The surge in virtual events is a response to technological advancements and changing times. Conference-related technology is much-improved thanks to 5G networks. Mobile users can easily access online events. This provides a great alternative to in-person events. Engaging virtual audiences requires some planning and access to the right technology and tools. With Cincopa’s live streaming capabilities, businesses have all they need for hosting interactive and engaging virtual events.
The rise of virtual events
Virtual events today may include webinars, conferences, trade shows, and more. During Covid-19 when in-person events were restricted or canceled, businesses were forced to turn to virtual events to connect with their audiences. Since then their popularity has continued to grow. Businesses, organizations, and content creators are experiencing their many benefits.
Cost-effectiveness: It costs much less to host a virtual event than an in-person one. There is no need to pay for a venue or catering. Attendees don’t have to spend money on traveling or accommodation. They may be more inclined to participate because of lower costs.
Global reach: With virtual events, there aren’t any geographical barriers. People from all over the world can attend. All employees can access meetings, webinars, or conferences no matter where they live.
Accessibility: Recording virtual events means attendees can access them as video-on-demand (VOD). Those who couldn’t attend can benefit from this and attendees can also revisit content and consume it at their own pace. This helps to enhance the value and extend the lifespan of content beyond the event itself.
Inclusivity: Virtual events are even accessible for people with disabilities as they can benefit from closed captions and other accessibility features. More accessibility could result in a diverse group of attendees and more inclusivity
Networking and interaction: Chat integration, surveys, and polls can help with networking and gaining feedback from attendees.
Data analytics and insights: Virtual events provide businesses with data they can analyze. This gives them insight into factors like the behavior of attendees, their engagement levels, and their preferences. They can measure the success of a virtual event and decide how to make improvements in the future.
Cincopa’s live streaming features
With Cincopa’s live streaming capabilities, it is possible to live stream meetings, events, and education to employees, customers, and prospects. The “over-the-top” (OTT) technology delivers high quality from a single managing dashboard to multiple streaming devices.
Consistent quality and speed: Viewers from all over the world can experience consistent streaming quality and speed with Cincopa’s video content delivery network (CDN). CDN video streaming technology caches data on multiple servers across the world. It delivers video to viewers from a server closest to them. Streaming quality is adjusted in real time according to the network capabilities of the user and the device type. This provides consistent real-time interaction. A CDN solution also ensures reliable content storage and full security
Cameras: There is no need for sophisticated cameras and pro-skills to deliver professional content. Mobile phones allow you to capture 4K videos and you can maintain the highest streaming quality up to 4K with Cincopa’s HTML5 video player and adaptive HLS. Cincopa offers multi-camera support as this can create a more immersive viewing experience. Multi-camera support may be more engaging when live streaming for a large audience.
Live stream internally and externally: Live streaming is changing many aspects of the business from internal communication to webinars as it creates high engagement with an audience.
CincoTube is Cincopa’s answer for those who don’t want to host videos on YouTube where other distracting videos compete with theirs and they don’t have full control over their content. There are also few options for customization whereas Cincopa has many. These include using a brand logo, text, and colors. Adding watermarks to videos ensures content won’t be stolen. VideoTube is a comprehensive internal solution that allows enterprises to get the full value out of all their videos.
With CincoTube enterprises can communicate privately and securely in real-time within the organization. Department leaders can create role-specific private channels and include user permissions. Members only have access to the content they need.
Using CincoTube can unlock the power of video across an organization as it can contain Zoom meetings, training videos, product launches, town halls, and more. You can record live streams and upload them to a secure video portal where they are easy to find, stream, and share on-demand.
Users can find the right video in seconds when they use titles, metadata, tags, and in-video spoken words.
CincoTube and Zoom integration helps you to manage all your videos by automatically uploading them to the channel you choose. This can be a private channel only available to authorized viewers or a public channel.
Lead generation: If you want to stream your event or webinar privately behind a login paywall you can do so with Cincopa. Lead generation forms enable you to collect email addresses so you can grow your email list and increase your profits.
Advanced video analytics: Analytics are fully integrated with the Cincopa platform and will give you a better understanding of your audience. A Live Feed section is a list of all video viewers. You can find demographic details on the User Screen. You can then improve the content in terms of user engagement and marketing effectiveness.
Creating interactive virtual experiences
Engaging virtual audiences can be tricky. Cincopa offers several features that help you to create more interactive virtual experiences for viewers. You can engage with virtual attendees by using engagement tools such as opinion surveys, chat integration, screen-sharing, Q&A sessions, and polls. When viewers have interactive virtual experiences, it increases conversion rates and sales.
Q&A sessions: You can go live on Facebook or Instagram for Q&A sessions. Q&A sessions are often better in a virtual setting as you can easily keep notes of questions.
Auto-save streams: Cincopa’s “autosave” feature copies your stream to your Cincopa media library to create video-on-demand (VODs). You can enhance the videos with on-video features like annotations, subtitles, ads, subscriptions, and CTAs.
Ensuring smooth and reliable live streaming
Cincopa can be integrated with video streaming software such as Zoom Studios, Wirecast, and OBS. Users have access to a plug-and-play RTMP link for integration with these apps. The live streaming feature is included in all plans with no additional costs. Users who opt for a trial have access to two hours of live streaming.
Cincopa offers both passthrough and transcoded streaming depending on user requirements. With passthrough streaming your feed is distributed as you collect it. Transcoding covers your content on the go for a better user experience and compatibility across devices and networks.
During a live event with real-time interaction, it is always possible for glitches to occur. This is why it is so important to ensure that an internet connection is reliable, you test the equipment and have a backup plan in place. Cincopa has backup software and will give you all the technical support you need when hosting a virtual event.
Conclusion
Virtual events can be beneficial for various reasons such as reducing costs, making it possible for more people to attend, and using the content for various purposes. With Cincopa’s live streaming capabilities, you have all the tools you need to make your live events engaging and interactive.
