5-Minute Read: Webcast Your Concerts!
As memorable and motivating as our many adjudicated performances can be, it's the concerts at home, for friends and family, that can mean so much more. Your winter and holiday concerts, your spring concerts: these events are both a showcase of your students' talents for their most appreciative audience, and an resounding "thank you" for those who make our creative and artistic activities possible.
But not everyone can be there at our concerts. Some ill or elderly family members are unable to travel. Other friends and family may live too far away, or may be encumbered by business travel that prevents their attendance. Thanks to webcasting technology however, we can bring our school band concerts to greater audiences than ever before, and we can even grow our audiences by reaching out via this electronic medium.
Video Hardware and Software
I know, it seems that live broadcasting a video online is something that would require lots of expensive equipment and sound, but it's actually become easy and widely available technology. Any laptop with a decent HD camera, or a stand-alone HD webcam, can be used to video your band's performance. As for streaming this video, no special software is required. There are web services such as UStream (a very cheap option) or YouTube Live Events (a free option) that allow you to create a live event and stream it to an internet audience. Just make sure that whatever computer you are using to broadcast your concert is connected to the internet by a strong, hardwired ethernet connection. A wi-fi or cellular data connection won't have the bandwidth you need to broadcast. Finally, don't forget that some of our schools already have live internet video capabilities that they use for sporting events and morning student news shows.
Audio Concerns
You can get away with a moderately decent image quality for your band concert, but audio is of the utmost importance in our activity. Therefore, remember the following:
- Don't use a computer or laptop microphone.
- If you have a recording booth and staff at the concert, simply take their monitor feed and input it into your computer for the broadcast.
- If you don't have a recording booth or staff, then use quality condenser microphones out in the audience, and feed their input into your computer. These are no longer nearly as expensive as they once were.
Get Your Students Involved!
You're a band director, not a sound technician, and you've got lots of things to worry about. So find your school's technology-wise students and task them with this job! Maybe there's a broadcast or recording technology club at your school. Or perhaps you've got students in the band who would like to take this opportunity to apply their interests in recording technology.
It Will Grow, Not Shrink, Your Attendance
Beyond the technical hurdles, I know the primary concern you may have: "will streaming this live over the web reduce my concert attendance?" The answer, as born out by research and the experiences of the many colleges and universities who webcast their concerts, is a resounding "no." In fact, in addition to allowing those who can't attend live to still hear and see the concert, live webcasting has been found to actually increase the likelihood that a viewer will attend a concert live in the future.
While this may seem like a daunting task, a little foresight and testing can net you some wonderful results for your band's most enthusiastic audiences. Give it a try with your spring concert!