Recommendations for Webinar Vendors for Software Demos (captured with Camtasia)

Thanks, Tim. So are you doing LIVE, streaming webinars? I know rackspace is a hosting provider. But I am looking for a live webinar service that can serve (up to) hundreds of users at the same time, like say, WebEx or GoToMeeting.

I use GoToMeeting.  My normal limit is 100 attendees but GoToMeeting can be increased to 1,000 attendees (although it is very expensive to do so.  The good part about GoToMeeting is that you can change your subscription rapidly to handle 100 attendees and then switch quickly to handle 1,000 attendees and then go back to 100 attendees quickly.  You should check with the people at GoToMeeting to find out about all of the options.  Here is how the recording feature works.

I open the live webinar and the attendees come in.  When everyone is there, I give a little speech about how everything will work and then I begin the webinar with everyone muted.  I click on a button on my GoToMeeting Control Panel to begin recording.  When my presentation is complete, I hit the Stop Recording button.  I then unmute everyone and handle their questions about the software I am teaching.

When the webinar is over and I shut the webinar down, I am asked by GoToMeeting if I want to render the recording and which format I want to use.  I choose the MP4 format and the rendering begins.  When the rendering is complete I open Camtasia Studio 8.6 and bring the MP4 file into Camtasia Studio 8.6.   Most of my webinar recordings are 60-90 minutes long.  I review the recording in Camtasia Studio 8.6 and add markers to the places where I want to break (normally at the 20 minute marks).  I then select everything except the part I want to keep and delete the rest.  I then Produce the output as a 1080P MP4 file and save it on my hard drive.  I use Ctrl Z to undo the deletion, then I delete another section of the recording to isolate the next 20 minute segment.  I repeat this process until I have the entire recording broken up into 3-5 pieces.

I then upload to Rackspace and then sign into the administrative part of my web site to post the recordings to the proper place.

Long ago I used WebEx but then Windows 7 came out.  After upgrading to Windows 7 around April I had a webinar scheduled on WebEx.  I could not get into the webinar on a computer running Windows 7.  I called WebEx support and I was told by a Level 2 tech that they were not yet ready to work with Windows 7 and would not be ready until approximately August (5 months away).  The tech told me that the solution was an easy one.  Just don't use Windows 7 and tell my PAYING CUSTOMERS not to use Windows 7 for the next few months!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I asked them if they were kidding and after they affirmed that they were NOT KIDDING, I hung up, hastily sent out emails to all attendees telling them that the webinar for the day was cancelled, and I then called my WebEx account executive and cancelled my account asking for a FULL refund.  I contacted GoToWebinar and I have not looked back since the debut of Windows 7.

I don't know how WebEx is doing now, but every time I attend a WebEx-based webinar they always seem to be having some kind of problem.  Make your own call on this one.

Rackspace, on the other hand, has NEVER gone down on me nor had a single service disruption.  They are GOOD AS GOLD. 

Truly excellent, thank you for sharing