Why We Use YouTube Premiere & Google Meet
Our objective is to give MTAP a solid online presence to make up for the park closure due to COVID-19. Some compromises have been necessary to get high (professional) quality at zero cost, but results have nonetheless been good.
Rationale
We use YouTube Premiere because (a) it's promoted by Google (a big plus to MTAP), (b) it's professional quality, (c) it removes risk of technical issues, (d) it can handle an unlimited number of viewers, (e) it does not require special hardware or software, (f) it includes and captures Comments and Chat for later playback, (g) it works in a standard browser (no app required), and (h) it's free.
We switch to Google Meet for the Live Q&A for many of the same reasons: (a) it's professional quality, (b) it's secure, (c) it's reliable, (d) it integrates with our Google Calendar, (e) it handles a large number of participants well (currently up to 100), (f) it includes Chat (e.g., for question submission), (g) it can be recorded and uploaded to YouTube to later accompany the Premiere video, (h) it does not need a special app on computer (only on mobile), (i) people can call in by phone for audio-only access, and (j) the professional version is free to MTAP through Google for Nonprofits.
To jump from YouTube Premiere to Google Meet, just click the link posted in the Premiere Description or in first Comment. You can even try it in advance, because the Meet is live as soon as the link is posted. Meet links are also available here on the MTAP website in Calendar.
To help with Google Meet, we've created help videos (for both desktop and mobile) on the MTAP YouTube Channel and help here on the MTAP website, plus you can contact us with questions or for assistance.
Alternatives
We could use YouTube Live instead of YourTube Premiere and Google Meet, but (a) it requires complex hardware and software in addition to dedicated high speed Internet, and (b) there's a substantial risk of technical issues (as even sophisticated organizations have found out the hard way).
We could stream the presentation on Google Meet (rather than YouTube Premiere), but quality would be lower, the reach and capacity would be more limited, and the risk of disruption (unintentional or otherwise) would be much higher, since we can't control interruptions other than by kicking people out. (Meet can be live-streamed, but not for free.)
Other alternatives like Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business, Webex, GoTo Meeting, BlueJeans, Jitsi, and Zoom, have all been evaluated, and all have their own issues in one or more of the above categories. We will continue to evaluate alternatives, and could switch if a better alternative emerges, but our best alternative for now is YouTube Premiere and Google Meet.