Zoom Webinars: Record Locally or to the Cloud?

We are living in unprecedented times. The coronavirus outbreak has caused havoc all over the world. Schools in China have been closed since mid January. Flights to and from Asia have been halted. Individuals who have been to Asia, Iran and Italy have been told to self isolate for two weeks.

As the virus spreads across borders, other countries are beginning to take similar draconian measures.

I type now from the newest epicenter: Northern Italy. I was supposed to teach a three week course to high schoolers, but the day before the course began, the school was declared closed indefinitely by mayoral decree.

F@#$%*!

Cancelling the course wouldn’t be an option. The financial and reputational loss would be too much for the small company that delivers the course. The solution: Zoom!

The course was quickly reorganized to be delivered by Zoom Webinar, a remote video conferencing service. Within a day the course was back on and I was teaching students from their mountain retreats and Milanese bedrooms.

With the growing spread of the coronavirus and increased possibility of school shutdowns, business closures and travel restrictions, I can sense an increased need for Zoom Webinars around the world.

So if you haven’t used Zoom before, now is an excellent time to learn about the difference between Zoom Webinars and Zoom Meetings, why you should record Zoom Webinars and Zoom Meetings, and decide whether local recording or cloud recording of a Zoom Webinar or a Zoom Meeting is right for you/and or your organisation.

What is the Difference Between a Zoom Webinar and a Zoom Meeting?

Zoom Webinars and Zoom Meetings are part of the Zoom platform that offer a video and web conferencing service, allowing participants from varied locations to get together and view and listen to the same content.

Zoom Meetings are more collaborative. Participants are able to screen share, turn on their video and audio, and see who else is in the meeting. The meeting attendees are capped at 1,000 for paid subscribers and 100 for free members. Additionally, Zoom Meetings can be conducted with Zoom’s basic account plan, which is free.

Zoom Webinars are more presentation orientated. Attendees are only allowed to view the hosts video. Only the host and designated panelists can share their video, audio and screen. Zoom Webinars can accommodate up to 10,000 participants with the right plan. However, Zoom Webinars are only available to premium subscribers.

Benefits of Recording Zoomm Webinars and Zoom Meetings

There are many reasons to record your Zoom Webinars and Zoom Meetings:

• Provides a complete record that everyone can revisit and watch.
• Offers and option for people who can't attend live to watch later on demand.
• Allows those attending to actively participate without the pressure of taking excessive notes.
• Can be repurposed as a training tool.
• Enable the opportunity to create a library of knowledge.
• Allows you to create an automatic transcription of the audio content, making keyword searches of the video possible.

Local Recording vs Cloud Recording: What are the pros and cons?

When you record your Zoom Webinar or Zoom Meeting you have the option of local recording or cloud recording. But what’s the difference and which one should you chose?

Local Recording of a Zoom Webinar or Zoom Meeting:

A local recording of a Zoom Webinar or Zoom Meeting is where you save the video and audio recording to your local computer hard drive.

Pros of local recording of a Zoom Webinar or Zoom Meeting:

• Available to both free and paid subscribers.
• Can upload the recording to a file storage device like DropBox, Google Drive, YouTube and Viemo and shared on social media.
• Available indefinitely.
• Can use an automatic transcription service provider to covert audio to text in multiple languages.
• You can record the meeting in different layouts.

Cons of local recording of a Zoom Webinar or Zoom Meeting:

• Can only be accessed on the computer that recorded the meeting.
• Not supported on iOS and Android
• Host must record the meeting or grant the ability to record to a participant.
• If the meeting unexpectedly shuts down or the conversion process is interrupted, the recording could be lost.

Cloud Recording of a Zoom Webinar or Zoom Meeting:

Cloud recording of a Zoom Webinar or Zoom Meeting is where the video, audio, and chat of your recording is automatically uploaded to Zoom’s cloud.

Pros of cloud recording of a Zoom Webinar or Zoom Meeting:

• The recording can be accessed from a desktop or the web.
• Can easily share the recording through a link.
• Available on Android and iOS 3.5 or higher.
• Offers automatic transcription of your cloud recordings.
• You can record the meeting in different layouts.

Cons of cloud recording of a Zoom Webinar or Zoom Meeting:

• Need a Pro, Business or Enterprise paid account.
• Limited Cloud storage of 1/2 to 1 GB per paid user. Additional GB storage is expensive with monthly plans ranging from $40 to $500 per month.
• Possible great concern over security.

If your Zoom Webinar or Zoom Meeting is worth holding, then it's worth recording and transcribing!

Recording a Zoom Webinar or a Zoom Meeting is easy, just be sure to automatically transcribe the audio content and share after the event.

Doing this will make your Zoom Webinars and Zoom Meetings more accessible to those who are Deaf or hard of hearing, allow an easy way to search for specific content within the video, and help make finding your content on demand easier.