Hands-on Guide to Webcasting: Internet Event and AV Production (Hands-on Guide Series) [Paperback]

Amazon asks us to rate books by stars, but when I read a book about webcasting -- especially when it purports to be a guide for beginners -- I use the "Yeahbut" scale. As in the number of times I scream "Yeah, but..." when the author(s) make some simplistic statement about a complicated issue.

I'm happy to report that the "Yeahbut" issue really never came up with this book. Scattered throughout the chapters are sidebars -- some labled "Alerts," some "Author's Tips," and others "Inside the Industry" -- that do a nice job of expanding on issues raised in the main text. Overall, the authors do a fine balancing act between being too simplistic and overloading the reader with detail.

Disclosure: Part of my job is producing webcasts, and until recently was in an academic setting where I also taught classes on the subject. I am acquainted with both authors through professional meetings and their other writings. That being said, I have no hesitation in strongly recommending this book.

What's unique about the structure of this book is that it covers both technical and business issues equally well. It's straightforward in its approach to technical matters -- lots of screenshots to illustrate settings and controls -- but it also lays out some essential considerations that are all-too-often overlooked by the beginner. Does this webcast really have to be live? What can I reasonably expect from an audience in terms of its connectivity? Can we handle this ourselves, or do we need to outsource this? Can we afford the bandwidth to do this? Folks just starting out seldom realize that getting a computer to spew out video and audio packets over the Internet is darn near the easiest thing in the world to do. Having content worth seeing, well, that's the hard part.

One of the challenges of writing about webcasting is that the subject's a moving target. Examples in the book are heavily weighted toward RealNetworks and Microsoft's Windows Media. Quicktime is covered with respect to embedding the player in web pages and creating metafiles, but is generally sold short as a streaming platform. Likewise, Flash is largely dismissed. Both decisions were reasonable at the time the book was written and released. QuickTime Broadcaster wasn't the product it is now with it's use of the H.264 codec, and Flash 8 was still some months away. I'd expect a second edition to use more examples from each of these, but the real meat of this book -- the business, video and audio production, budget and personnel considerations -- are really quite independent of the particular streaming architecture one happens to use. And, for all the hype surrounding Flash here in the Spring of 2006, Windows Media and Real are still the industry heavyweights.

There are other good books about the technical side of webcasting -- Damien Stolarz's "Mastering Internet Video : A Guide to Streaming and On-Demand Video" comes to mind as a non-Steve-Mack-authored example -- but Steve Mack and Dan Rayburn have written a unique book: a comprehensive survey of an often misunderstood topic that is both clear and immediately useful in a practical way. If you're new to webcasting, make this book one of your first purchases.

Dan Rayburn and Steve Mack are two industry veterans with incredible insight into the process and business of event webcasting. Steve brings a wealth of hands-on experience producing high profile events, and Dan knows the ins and outs of the business models and the digital media industry landscape.

This book does a great job detailing, step by step, all the things you should consider when producing your own webcast...from how to deal with contracting issues, where to place cameras and microphones, how to deal with venue staff and third party vendors, and many other practical tips.

If you want to get a head start on webcasting, this is the best book out there to get you going.

Maybe a great book for people who are not at all familary with webcasting. But if you have done one before, this is NOT for you!

I was very disappointed that advanced concepts were skimmed over in just a sentence or two. The book only covered default choices and basic setup.