Introduction

Webcasting
  What is webcasting?
  Different from Video Conferencing?
  What are the drivers?
  Key market technologies

Key Elements
  Preparation
  Capture
  Delivery
  Reuse

ProLearn Live Trails
  ProLearn Summer School 2006

Summary

References

Articles
  Basic audio-visual equipment for webcasting
  Audio-Visual Webcasting Tips

Focusing on desktop PC webcasting there are four different commercial technologies (Windows Media, Real, QuickTime and Flash) widely available, plus a range of other technologies which tend to be locked into a specific hardware/software solutions, or use specific delivery methods for such as IPTV. In addition, there are open standards such as the MPEG series. All of the modern technologies have licensing requirements, largely through patents on compression (codec) technologies which to be taken into consideration, as typically there are fees associated with the licenses.

The Prolearn TV study discussed here has focused largely on using QuickTime technology for webcast delivery over the Internet. QuickTime provides support for the MPEG4 and 3GPP streaming standards, and its streaming server technology is available as open source. It uses standards based RTSP for network delivery. Windows Media and Real both also currently support this. Flash webcasting at present is of limited video quality for webcast uses, however recent improvements could see Live webcasting using Flash increase in popularity.

Contact: Kevin Quick