing you how to get the most from Digital Samba.
