Wirecast vs Webex Suite: Which is a better fit?

Philip: Hi, I'm Philip. I'm a videographer. And I would rate Wirecast on a scale of one to five at a four. The other thing is, if you want more information, click below. Before I had Wirecast, I was doing my lives on Facebook and YouTube, just using my smartphone through the app that's available for either of those platforms. And then I got Wirecast. I chose Wirecast because I needed a way to connect my professional video cameras and other accessories, like really high-quality audio into a livestream. And Wirecast gave me that option. I was able to connect to everything that I had through HDMI and SDHD connections, which is exactly what I wanted because I wanted to record ISOs on my camera at the highest quality, as well as livestream, using them for the better imagery and audio connections. The other reason is that I wanted to be able to use prerecorded videos and play them back during a live streaming event. And I also wanted to be able to put a lower third and other graphics on the screen. I was able to do all those things with Wirecast. Getting started with Wirecast was really difficult for a number of reasons. The first one being, well, I had to convince myself it was worth paying for. And although they do have the free test version, you really need to pay for it, to get the full advantage of it, because you don't want that water mark going up there and everything. But it was difficult because there's a pretty steep learning curve. If you've never used broadcast software before, and I was used to using real mixers hands-on and satellites and all the fancy stuff that we did back in the eighties and nineties to get a broadcast livestreamed, but it was difficult because although I understood this stuff, it's not a very intuitive interface. They do have good instructions and the... Wait, I can talk about this, right? The customer care where you call in is good. It's really good. They walk you through the stuff. They make sure you have stuff. I mean, but it was hard without that. And I like to just kind of get up and running. So there was definitely a longer and steeper learning curve than I expected. My recommendations for people who are looking to get into this kind of software where you could broadcast and bring in videos and stuff while you're livestreaming is, I would look at Wirecast, but I would also consider OBS Studio as an option because to me, the feature sets are very similar. I found it easier to use OBS and that, 100% truth. And maybe because I'd been through the Wirecast experience, but I found it easier to connect with YouTube and Facebook using OBS for. Some reason, Wirecast, it's more complicated. And I definitely have trouble with that. Like I said, when you're paying for the subscription, they do walk you through it. So, that's great. So be prepared to spend a significant amount of money to get started. And then the annual fee, if you're going to keep up doing it, if you want to, remember, there is a maintenance fee to keep with that connection and get the updates and everything like that. That's what I tell anybody, consider the free version. But if you need that, and if you have to have, this is the thing, if you have to have what's known as a playlist where it automatically goes from one shot to the next shot, to the shot after that, especially if you're just doing it by yourself, then Wirecast is what you want to go with, even though it costs money.

Diane: Hi, I'm Diane. I'm the founder of PreQualified Mates, and I give Webex a four out of five. I have used virtually every application that preceded Webex, including GoTo Meeting. I was an early adopter of Webex, I've used them all. I have hosted thousands of web-based meetings, so name it, I have used it. We used Webex for PreQualified Mates because of my experience with everything that preceded it, and the state of Webex at that time. I'd only used Webex for B2B, and we were using it in a B2C application. The other reason that I chose Webex at that time was that Zoom was really immature, and the real business model at that time was actually storage, which might be a surprise to most people, but what really appealed to me with Webex is that you had the ability to locally store and control your data. You didn't have to store your data on a data farm and pay for storage offsite unless you chose to do so. As I said, when we launched PreQualified Mates, we were using Webex for internal use, interviewing our clients and prospective clients. And it was actually really challenging, not because of Webex per se, but we were using it in a B2C environment. Hence, when we would prep our prospective clients in advance to confirm that they had a platform hardware to launch a Webex session, it was so challenging because it turned out that a lot of people's own personal computers are really old and obsolete. So it was a real struggle, really painful, and we spent an inordinate amount of time doing the troubleshooting, which really was not at all the fault of Webex. It was that the clients were using really old equipment, and it was really important to us to record the data. So at the time, it was using FaceTime or something, or Skype was an inadequate alternative, and Zoom was too immature at that time to be considered as an alternative. So, it was very challenging, and I've used Webex for so many years. I have tons of war wounds from what it was like in the early versions, which is nothing like it is today, which is easy-peasy. But going back, there were some challenges, but the challenges we had with my company per se, were really the challenges of a B2C environment, which was not my prior experience, which was all B2B and more on an enterprise level. I'd suggest that you review the licensing and forecast your requirements pretty clearly. Make sure you understand what it's like to add additional users and so forth. I'd also suggest you do research on backgrounds and environments. I've written a great blog on it, for example, but there's all sorts of really good material to that end, and I personally like real environments versus the faux screens, but other than that, just do your due diligence on the front end.