Nov/Dec 2003

Web Conferencing vs. Web Casting Explained
 While the term “Webcast” is often used to mean “Web conference,” it is actually a different approach to holding a meeting via the Internet. A Webcast is analogous to a TV broadcast, in which a live or prerecorded program is sent from a central location out to viewers – in this case, streamed over the Internet. The Webcast is typically viewed using Microsoft© Windows Media Player or RealPlayer. Web conferencing, in contrast, is more similar to a face-face meeting or seminar, with multiple degrees of presentation, interaction, and collaboration among many computer users.

Web conferencing – interacting over the Internet
Web conferencing allows a presenter to show an audience what is on his/her computer screen and collaborate in a number of ways.

  • Data: Web conferencing is focused on computer-based data (presentations, documents, software apps, or a desktop), which it can display and easily manipulate. That makes it easier for the businessperson to use, and makes it fit most day-to-day business meetings and events. Some Web conferencing platforms offer Webcam video.
  • Web & phone: Most Web conferences use an audio conference call to let the group hear the presenter. Phone audio is more reliable and higher quality than Internet audio. And it allows real-time interaction among participants in the event. But it does add the cost and effort of using the phone as well as a browser.
  • Small to mid-sized groups: The data-sharing and two-way interactivity work well for groups up 500 attendees. Also, costs scale with the number of users, making very large Web conferences more expensive than similarly sized Webcasts. Meetings can be hosted or attended from any PC with an Internet connection. No production or special equipment is required.
  • Two-way: Web conferences are more interactive, with the ability to share presentation rights and control of applications among all group members. For collaboration, in-depth presentations, sales demos and training it can’t be beat.

Webcasting – broadcasting over the Internet
Webcasting technologies use streaming media technologies that are great for delivering all aspects of an event over the Internet.

  • Video: The biggest difference between Webcasting and Web conferencing is the predominance of video vs. sharing desktop applications and content. That makes Webcasting preferable for high-profile public events. To make the video TV quality requires onsite production support, powerful servers, and lots of Internet bandwidth, which is why the base cost of a Webcast can be very high.
  • Net-only delivery: Live or archived video is delivered over the Internet and the audio is provided via speakers on your PC.
  • Large events: By using high-capacity distributed servers, Webcasting companies can deliver events to audiences of thousands. The services digitize the content and then send it to servers that distribute the content to the audience. The processing steps introduce a delay between the presenter and the audience – for example, the audience is seeing what the presenter did 30 seconds ago, although it appears live to the attendee. Unlike production costs, per-attendee distribution is cheap – just the cost of bandwidth – so very large events are less expensive as Webcasts than they are as Web conferences.
  • One-way: Streaming media is a technology developed to compress and transfer video and/or audio data through the Internet in such a way that the file can start to play while it is downloading. The content can either be “live" or “archived”. The distribution is fine for large events in which there can’t be much interaction between the audience and the presenter anyway. Furthermore, the delay in delivery of the content can make real-time interaction awkward. That’s why interactive tools like Q&A have been non-existent or rarely used.

 
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