Where is your microphone?

The microphone we are using resides on the desktop right in front of me. We are currently using a high quality microphone that is attached to our Polycom 512 video conferencing station. It is a very high quality mic that sounds great when used for applications such as this.

What is the time delay associated with a webcast?

The time delay will vary depending upon the level of network congestion. The more congested and busy a network is, the longer the associated delay.

How much does it cost to be able to support and conduct webcasts?

This is really a multipart answer.

First of all you need a RealMedia streaming server. These are sold in license packs that depend upon how many streams you want to simultaneously support. A license that supports 200 would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $30,000.

You also need a fast machine that would be able to handle this type of application. Most likely you'd need a big Sun Solaris Unix box. That would cost between $40,000 - $60,000 depending upon which machine you select.

In addition, you'd need a few system administrators with Unix experience, hardware that would backup your Unix machine, and a fast 200 MB network connection / 600MB network card. So, in addition to close to $100,000 in one time expenditures, your recurring costs would vary. microphone we are using resides on the desktop right in front of me.