The webcast of our public meetings is more important now then ever, especially in times dealing with social distancing and pandemic protocols, where the media and the public are now not able to attend meetings in person.

This article is intended to outline some of the identified potential risks that may occur with webcasting, or running any live event. As with any contingency planning, the first step is understanding all of the potential issues that may arise, and plan for back ups accordingly. Along with our talented A/V partners, our team has compiled a list of potential issues that may arise in your webcast live event in order to assist your organization with setting in place appropriate contingency plans.

While all efforts are made to ensure that issues do not arise, even the best plan is only as good as it's contingency planning, and robust back up options are always strongly recommended with any live event.

For additional webcasting best practices please see the article here.

Scenario 1 – Customer’s Internet Outage

In the event of an internet outage at the Customer’s meeting location, the following will be impacted, unless a back up internet connection is available.

Webcast

The live stream of the webcast will not be available for public consumption, however with eSCRIBE’s Webcasting Plus service, the physical encoder is still recording the event and can be published for archived purposes once internet service resumes.

For those organizations using Webcasting Lite, as there is no physical encoder involved, there will be no back up available post meeting.

Remote Attendance

The connectivity of those individuals who are joining the meeting remotely through video conference (ex: Teams, Zoom, Webex) will be dropped. Best practice suggests that remote meeting participants connect via phone line for audio, in addition to using internet connectivity for video. This ensures that the remote participants can still be connected through phone lines for audio purposes in the event that the internet connection drops (unless VOIP phones are being used).

NOTE: Should the organization use VOIP phone lines, it is possible that someone in the meeting room will have to join the video conference through their cell phone to still facilitate an audio connection for the meeting to progress.

Access to eSCRIBE

Connectivity to eSCRIBE for minute capture and conducting of the meeting will also be affected, it is always recommended to download an offline (MS Word) copy of the pre-meeting minutes prior to going into the meeting as a back up. 

Scenario 2 - Webcasting Service Infrastructure Outage

In the rare event of an outage or service interruption at the webcasting hosted infrastructure, the live stream of the webcast will not be available for public consumption. However, those using eSCRIBE’s Webcasting Plus service, the physical encoder is still recording the event and can be published for archived purposes.

For those organizations using Webcasting Lite, as there is no physical encoder involved, there will be no back up available post meeting.

Scenario 3 – Issues With The Audio Feed

Potential issues with the audio stream vary greatly depending on the A/V configuration of each organization. Often these issues rise from fault in the microphone device itself, setting configurations at a switch, or in the cabling between the microphone and the encoder input. Troubleshooting should start at the cable ends, ensuring that the cables  are securely connected into both the microphone output and the switch/encoder input.

Aside from physical equipment issues, often issues arise in audio quality when there is too much ambient background noise or individuals are not speaking clearly into the microphone. Ensuring that all participants mute themselves when they are not speaking will also help in reducing the background noise.

Performing a test of the webcast stream 60 minutes prior to the meeting as recommended will help to identify these issues and allow for time to remedy without impacting the meeting.

Scenario 4 – Issues With The Video Feed

Issues could present themselves with quality of the video capture feed, often signaling a configuration issue with the camera, or an issue with the cable from the camera to the encoder input.

Troubleshooting should start at the cable ends, are the cables securely connected into both the camera output and the encoder input. If all cables are secure in their ports, then evaluate the settings on the camera, occasionally changes can be inadvertently made with firmware updates or other parties using the room that might have affected the camera configuration.

Finally, the other possibility could be the cable itself, if quality issues persist with the feed, replacing the cable could be the solution as cables can become faulty.

Performing a test of the webcast stream 60 minutes prior to the meeting as recommended will help to identify these issues and allow for time to remedy without impacting the meeting.

Scenario 5 – Webcast Encoder Hardware Failure

As with any hardware, failures in equipment can occur and best practice contingency planning always dictates having a back up of the audio & video stream(s) using dedicated recording devices. These recording devices can take many shapes, depending on the A/V configuration of the organization's meeting room, but they are usually connected to the A/V stream(s) prior to their feed into the encoder.

The backup recordings must be manually operated by someone on-site.  Pressing record, stop recording, and deleting old recordings to make space for new ones.  The backup recorders are very simple to operate and often provide a small screen which allows the operator to see what video and audio are being sent to the webcast encoder. The cost of these recording devices varies depending on each organization’s A/V system but can be in the range of $1,000-2,000. Our team of A/V experts is happy to provide assistance here as needed.