Robert Wagstaff writes:
First things first - we’re talking about livestreamed corporate events, not gaming.
Perhaps your company wants to broadcast updates to its customer base, stream to popular platforms like Youtube, or broadcast a hybrid event: mixing an in-person audience with an online audience.
Today I’m going to show you the key differences between webinars and livestreams.
A little about me: I’m a Cambridgeshire-based Videographer and have produced 50 livestreamed events with 680 hours of audience watch time (1,100 hours counting the event recordings).
Key differences
| Webinar | Livestream | |
|---|---|---|
| Audience | Online | Online and in-person (Hybrid) |
| Speakers | Online | Online and in-person (Hybrid) |
| Venue | At home | Your chosen venue |
| Multiple cameras | Not usually | Yes |
| Ideal for | Smaller audiences | Larger audiences |
| How to watch | Download software | Embedded video |
| Platform | Zoom, Google Hangouts | Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch |
You might not have heard about ‘hybrid events’.
These are your usual in-person events that expand their audience with an online viewing option.
Think of an iPhone launch - there’s the clapping crowd (audience 1) and those watching on youtube (audience 2).
While webinars are perfect for small online-only events, if you’re running a larger event for potential customers, you’ll find a livestream is better suited.
Quality
| Webinar | Livestream | |
|---|---|---|
| Picture Quality | Highly Compressed (1mbps) | Good Compression (>4mbps) |
| Resolution | Depends on webcams | HD |
| Camera | Webcam | Professional HD DSLRs |
| Audio | In-laptop mic / USB mic | Wireless lav mic / handheld mic |
| Connection | At mercy of each speaker's connection | In control of connection |
| Latency | Near-instant | Seconds |
Webinars usually have lower quality picture and audio as they’re prioritising for low-latency.
The lower the latency is, the sooner Person A hears Person B.
It’s suited for interaction between speakers, but means everything else takes a backseat.
With a livestream most speakers are in the same room, so latency isn’t an issue and crystal-clear audio and HD video can take centre stage.
Quick note: Compression is more important than resolution. If you have a 4K image that’s highly compressed (1mbps), it’s going to look pixelated. If you have an HD image with low compression (>4mbps), it’ll look sharper.
Privacy
| Webinar | Livestream | |
|---|---|---|
| Video link privacy | Private link / password protection | Private link / public link |
| Login required | No, but encouraged | No |
| Name required | Yes | No |
Both you and your audience are concerned about privacy.
For you, your event may be aimed exclusively at your paying customers, so having a password-protected link may be critical.
If your event is for prospective customers, they might not want to share their contact details yet.
In this case, being more approachable and not requiring a name to join could help increase the number of attendees.