Webcast Providers And Their Role In Webcasting
Webcast providers are a variety of internet hosting service providers that specialize chiefly in providing webcasters with the means to distribute streaming webcasts of media files. There are many providers all over the world, each with their own different service specifics to allow for the webcast provider to be distinct from their clients. Examples of wecast providers include WorldStream, I-Beam, RBN, Akamai, Pinnacle Systems Cast Connect.Com, and many others. They are essentially hosting services, similar to hosting services that host high traffic websites on the World Wide Web. However, webcast providers specialize in hosting streaming audio and video files. To do this requires a specialized set of webcasting programs, infrastructure, hosting protocols, and related systems.
It is quite necessary for webcast providers to be able to give their clientele the needed bandwidth requirements to maintain webcasts above all things. To this end, specialized suites of programs have become available to meet this need, with StreamFactory and StreamGenie being such examples. These suite of programs and other like them enable providers to meet the webcasting needs of their clients in a more timely and effective manner. Webcast providers also need salient hardware and infrastructure to make this possible, namely high capacity, high performance servers and very reliable high speed internet connections. These things are needed to enable the movement of massive amounts of data and webcasting to a truly global audience.
Webcast providers may often target different market segments. Some may focus on corporate clientele while others may choose to primarily service individuals or small groups. Whatever the market strategy involved all providers need to know some essential pieces of information about their clients.
Information often sought from prospective clients involves scheduling, webcast length, target audience, security and firewall issues, infrastructure and location issues, media file delivery issues, the speed or bit rates of internet connection involved- including that of the client and of the target audience, formats likely to be used by the audience, internet infrastructure set-up, special services required, etc. Some webcast providers may require more or les information. Whatever the information required, the answers provided by the clients are used by webcast providers in order to better service the same, and at the same time, the information is used as a basis on how much the webcast provider will charge the clients. For instance, longer webcasts often equate to higher rates, as the infrastructure of webcast providers is being used for a longer period of time. Scheduling will allow webcast providers the capability to place more clients and also allow them to be able to provide bandwidth more effectively and only as needed. Connection and media file delivery issues are quite important to the client as well. Some areas do not have high speed internet connections, entailing the rental of a satellite uplink to speed up loading time. This is especially important if the client wishes to have multiple streams and has very large amounts of data to transfer to webcast providers. Protocols and security issues are also very important to ensure no program conflicts take place and the webcast operation runs as smoothly as possible.
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