Envirodigital has been webcasting clients’ events for six months now.
Our clients want to:
create a good quality experience for those who chose not to travel to attend the live event.
At Envirodigital, we’re thrilled to work with our clients in the cultural (AmbITion Scotland) and government (SEPA) sectors to achieve this – we believe we’re introducing a new technology to markets that could (and should!) use it effectively. Webcasting is a good technology, and it’s here to stay. I believe this, because it achieves all the good things that my clients want to do: see above bullet point!
But webcasting is still an emerging technology, and the marketplace for it is nascent. At Envirodigital, we are dealing with systems that are improving iteratively (the quality and service we’re seeing from webcasting platform providers is better than a year ago, it will be better next year). We believe that people and the planet are better off with the new technology of webcasting, but there is a still a chance it will not work perfectly and the outcome could be poor. Repeated trials are necessary to ascertain true quality, and people have to remain optimistic & willing to try it out!
This is an interesting notion to ask clients to work with, as many expect the end result to be as dependable as Google Search, and as high-quality as BBC’s i-Player. But of course the webcasting industry as a whole hasn’t yet spent as much money developing itself, as either of these two products have seen spent on them individually! In reality, this means actually, systems might still crash; some users might find the usability tricky; others might still wish for better functionality or better aesthetics. So clients are currently early adopters, helping us work out glitches in the technologies and processes for achieving good webcasts.
What we now want to offer our clients and their markets is the chance to understand the features, benefits, and the different options available around webcasting, suitable for different needs. We want to share our learnings of the last six months, so that the whole market place begins to understand the technology and its benefits a little better.
So, over the next few weeks, we’re going to focus on helping you get under the bonnet of webcasting. I’d also like to know what YOU want to know about webcasting! Please ask questions in the comments section of this blog. Alternatively, this is also the beginning of a forum thread in AmbITion Scotland’s Digital Doctors’ Forum.