Satellite-Based Training How-To

By Margery Weinstein

When pest-control firm Orkin needed to find a solution to better keep its 8,000-employee workforce well trained, it turned to a satellite-based interactive training network designed, installed, and managed by Keystone Enterprise Services. The company was able to greatly reduce its budget for training delivery, avoid travel expenses, and slash time to competency by 40 percent, so it now trains about 3,000 employees annually without lost travel time, says Dan Loveless, senior vice president, Sales and Marketing, Keystone Enterprise Services.

Loveless offers the following tips on how you can effectively bring your workforce together virtually via a satellite-based solution.

• Visual impact: Focus on content, and make it shine. Captivate your audience with audiovisual impact, so the message you are delivering will be absorbed. Large projection screens, plasma displays, and beautiful or high-definition (HD) video and audio have more impact than jerky Web video on small screens.
• Take advantage of satellite-delivered training to accommodate multiple locations and presentation on big screens. An advantage of satellite broadcasting is you can deliver full-quality video to large projection screens and displays for conferences and large venue meetings at up to full high-definition quality, and to an unlimited number of recipients. Satellite-based solutions also offer nationwide and global reach, letting you share your message cost-effectively with virtually any authorized and equipped site.
• Make it interactive by using an audience response system (ARS). The value of direct viewer interaction with a broadcast is huge. Audience response solutions can help engage participants and measure participation. These can include live audience polling, on-screen audience poll results and graphics integration, audio conferencing, and chat/e-mail viewer interaction management.
• Poll your participants. Before and after sessions and programs, poll participants on their logistics, expectations, and perceptions of the content and delivery so you can measure success. With audience response systems, you can survey during sessions and capture ROI metrics, so you can better track and understand the communications value delivered to your organization, and build on your success. Savings can be impressive. One Keystone client reported that 98 percent of its polled participants ranked their recent event as good to excellent, which was a dramatic improvement over the previous Webcast-only delivered event. Experienced vendors will be able to advise you on how to take advantage of these applications. Caveat: Don’t let interactive technology get in the way of the original intent of your content. Sometimes less is more.
• Include remote locations and venues to expand your coverage, which can include hotel meeting rooms, conference centers, and corporate offices. Give attendees who can’t come to the local office or meeting venue the ability to join and access via their desktop or mobile devices. For international workforces, live translation into multiple languages enhances audience participation for those locations that require specific language capability. Some vendors can add all these solutions, and tie in videoconferencing-equipped sites with satellite and Webcast locations simultaneously.
• Offer on-demand/Webcast video in tandem with the live satellite broadcast. Track-able on-demand and download replay viewing figures also can help you gauge success, assess content consumption, and add value.

HAVE INPUT OR TIPS on this topic? If so, send them our way in an e-mail to lorri@trainingmag.com with the subject line “Satellite Broadcast,” and we'll try to include your advice in an upcoming issue.