When to Do a Live Event

Updated July 27, 1998

Deciding to do a live event instead of creating stored content is often a difficult decision. There are many factors and costs to weigh, and each situation is unique.

Weigh the Costs and Benefits

There are some advantages to doing a live Webcast of an event:

It brings a sense of urgency to the user to tune into your Web site at a specific time.
Content creation is immediate since you can use Windows Media Services to both Webcast live and create stored content at the same time.
Once you learn how, it's a fairly straight forward process that can easily be duplicated time and time again.

However, there are some disadvantages to doing a live Webcast:

You will need a crew at the event location to staff an encoder PC station to convert the live feed to a compressed digital signal that is sent to the server. This can be expensive, although there are companies the specialize in producing Windows Media events and can help you produce a live event.
You will need a communications line between the event location and your server to carry the compressed signal to Windows Media Services. Sometimes ISDN or T-1 lines are simply not available at certain venues, or must be ordered months in advance.
Just as live television broadcasts are risky due to unforeseen problems, so are live Webcasts. We've heard of many unusual things going wrong, from being moved 5 minutes before "airtime" to communications lines going dead during a Webcast due to a phone company's unannounced tests.
Creating stored Windows Media content after the event can allow you time to finesse the audio or video, or create illustrated audio or interactive applications with the content. For example, a live feed might look something like this talking head video but if you took the time after the event you could turn it into an interactive online training application .

How Timely Is It?

It's always disappointing to put together a first-class Webcast with dazzling subjects and impressive technology, only to have very few viewers actually watch or listen during showtime. Be sure that your live event is in fact timely, and that you do all you can to make your event known to your audience well in advance with a reminder a day before the event.

For more information on how to put on a successful live event with Windows Media Services, check out the Windows Media Services Planning and Deployment Guide .