The business of webcasting is exploding and one executive at Onstream Media Corp. (News - Alert) can give you several reasons why.

 

“In 1999, we did 100 webcasts,” said Scott Farb, vice president at Onstream. “This year, we will do about 10,000 webcasts. Technology is growing. People are getting accustomed to working on-line.”

 

Onstream, a Florida company founded in 1993, is an online service provider of live and on-demand, rich media communications via the Onstream Digital Media Services Platform. Specializing in online audio and video corporate communications, Onstream’s pioneering digital asset management ASP technology provides the tools for webcasting, webconferencing and content publishing services focused on increasing productivity and revenues for organizations.

 

Farb said Onstream got started in the webcasting space in 1999, doing audio only, with features such as synchronized slides. The company now does audio, video, Power Point, Q&As, interstitial videos played during an event, branded players and web pages.

 

Today, Onstream Media’s digital media services are used by many Fortune 100 company executives to broadcast their announcements and across the enterprise in sales, marketing, communications, investor relations, human resources and training.

 

Citing cost effectiveness, Farb said a webcast can be as low as a couple thousand dollars, which is the price of one person flying to a conference. “The bigger, the more cost effective. It’s becomes pennies per viewer,” he said.

 

Farb said he has clients calling that want to do a webcast because they don’t want to stand in an airport for two hours. With a webcast you know it’s going to happen, but you don’t know if your plane is going to get canceled, he said.

 

“We recently did a webcast for a Fortune 500 company in 10 different languages – Chinese, Russian, Dutch, Spanish, German, French, Canadian French, English,” Farb said. “The cost of them traveling would have been 20 times more than the webcast, probably more. It was 1,000 people from all different locations.”

 

Aside from being cost effective, Farb said the benefits include: ease of use for endviews, who just need a link to participate; ease of use for presenters; the ability to broadcast live and on-demand; branding and customization of user experience; the ability to have interactive features on a large broadcast; and the ability to have audio and video.

 

There is also full reporting to see who watched the webcast, how long they watched and any interactions they had, as well as scalability. “We’ve had webcasts for 50,000 people,” Farb said.

 

Farb, who joined the company in 2000, said they currently work with about 2,000 companies. Some work they’ve done includes e-learning, marketing, weddings, funerals and medial education. They have also done a cruise ship launching and product launching, such as one they did with a camera on the front of a rollercoaster.

 

“The industry is really exciting,” Farb said. “I work 12-14 hours a day and I’m excited to come in to work. I’m able to help companies fulfill their webcasting needs. It’s been fun and exciting and I think the next five years will be even more fun and exciting.”