Monday, November 21, 2011

What's Next In The Studio

Well, 2011 is almost in the bag and with it our first full year of video production. Everything we shot in 2011 was edited in post, and then posted/archived for our viewers.

This year we are preparing for live streaming. Live streaming involves in the moment decisions as to what will look best for our live audience. At our company, we are finding it harder and harder to pull people away from their organizations for a 3 hours lunch and learn, asking them to travel to a location and sit through demonstrations. Travel budgets continue to be tight and many of our customers are asking if we could possibly do this virtually.

Some of the things that we discuss and show in a lunch and learn environment do not translate well at all if we can only present by webinar. There are some things that need to be seen live and moving to pique interest. So live streaming seems to be the next logical step. In our studio, we can control, product placement, camera and lighting placement, and nice tight camera shots that are not as possible in an offsite environment without getting in someone's way.

After some research into different switcher/streaming options, I've narrowed down to one of the NewTek Tricaster models for a nice all in one package. These units really allow limited staff to put on a nice program. We'll be seeing an onsite demonstration next week, can't wait!

For streaming, Livestream seems to have the most flexible options in their Professional package.

I am starting to move our video content from our current video hosting platform to YouTube. This combined with using Livestream for streaming will save us around $2500/year.

I'll post an update when things are setup!