The following arguments speak against video calls as a live stream replacement:
Video calls exclude many people because you need a special app (e.g. “Zoom”) to watch. Live streams (e.g. via YouTube), on the other hand, can be viewed in any browser and with any operating system. Even on very old computers, tablets or even cell phones. In addition, the YouTube app, for example, is installed on around 3 billion cell phones worldwide.
Video calls cannot be shared at all or not easily, e.g. as a link on Twitter or Facebook. This massively limits the reach of your event.
There is no natural “record” on a video call and therefore you cannot press “pause” on a video call or simply jump back 15 minutes. But you can do all this with live streams. These are also available online immediately after the event on YouTube and Facebook, for example, so that viewers who arrived too late can watch the replay again. A video call, on the other hand, is gone immediately after the event ends and is not saved by the video call platform.
The quality of video calls is much worse than a live stream. Video calls are designed for the lowest possible latency for conversations. Sound and video quality then suffer under this focus on speed. As a result, the sender or receiver of the video call often experiences small dropouts and jumps, even with good Internet connections. Live streams, on the other hand, often have 30-second buffers. This helps a lot, since there are always mini dropouts on the Internet, which are then immediately visible in a video call and can be compensated by the buffer in live streams.
Especially the transmission of music and videos is almost impossible / unbearable in video calls because of the high compression.
Video calls are great for face-to-face conversations and for connecting with people who can’t be on site. However, we do not recommend using it as a playout channel for a video broadcast. If you want a “closed” event, we can also set up a so-called “unlisted” YouTube live stream. It is then not findable via YouTube or Google search and is also not listed on the channel. The URL then contains the password.
