Looking for an on-camera webinar platform? I’ve tested many of the big ones and talk about two here: Google Hangouts and Talk Fusion.
Google Hangouts Pros:
1. Free!
2. You can now schedule your Hangouts – used to be you had to just start one. That feature will take too long to explain… but it’s done via the YT platform and it’s called Live Events
3. Unlimited viewers
4. Limited to 10 people who can participate in the Hangout itself, in other words, be on camera with you. Little videos at the bottom. But unlimited number of people can watch
5. Lower third
Google Hangouts Cons:
1. Quality is crummy. It just is.
2. Big delay between what you say and when it’s broadcast – 30-60 seconds so if someone asks a question or posts a comment, you see it, but they don’t et the answer for what will seem like a long time.
3. Buggy – sometimes it works like it’s supposed to and sometimes it doesn’t.
4. No chat room, no way to restrict viewers. Once it goes live, it’s live to everyone.
5. You cannot play videos for public viewers, only for those invited to the hangout itself.
6. You cannot share slides easily, despite what they say about using Google Drive. And when you do, it takes the place of your on-camera video.
7. Automatically records
Talk Fusion Pros:
1. Easy to schedule.
2. Up to 500 viewers.
3. 15 people
4. No delay – WYSISYG – real time
5. Chat room
6. You can upload videos and slides to the library which will appear in the main window without losing you on=camera, white board, draw, record
7. Branding
Talk Fusion Cons:
1. Not Free, but reasonable $37/month – start up $250 get branding
2. Sometimes gets buggy
3. Video quality is ok, not as crummy as Hangouts, but not great – really depends on your bandwidth and the bandwidth of viewers
4. You have to record and I’ve experienced some bugs with that. You cannot download the recordings, which is a shame, so I’ve taken to recording my desktop on another computer so I have some control
5. Recordings will NOT record any other participants, only the host, or videos that you might play. They cite privacy concerns.
6. MLM business model, but you don’t have to use it. I don’t, but if you happen to sign up, please use my user ID: 1132214.
WOW! Thanks for GREAT information! I’m still not on video, but it sounds like it is improving upon itself at a rapid rate! Thanks for keeping up with all of it and sharing with us! You are so giving, enthusiastic, and magnetic!!! Thanks for being YOU! Barbara
Hi Barbara, thanks for writing. Video is improving exponentially, but, I’m afraid, until the general bandwidth situation in this country improves (USA), we are going to be stuck where we are.