Webcasting 101: TV on Your PC
by Kendall Callas
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Why Webcast?
Why is a column about webcasting in this newsletter, anyway? The reason is that webcasting and streaming video offer tools that can help the legal administrator perform routine tasks better -- and save time doing it.
Depending on your job description, streaming video can help you communicate in four areas of your work: Business development, client relations, recruiting, and employee training.
SAY IT ONCE
The first step involves making a video. Did you ever hear that time management tip about efficiently performing paperwork: “Handle it once.” Well, my advice is: “Say it once.” After capturing a presentation or interview on video, you never need to say it again. The message is standardized, you’ll save the time of repeating the presentation, and it’s portable. If you stop at this stage, you can easily make a videotape (all you need is a VCR) or DVD (all you need is a DVD writer or ‘burner’) — these formats offer a good degree of portability.
MAKE IT PORTABLE
But if you take the next step of making a streaming video, it’s more than portable, it’s global. Streaming video can be accessed over the Internet from anywhere in the world, 24/7/365. Nothing to ship and quick to update. Your new attorney can watch your employee orientation video from a hotel in London on Christmas Eve. Your clients can watch case updates from home at midnight.
This is the age of digital video (DV). By using a DV camera -- I use a Sony DSR-PD170, but you can use any video camera with ‘FireWire’ output -- you can gather attorney and employee interviews. With commonly available video editing software (Adobe Premiere if you use a PC, iMovie or Final Cut Pro if you use a Mac) you can then assemble your interviews into a movie, that is, a video presentation with a purpose.
GOALS
What purpose, you ask? These are common videos you can find at law firm sites on the web, as discussed in previous columns:
Business development
Client relations
Recruiting
Employee training
Large organizations will appreciate the agility that streaming video offers by centralizing control of the message. When things change, triggering an update, there are no binder pages to cull, no videotapes to recall, no postage, no handling, no tracking. Once media is updated and posted to the web — the instant your FTP program completes uploading the webcast file to your streaming server — everyone in the world has access to the new material.
If you want to optimize your presentation (editing helps!), save time (“say it once”),
standardize your message, and make it easily available globally, 24/7/365, then streaming video is for you.
Need more convincing? Check out the
previous articles
of this column or tour the streaming videos listed on our
bullet reviews and links page.
Seeing is believing!
Too many webcasts, not enough time.
If you see streaming audio or video you
think would be of interest to our readers, please
URL and description.
Has your firm produced a webcast? We want the details!
If you'd like a clickable list of the web addresses from this and past columns,
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Kendall Callas, ,
is president of American Webcast and a 20-year veteran law office technology
consultant.
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