Video is still an incredibly powerful medium for businesses. As if to prove this point, Instagram’s decision to start introducing adverts to their video sharing service resulted in 4 out of 10 of the most popular Instagram videos in September being adverts.
Advertising is perhaps a little obvious when it comes to the use of video, however. At Precise, we’re seeing a revolution of our own with the introduction of live streaming at events and conferences. A week rarely goes by when we’re not either packing HD video equipment, tripods and laptops into our vans or sending proposals to organisers who want to live stream their next event.
This hasn’t come as a huge surprise. It is an incredibly cost effective way to reach a far bigger audience. People are used to video streaming – it is used that widely these days that people often expect to be able to access it, no matter what (or where) the event in question is.
We’ve recently had significant interest in our video streaming service from local councils. They see it as a way to reach out to communities and spread the word cost-effectively. We’re living in an incredibly politically-motivated society and, with an economy which continues to concern everyone, meetings regarding local council budgets, cutbacks and community projects are of interest to more than just those sitting in the conference room.
The public are of course invited to attend such discussions in person, but the truth is they rarely do. Council leaders are hoping that, by live streaming the meetings and promoting them via social media services such as Twitter and Facebook, communities will start to engage with the discussions.
Event Video Streaming Live chat can be incorporated so that people can ask questions of those in the room and, with equipment which is entirely unobtrusive, we don’t get in the way of the discussions at hand.
Great emphasis is placed on face-to-face meetings and, in this digital age, text only communication. Video streaming looks set to change that. As bandwidth becomes more readily available and the devices on which we consume video become smaller and more affordable, it could be time to consider letting the cameramen into your next event.