The Webinar Blog

New Layout For The Webinar Blog

I am trying out a new layout my blog provider has made available. This should be responsive to screen size, and thus easier to read on large screens and on mobile devices. Please add a comment to let me know your impressions!

The key difference from the old layout is that when your device screen size is narrow enough, the controls and widgets that were previously found in the right-hand column are automatically moved to the bottom of the page to make more room for the text. So if you see an old post that mentions the right side of the screen, you may need to scroll down on your mobile device to see what I am talking about.

I hope this makes reading the blog more convenient for you. Happy new year and best wishes for a great 2018!

Xyvid Offers Unique Webcast Engagement Tools

I recently took a first look at Xyvid Pro, a web broadcasting technology marketed by Xyvid Inc. I was not familiar with the product and wanted to learn more about it. The CEO, David Kovalcik, was kind enough to spend some time on the phone to tell me a bit about the company and the technology. This article does not include a product review, as I have not yet had a chance to test out Xyvid Pro firsthand.

David told me that the company's history with client events goes back several decades, with origins in audio/video staging for live conferences and shows. They went public in 1995. A few clients started asking for more formal webcasting capabilities, and Dave partnered up with existing third-party solutions available at the time. But he found them limited in capabilities and audience capacity.

Seeing a growth opportunity, David decided to create a new platform that he could use to satisfy client requests for large-scale web events. The first version of Xyvid Pro (pronounced "Zai-vid," to rhyme with "I did") used Adobe Flash as the underlying web communication layer. But the company recently completed a rewrite that discards all reliance on Flash and is 100% HTML5-based.

Xyvid's background in running A/V for shows was carried over to a focus on fully-managed web broadcasts for clients. Their sweet spot has been large enterprise clients delivering rich audio and video presentations to large audiences (anywhere from a few hundred to 10,000 participants). Now the company is starting to test the waters for Do-It-Yourself webcasts, where clients use the technology on their own, without complementary services from Xyvid. But this is never going to be a direct competitor to lower cost self-serve webinar products like GoToWebinar. They serve different needs for very different applications.

The basics of content delivery are fairly standard for this space… Xyvid Pro can accept Microsoft PowerPoint files, which are uploaded and converted into a proprietary internal format as a pre-webinar task. David says that the conversion process retains slide transitions and animation effects, but I have not yet validated it against my "Torture Test" file for conversion accuracy. Keynote presentations would have to go through an intermediate conversion to PowerPoint format.

Video can come from a direct computer-connected webcam, but the system is designed for optimal efficiency with professional video feeds coming from an external stream encoder.

Attendees can listen via computer speakers or telephone (with access options that are configurable based on the client's needs). Telephone audio is synchronized to the same broadcast delay as the video, so it should produce sound in sync with the image that each user sees.

For auditorium-style events, participants can log in to a simplified mobile device console that lets them respond and interact (such as typing questions), while eliminating the main content audio and video (which would come from the room's playback systems).

Network response and video performance are automatically monitored for each participant, and the system adjusts bandwidth and resolution of the broadcast stream to optimize performance per individual. This brings me to an innovative feature that caught my eye… "Feedback Loop monitoring." On a Xyvid-managed event, the technical support team monitors performance indicators for all participants and provides proactive support recommendations when they see problem spots. So an attendee can get help without having to call a support number or type a complaint to the event host. In a self-service web event, David says that the client can use the same monitoring features if they wish to take on this kind of proactive support role for attendees.

Another innovative aspect is something that Xyvid calls the "Engagement Tool Suite." This is a collection of one-way and two-way communication aids that clients can optionally add to their web broadcasts. Tools include some of the standard add-ons you might expect if you have explored other web conferencing products. For instance, you can run a group chat, or collect simple "set your status" response indicators from attendees, or conduct polls. Less common - but highly welcome - are text overlay options such as a scrolling text side panel or selectable presenter biographies that attendees can choose to read.

Then there are some fascinating and unexpected interactive features. One of these is "Word Clouding," where you ask attendees to type in words related to a topic and the system builds a graphic that highlights areas of commonality.

Another feature lets you hold an instant win contest, where the system randomly selects a winner from among the attendee list. And one of the most fun may be competitive gaming - which works a lot like the video trivia games you can find in many bars these days. Attendees see multiple-choice questions and have to click in their response. Correct responses are scored based on time taken to answer, and the system maintains a running leader board. You can group attendees into teams or let everyone compete as individuals.

When I tried to think of capabilities not addressed by Xyvid Pro, the main one was screen sharing. This is a common need in the webinar world, but David said it simply has not been requested by their large-scale event clients. I did note however that the Engagement Tools Suite includes a tool for displaying a web page to the audience, which is probably as much screen sharing as these types of events are likely to use.

I am looking forward to getting hands-on with the product and stress-testing some of the features. In the meantime, it's always nice to see examples of innovation and modern development in our industry!

 

Technorati Tags: Xyvid,web broadcast,webcast,webcasting,webinar,web seminar,web event,web collaboration,online event,web conference,web conferencing,David Kovalcik

Improving Webinar Audio Quality - Telephone

This post concludes my two-part series of tips on optimizing presentation audio quality for webinar or webcast presenters. Today's post provides recommendations when using a telephone to present. If you use a computer microphone, go back and read yesterday's post (which also includes some background and reasons why you should care).

As with the previous set of recommendations, do what you can within your own pragmatic constraints. Every person's situation is different, but the goal of getting better sound is universal.

1. If possible, use an old-fashioned desk phone wired to a wall jack. These are getting harder to find, but dedicated wiring still produces the best quality and reliability.
2. Avoid VoIP-based telephones. Many small businesses have phones that piggy-back on the office internet. They are prone to noise, interference, and buffering whenever there is a heavy instantaneous load on data usage on the network. The telephone portion gets lower priority than data. By the way, VoIP telephones are different and distinct from cable-modem telephones such as you might have at home, provided by your cable provider (at a separate cost from your internet cable). Those keep the circuits separate and are okay to use.
3. If you are calling from home, temporarily disconnect any cordless phone base units that are wired into your phone jacks. This sounds crazy, but cordless units can affect quality on other phones even when they aren't in use!
4. Avoid speakerphones. My old post on why you should "Smash Your Speakerphone" still applies. If you are forced to use a speakerphone to pick up several presenters in a room, try to find the type that has satellite microphones you can position in front of each person. Or gather the presenters together and slide the base unit as close to everyone as possible. Face directly toward the microphone while speaking. And consider standing up a large book or binder behind the microphone to reduce room reflections coming back from the far wall.
5. Avoid mobile/cellular phones. It's just too hard to maintain a strong, steady, unbroken signal for the full length of a webinar. If you are forced to use a mobile phone, keep it plugged in, which helps boost signal strength and ensures you will not run out of power during the session.
6. If your phone has a headphone jack, use that. (Dedicated professionals can invest in third-party headphone adapters that work with older phones, but this is overkill for most people.)

And I'll repeat two last headset cautions from the previous post, since they apply to telephone use as well:

• Avoid iPhone-style earbud/microphone headsets. Do you use that little white cable with a microphone bulge in the cord? Stop it. The cord rubs against your shirt, producing noise. The microphone is also relatively insensitive. If this is absolutely your only available device, get a paperclip or small spring binder clip and attach the microphone to your collar as close to your mouth as possible. Then remember to speak towards it at all times, and not turn your head away to look at something else.
• Avoid Bluetooth wireless headsets. I know… They are tremendously convenient. But they introduce yet another compression/transmission step in the chain, lowering audio quality even before it gets to the web conference input. And they have a nasty habit of running out of power halfway through the presentation.

If you have additional suggestions or anecdotes, please add them in the comments!

 

Technorati Tags: telephone audio,telephone quality,webinar,webcast,web seminar,webcasting,web conference,web conferencing,web meetings,web collaboration

Improving Webinar Audio Quality - VoIP

Today I present a quick list of recommendations to help presenters optimize how they sound when using computer audio. Tomorrow I will follow up with a similar list for presenters using telephone audio.

Not all these recommendations are practical for every person in every situation. Do what you can, and at least be aware of how each configuration decision affects the way you sound.

On a webinar or webcast, the way attendees perceive you as a speaker is heavily influenced by the audio quality they hear. I run hundreds of webinars on different platforms, with guest speakers from around the world. In survey after survey, attendees express frustration with audio.

Remember, your audio quality only gets WORSE after it leaves your location. Web conferencing products compress the audio stream, it gets packetized and buffered and reassembled over the internet, it gets transmitted to attendees over poor quality or low speed or overloaded networks, and it plays through low-fidelity speakers. And the formal nature of a webinar or webcast makes attendees much less tolerant of glitches than they would be in a casual person-to-person conversation.

With all that working against you, what can you do to push better quality audio from your location?

1. Use a hard-wired Ethernet connection rather than wireless internet. I know… It's getting damned near impossible to find wired Ethernet connections anymore. If you can manage it though, this will dramatically improve the clarity and reliability of your computer audio.
2. Avoid built-in laptop speakers and microphones. The microphone on your laptop computer is terrible. It picks up every keypress you make. And it often generates feedback from your speakers. Plug in a microphone instead!
3. Avoid iPhone-style earbud/microphone headsets. Do you use that little white cable with a microphone bulge in the cord? Stop it. The cord rubs against your shirt, producing noise. The microphone is also relatively insensitive. If this is absolutely your only available device, get a paperclip or small spring binder clip and attach the microphone to your collar as close to your mouth as possible. Then remember to speak towards it at all times, and not turn your head away to look at something else.
4. Avoid Bluetooth wireless headsets. I know… They are tremendously convenient. But they introduce yet another compression/transmission step in the chain, lowering audio quality even before it gets to the web conference input. And they have a nasty habit of running out of power halfway through the presentation.
5. Try to use a wired, USB-connected computer headset. They really aren't very expensive, and the small investment pays off in better quality and hands-free convenience. Here are three examples I found on Amazon (these links go to the US version of the site). Any of them would do just fine, and you can pick your preference for earcup design.

• http://a.co/adTUdjO (Logitech)
• http://a.co/1fdOVQu (Mpow)
• http://a.co/dWG42wW (Sennheiser)

My professional colleagues who present or moderate a lot of webinars will wonder why I did not include a recommendation for desktop microphones. Only because they are overkill for the average occasional presenter. But if you have the space on your desk and want to set up a Blue Yeti or an AT2020 with a pop filter, go for it!

Don't forget to check tomorrow's follow-up post with similar recommendations for telephone audio.

 

Technorati Tags: VoIP audio,VoIP quality,computer audio,computer microphone,computer headset,webinar,webcast,web seminar,webcasting,web conference,web conferencing,web meetings,web collaboration