Webcasts Vs Webinars - Which One Is Right For You?
When you are seeking to make a decision on the ideal method for your next business seminar, video conference, or online presentation it comes down to two choices either a webcast or a full participation webinar.
Webast / Webinar, Whats the difference?
Before the arrival of online web conferencing there were only one choice for remote online presentations and seminars, the webcast. Essentially a webcast is a live, and oftentimes pre-recorded, video streamed out to a pre-registered group of participants.
For all intense and purposes this served the business community at large quite well. A company could have a guest presenter could share a Powerpoint presentation, play videos or even demo products or services with marginal costs and time investment needed.
Even so there is one big drawback to webcasts - attendee interaction. Webcasts are meant to be viewed and do not offer any interaction from the attendees. On the flip side webinars do allow interaction from the viewing attendees. With webinars you may have live chat, file sharing, microphone and webcam switching, voting and polling, which can bring more valuable information to the webinar participants.
Webcasts typically do not require the business to buy expensive equipment or software. However while there are sites on the Internet that offer free webcast services they do have their limitations. Most often being the number of attendees allowed or possibly time limits of the webcasts.
Webinars however do need software to carry out the various features they boast. In some instances this is software that will need to be installed on both the webinar host computer and participating attendee computer. Requiring you to install software does bring up additional problems and considerations a business should be aware of. Primarily operating system and computer hardware requirements are the two main things to consider.
Nowadays though we have available to us webinar solutions that do not require any software installation and are totally web based. This type of webinar solution is considerably more preferred because it gets rid of the need for a specific computer operating system and or version.
Generally if the webinar host or client can use a web browser they can participate in the webinar. Although one would note that while even an older computer may be able to use the web browser the speed and memory of the older computer may still be a limiting factor.
Luckily the cost of computers is tremendously cheaper than in years past, so most Internet web surfers nowadays have machines that are plenty powerful enough.
The final thing to consider in the choice between a webcast or webinar could be the costs involved. As mentioned earlier you could in fact do webcasts for free. But to get the most out of a webcast's functions it is recommended to go with a professional paid service.
Webinars also can be done for free as well, but are a great deal more limiting than even the free webcast services are. Also normally free webinar solutions are extremely feature limited and on unreliable connections. Trust me you don't want to gamble you seminar or presentations to an unreliable connection that could go out at any time during your webinar.
In either case of choosing to use webcasts or webinars you can expect to commit a little money into both online web conferencing solutions. Luckily the investments are small and very affordable to even the small businesses.Get a Free Demo on Webcasting and Webinar Send Email Now.
Webast / Webinar, Whats the difference?
Before the arrival of online web conferencing there were only one choice for remote online presentations and seminars, the webcast. Essentially a webcast is a live, and oftentimes pre-recorded, video streamed out to a pre-registered group of participants.
For all intense and purposes this served the business community at large quite well. A company could have a guest presenter could share a Powerpoint presentation, play videos or even demo products or services with marginal costs and time investment needed.
Even so there is one big drawback to webcasts - attendee interaction. Webcasts are meant to be viewed and do not offer any interaction from the attendees. On the flip side webinars do allow interaction from the viewing attendees. With webinars you may have live chat, file sharing, microphone and webcam switching, voting and polling, which can bring more valuable information to the webinar participants.
Webcasts typically do not require the business to buy expensive equipment or software. However while there are sites on the Internet that offer free webcast services they do have their limitations. Most often being the number of attendees allowed or possibly time limits of the webcasts.
Webinars however do need software to carry out the various features they boast. In some instances this is software that will need to be installed on both the webinar host computer and participating attendee computer. Requiring you to install software does bring up additional problems and considerations a business should be aware of. Primarily operating system and computer hardware requirements are the two main things to consider.
Nowadays though we have available to us webinar solutions that do not require any software installation and are totally web based. This type of webinar solution is considerably more preferred because it gets rid of the need for a specific computer operating system and or version.
Generally if the webinar host or client can use a web browser they can participate in the webinar. Although one would note that while even an older computer may be able to use the web browser the speed and memory of the older computer may still be a limiting factor.
Luckily the cost of computers is tremendously cheaper than in years past, so most Internet web surfers nowadays have machines that are plenty powerful enough.
The final thing to consider in the choice between a webcast or webinar could be the costs involved. As mentioned earlier you could in fact do webcasts for free. But to get the most out of a webcast's functions it is recommended to go with a professional paid service.
Webinars also can be done for free as well, but are a great deal more limiting than even the free webcast services are. Also normally free webinar solutions are extremely feature limited and on unreliable connections. Trust me you don't want to gamble you seminar or presentations to an unreliable connection that could go out at any time during your webinar.
In either case of choosing to use webcasts or webinars you can expect to commit a little money into both online web conferencing solutions. Luckily the investments are small and very affordable to even the small businesses.Get a Free Demo on Webcasting and Webinar Send Email Now.
