What is a webcast? A guide from the control room.
A webcast is a video broadcast delivered over the internet to an audience that watches rather than joins. It can be live or on demand. One stage speaks, and hundreds or thousands watch in a browser. This guide explains how a professional webcast is produced, delivered and costed, by a team that produces them.
- One to many
- Live or on demand
- Any browser
- A second path
What is a webcast? The meaning in plain words.
A webcast is a broadcast over the web. The word joins "web" and "broadcast". One source sends video and sound to many viewers at the same time, over the internet. The viewers watch in a browser or an app. Nobody needs a TV channel or a satellite dish.
The key idea is one to many. In a meeting, everyone can talk. In a webcast, the stage talks and the audience watches. The audience can still take part: they send questions, answer polls and chat. But they do not appear on camera, and they do not need a microphone.
A webcast can be live, or recorded and published to watch on demand. Most business webcasts are both. They go out live for the people who can make the time, and a replay stays up for everyone else.
Webcasting is the work of producing and delivering a webcast. It covers the cameras, the sound, the live mix, the encoding, the internet connection, the page the audience watches on, and the recording.
What webcasts are used for.
Webcasts appear wherever one message has to reach a large audience at the same moment.
Town halls
Earnings calls and AGMs
Conferences and summits
Product launches
Training and briefings
Public sessions
How a webcast works. From camera to viewer.
Every webcast follows the same path. The tools change with the size of the show. The order does not.
Capture
Mix
Encode
Contribute
Distribute
Watch and respond
What makes a webcast professional.
Anyone can start a webcast with a laptop and a free account. The difference between that and a professional webcast is not the camera. It is what happens when something goes wrong.
We are production professionals who build the tools we use. We have sat in the director's chair, run the engineering desk and called the show. So we build every webcast the same way: with a second path for everything that can fail.
A second path
A full rehearsal
A moderator on the questions
Sound that carries
Your brand on your page
It is how we work on every show. We produced the YOUNGO daily broadcast, in four languages across four channels, for two weeks.
Webcast platforms. Where the audience watches.
The platform is the page the audience watches on. It is a separate choice from the production. The same produced programme can go to one platform, or to several at once.
| Platform type | Good for | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Meeting tools (Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Webex) | Internal audiences already inside the tool | Attendance limits, little branding, thin data. See webcast vs Microsoft Teams |
| Webinar platforms | Marketing events with registration and follow-up | Built for a presenter and slides, not a produced stage |
| Social platforms (YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook) | Public reach and discovery | No registration and no control over who watches |
| Enterprise video platforms | Private town halls behind company sign-in | Licence cost and set-up time for your IT team |
| A branded event page | Launches, summits and investor events | Needs a production partner to build and run it |
Many shows use two at once: a branded page for the registered audience, plus a social stream for reach. Our guides to YouTube and LinkedIn live streaming cover the social side.
Delivery: delay, quality and reach.
- The time between the stage and the viewer's screen. A standard HLS stream often runs 10 to 30 seconds behind. Low-latency delivery brings that down to a few seconds, which matters when viewers ask questions live.
- The stream is encoded at several quality levels. Each viewer's player picks the best one their connection can hold, and switches if the connection changes. This is adaptive bitrate streaming.
- A content delivery network serves each viewer from a server close to them, so a viewer in Riyadh and a viewer in London both get a clean picture.
- Private webcasts sit behind registration or your company sign-in. Links can be single use, and the picture can carry a watermark.
- Interpreters in a booth, or live captions, carry each language to its own audience. See simultaneous interpretation.
- Every camera is recorded on its own, plus the finished programme, so the replay and any clips can use the best angle.
What a webcast costs. What drives the number.
There is no standard price for a webcast, because there is no standard webcast. A one-camera briefing and a three-day summit share a name and little else. These are the things that move the number.
Cameras and crew
Days and hours
The venue connection
Remote speakers
Languages
Platform and data
Replay and clips
We scope every webcast against its run of show, not a package. Tell us the date, the venue and who is watching, and we will tell you what it needs.
Webcast vs webinar in short.
A webinar is a seminar on the web. It is built for conversation: a presenter, slides, and an audience that is expected to ask, vote and chat. A webcast is a broadcast on the web. It is built for reach: a stage, a produced programme, and an audience that can run into the thousands.
The line is blurry, and many events are both. The useful question is not which word to use. It is how much production the moment needs. We compare the two in detail in webcast vs webinar.
A podcast is different again. It is audio, recorded, and downloaded to listen to later. Some webcasts become podcasts after the event.
Five questions to ask before you book.
Ask any webcast provider these five questions. The answers tell you more than a showreel.
What happens if the internet drops?
Who is in the control room?
Will we rehearse?
Where does the audience watch?
What do we get afterwards?
Our webcasting services page sets out how we answer each one.
Webcast vs webinar: what is the difference?
Webcast vs webinar: a webinar is built for conversation with a smaller group, a webcast for reach with a produced programme. How they differ, and which your event needs.
Read the articleInvestor relations webcasts. Earnings calls and AGMs with no second take.
How to run an investor relations webcast for earnings calls, AGMs and capital markets days: the formats, the risks, the run of show, and what to ask a production partner.
Read the articleWebcast vs Microsoft Teams: when you have outgrown the all-hands tool.
Microsoft Teams is right for most internal video. For large, external or high-stakes events, a produced webcast is the better answer. Here is where the line sits.
Read the articleQuestions we get asked.
Is a webcast live?
It can be either. A live webcast goes out as it happens. An on-demand webcast is recorded and published to watch later. Most business webcasts are live first, with a replay for anyone who missed it.
What is the difference between a webcast and a webinar?
A webinar is built for conversation with a smaller audience. A webcast is built for reach, with a produced programme and a larger audience that responds through questions and polls. Read the full comparison.
What is the difference between a webcast and a podcast?
A webcast is video, usually watched live in a browser. A podcast is audio, recorded, and downloaded to listen to later.
How do I watch a webcast?
Open the link from the organiser in a browser. If the event is private, you register or sign in first. Most professional webcast pages need no software install.
How much does a webcast cost?
It depends on the cameras, crew, days, the venue connection, languages and the platform. We do not publish a rate card, because no two webcasts are the same. We scope each one against its run of show.
Do you produce webcasts outside Dubai?
Yes. We are based in Dubai and produce webcasts across the UAE and the wider GCC. See our webcasting services.
Tell us the date, the venue and who is watching.
We scope every webcast against its run of show, not a package.
CBA webcasting covers conferences, launches, investor calls and town halls across Dubai and the GCC.