Technology at Weddings is Here to Stay

Photo Credit: jez.atkinson

I Do Stream was featured in a Boston Globe article about the rise of technology at weddings. From our favorite wedding technology -- live streaming, of course! -- to DJ packages that include large screens with live text messaging displayed, to live wedding tweets, technology has entered the wedding world and it's here to say. While the article discusses some of the negatives surrounding too much technology at weddings -- guests making inappropriate texts that appear on the big screen, too many camera phones getting in the way of the professional photographer -- we believe I Do Stream's live broadcasting is one wedding technology that provides a consummate experience for both the married couple and the guests viewing the wedding live.

I Do Stream's Phil Ly discussed some of the trials and solutions he has experienced:

"Even as traditionalists decry the high-tech intrusion and the reality-TV-ification of weddings, at least one thing has not changed: The stress of getting to the wedding on time. Many couples who live stream their weddings do so for the benefit of elderly relatives — the very people who often have trouble getting onto the Internet.

I Do Stream, in Tolland, Conn., offers a customer support live chat service to help with technical difficulties, and things can get “emotional” when a wedding’s about to start and people can’t log on, said managing partner Philip Ly.

“It’s simple stuff,” he said. “They typed in the wrong password, or they have a firewall that prevents them from watching, or they have a virus and they don’t know it.” He recalled one particularly tense moment. “A parent called and he was really mad. He’s like, ‘You guys are making me miss my son’s wedding.’ It turned out he had his caps lock on. Everything was in upper case.”

Click to read the article. 

I Do Stream's live chat support and monitoring during the broadcast ensures a smooth experience for everyone.

The story from the article ended up having a happy ending -- the wedding was running late, so the Father of the Groom turned off his caps lock and didn't miss a thing!

I Do Stream is Named to the 2011 Wedding Professional Hot List

13 Jan, 2011 - MomentVille.com, one of the worlds leading wedding websites, has just announced that I Do Stream has been selected for the 2011 Wedding Professional Hot List.

The annual Wedding Professional Hot List recognizes excellence within the wedding industry, as determined by reviews from tens of thousands of brides and grooms. I Do Stream was among the best reviewed vendors in their area in the past year.

"The Wedding Professional Hot List recognizes best of class wedding professionals." said Geoff Evason, MomentVille's CEO. "Highlighting the success of the top wedding professionals is an exciting way to spread the word and help newly engaged couples find the right professionals for their own weddings."

About I Do Stream
Live wedding webcasting, broadcasting and video streaming. Share your wedding event live online for friends and family who cannot make it to your special day.

About MomentVille
MomentVille.com offers engaged couples and wedding enthusiasts a one stop place for planning and sharing a wedding. Offering personal wedding websites, wedding planning tools, a gorgeous gallery of wedding pictures, a searchable list of reviewed wedding vendors, and lots of helpful and inspiring wedding content, MomentVille helps newlyweds with all aspects of their wedding. For more information contact media@momentville.com

Graceland's Chapel in the Woods Debuts Live Wedding Webcast

Photo credit: josephleenovak

 We're excited to announce that Elvis Presley's estate, Graceland, is using Idostream.com as a provider of live wedding webcasting for their weddings!

http://www.elvis.com/news/full_story.asp?id=2239

Landing Graceland as a customer is the result of the hard work we've put into making our live streaming solution easier to use, feature rich, and innovative.

Our event scheduler allows the broadcaster to easily schedule a live event, select the appropriate template and dynamically create the webcast page once the event is scheduled. After the live event is completed, the broadcaster has the ability to immediately switch over to the on-demand replay (if nothing is done, it will automatically switch over to replay 24 hours after the event). The broadcaster also has the ability to edit the playlist and put a title on each video in the playlist.

In addition, the broadcaster can now simply click on a "Broadcast Now" button directly from their event listing for a particular event and launch our software on their computer with all the necessary broadcast information pre-filled in (channel name, server location, default profile, etc). All the broadcaster needs to do is simply click on "Start Broadcast" button on the broadcast software to start broadcasting making it a truly one-click broadcast solution.

Lastly, I'm pleased to announce we now can support flash live streaming using Macs. I know a lot of you have been waiting for this feature and we're glad to announce it's now possible to do it. We're still working on making this solution as simple to use as our existing solution but if you're looking to use a Mac to broadcast a live event don't hesitate to contact us today!

If you haven't done a test broadcast with us yet, please send an email to support@idostream.com to schedule one. We'll give you one week to test drive our new event scheduler to see for yourself.

Follow up interview by Fox61 News

Fox61 News did a follow up feature on idostream.com this past Friday, July 31st. The news channel didn't give us credit for the initial broadcast and after speaking to Rick Hancock at Fox61 News, they decided to feature us on the RickRSS technology segment. I was very excited to share with Rick about Idostream.com is all about.

I Do Stream on NBC30 and Fox61 local news

It's not everyday the service that you provide can put a smile on someone's face and make you feel good about yourself. On July 4th, we did a live webcast to a mom who's sick in the hospital and she was unable to attend her son's wedding. I was at the wedding and seeing how the whole family came together was a moving experience.

We received an email from the groom afterwards:
"I can't thank you enough for doing this. It meant the world to my mother and the rest of my family. We watched the webcast last night; it was a lot of fun. Thanks Again, Brian and Kelly"

I Do Stream January Update: Webcasting Obama's Inauguration

I'd like to wish you Happy New Year! We all know 2009 is going to be a
challenging year.
What can you do to generate enough business to get through this tough
environment? Should you spend more money on marketing? Should you try to
conserve cash by cutting expenses or should you come up with new innovative
services that will also save money for your customers?

We at I Do Stream want to let you know we are here to help. We've opted
to expand awareness of live webcasting services to brides. We've signed
up to be listed with theknot.com for most major markets under the category
unique wedding services.

As brides find us we will refer them to you, our partners, to perform the
actual onsite live webcast of their special day. And to help with this
tough economic climate, we will not charge you a referral fee, for now.

This win-win situation, will allow you to generate additional revenue by
offering a new innovative service that will also save money for your
customers. How does it save money for your customers you ask? If
customers are cancelling videography services or skipping it altogether,
you are giving them an alternative that is less expensive and can serves
two purposes. You give them an unedited copy of their event and at the
same time they're able to webcast their special event live.

We also don't just do live wedding broadcasts. We can broadcast any
event. As a matter of fact, one of our videographer partners is going to
be present at one of Obama's inauguration balls on Tuesday night and will
be broadcasting live back to a select few viewers in Georgia. So take out
your rolodex (I mean PDA, :) ) and start calling your customers about your
new exciting offering.

But before you do that, make sure you schedule a test session with us if
you haven't already done so. Not only will this certify you as our
webcast partner but will make you feel much more comfortable with the
entire process. And we've made the process extremely simple as you'll
find out.

Live webcasting: Appealing in this tough economy?

The uncertainty about the economy has affected businesses large and small. Even the wedding industry is not immune. Just last week driving down the highway, I heard a feature story on the radio about brides scaling back on weddings. Brides were upset because guests have declined their wedding invitations due to the tough economic times. Brides may eliminate services or may even have problems paying for certain services because the mutual funds that their parents saved for their wedding are no longer worth enough to cover the costs. The wedding business is thought to be recession proof, but I don't think it is. Obviously the industry can not die entirely, but it seems to me that brides are cutting back. Or at least they think they should be.

We know that folks are cutting back on travel. Airfares are high, hotels are expensive, even the cost of gas is prohibitive for wedding guests. Guests who don’t attend the wedding probably won’t send a gift. It’s a losing scenario all the way around. Offer brides the option of a live webcast. This can be in addition to your standard package or offered as a stand alone; a webcast option for the budget conscious bride. Offer the live webcast with an unedited DVD at a cost that even the most frugal bride can’t turn down. Highlight the benefits of the live webcast package, reduced cost over your standard wedding package, the guest list can be
trimmed and most importantly no one has to miss the wedding! This will be an opportunity that every bride will find hard to pass up!

In addition, companies large and small are cutting back on travel and face to face meetings. They’re cutting costs by hosting conference calls and online meetings. However, management still needs a way to stay in touch and rally remote employees. If you’ve got corporate clients, mention to them that you offer live webcasting. You may be surprised at their response.

We’ve seen an increase in our business. You should benefit from this too.

If you haven’t done so, schedule a free test session with us to make sure you’re ready to perform a live webcast when the time comes.

News flash:
We’ve released a new version of the I Do Stream broadcast software. You can now do a live webcast using either windows media or H.264 using flash.

And in the coming weeks we’ll be releasing an event management control panel for you to easily schedule and management any live webcasts you do through us. Stay tuned!