Webcasting 101: TV on Your PC
by Kendall Callas
|
Sorry, but your feet are going to get wet as we wade ever deeper into the topic of
streaming video in the legal community. Each month we look at law firm and law school
“webcasts” — audio/video over the World Wide Web. This month we expand
our topic to include our first look at webcasting in the courts.
WHAT’S ON TONIGHT?
The Michigan Courts and the State Court Administrative Office faced a burdensome task in 2003
when a web of rate and law changes took effect in Michigan. To promulgate the details, they
chose webcasting, via the facilities of a webcasting service cutely named You-niversity.
“Michigan Judicial Institute”
![[play
button]](aw_images/playbttn.gif)
http://www.you-niversity.com/affiliates/mji/feescosts.html
The “Fees, Costs, and Assessments” webcast series offers information in 5 short
videos:
- Probate Court (10 minutes)
- Collection and Transmittal of Fees (15 minutes)
- Circuit Court and Family Division (8 minutes)
- District/Municipal Court (22 minutes)
- Jury Fees (7 minutes)
The content of these webcasts is not likely to be of interest to my readers; what is interesting
about this site, however, is the choice and use of webcasting to distribute this type of information
— detailed, irregular, and number-heavy. Very legible text slides with synchronized audio
and video provide an especially good channel for learning.
SLIDES+AUDIO+VIDEO
The web service utilized (You-niversity.com) provided an effective medium for delivering
training and disseminating detailed information. It worked smoothly to deliver text slides with
accompanying audio/video, with a nice a Table of Contents menu to allow one to skip around
within the topics in the presentation, and buttons to allow skipping between slides, backward or
forward.
The system detects your connection speed and transmits only the level of media your computer
can handle: Broadband connections receive audio, video, and text slides. Slower connections
will get only audio+slides, really slow connections get only slides. My 56K test was apparently
too slow to transmit video; I heard the audio track but was sent only text slides.
Generally, I was impressed, but my disappointments are two:
1) You can’t watch video at dial-up speeds; and 2) the delays are bothersome while
jumping between slides or topics.
Requires Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player; it also uses proprietary player software,
so a short download initiates access.
For more details about the Michigan experiment, including Q&A and supporting
documents, go to
http://www.courts.mi.gov/scao/resources/other/fcawebcast.htm
Too many webcasts, not enough time.
If you see streaming audio or video you
think would be of interest to our readers, please
URL and description.
Has your firm produced a webcast? We want the details!
If you'd like a clickable list of the web addresses from this and past columns,
|
|
Kendall Callas, ,
is president of American Webcast and a 20-year veteran law office technology
consultant.
|
|
![[American Webcast logo]](aw_images/banner.gif)