Difference between Webcast and Webinar
Webcast and webinar are two broadcasts of the recorded presentation through the internet. They are not only one-way transmission from speaker to audience. They can be transmitted from one speaker to a large or number of audiences.
What is Webcast?
The webcast is a media presentation. It can be distributed by the use of media streaming technology and distribute its media presentation from a single source to many listeners and viewers. It can be distributed live or demand. Webcasts are not time-constrained. It can be viewed at any time. It is the broadcast of video or audio from one location of the meeting to several audiences.
It is a recorded file. We can record any file or video and it can be aired by the use of webcast technology. There are benefits of the webcast, it extends the reach of the event to all or large audience from one location to different locations over the internet. In the case of a long journey, it saves time and money.
It makes easy and affordable for all to be part of the event. Webcasts preserve and share knowledge with different organizations. It is the visual images of social media and provides interaction visually by watching through a screen.
What is Webinar
This technology is also an online interactive form for the meeting. The webinar is education or training-based. The main function of the webinar is collaboration. It is the platform where people can interact visually by using the features of interaction like polls, chat-boxes, white-boarding, and markup.
It also provides the oversee interaction in addition to the collaboration. It provides the display place where a session of instructions occurred between speaker and attendees. It includes audio and visual communication. Webinar technology or software enables the sharing of slides and has interactive participation through chat-boxes and Q&A features.
The main feature of webinar is the interactivity or to send and receive the information in real-time. By the use of webinar software, participants can share audio, video, documents and applications.
This software is also useful when the webinar host is conducting a lecture or session. The presenter shares the desktop applications and documents. It is desktop sharing as a presenter.
Webcast VS Webinar
There are differences between webcasts and webinars. Both are providing the online services from one platform to large or several audiences but webcasts are designed larger in size. It provides the service to more than thousands of people while the webinar is designed as it provides the service for smaller groups up to hundreds of people.
The function of the webcast is as it uses the one-to-many model. In this model, typically a host will present slides, videos and graphics to large audience. While the webinar software function as collaboration. It is utilizing the interactive features like polls, chat-boxes, white-boarding, and markups.
Webcasts are great when there is the requirement of the speed of message is integral to the success of the outcome, for example, for urgent meetings and roadshows. Webinars are important for the collaboration of the people at one platform and fulfilling their requirements. Webinars are full-featured presentations for fewer or hundreds of people.