TechSmith launches Screencast.Com, a beta of a web-based service that targets business and academic professionals to allow them to share information, ideas, and knowledge in an online Camtasia-specific video hosting site immediately after the release of its latest video editing and production software, Camtasia Studio 4.

Wikipedia defines screencast as “a digital recording of a computer screen's output, often containing audio narration”. It is in effect a movie of what a user sees on the pc monitor.

Screencasting is one of the better ways to showcase new software, an online service, or a product. With TechSmith's addition of an online service to Camtasia Studio 4, users can post their multimedia files directly to Screencast.com addressing the drawback of the program's earlier versions wherein users are saddled with the task of finding a place to host their videos. Finding your own video hosting site present users with two inherent problems - control and ownership of video/multimedia file and file re-sizing which can sometimes render full-screen captures unreadable.

Screencast is a video hosting service that allows you to retain ownership of your content; however, it is not free - it costs $6.95 a month and may go up as you consume bandwidth. For the fee, Camtasia will produce your published screencasts in the best format for online streaming, which in effect contributes to saving bandwidth and money.

Screencast.com highlights the advantages of emerging Web 2.0 softwares, a fusion of software/online products: users do intensive development and production work on local PCs, and upload finished work to a site that is tightly linked to the application, a direction Microsoft and other software developers are aggressively promoting.

Camtasia Studio 4 and Screencast Uses

-Screencasts can be utilized to demonstrate a software's features. Alternatively, it can also be used to help report bugs on beta and Release Candidate versions prior to hitting the market.

-Camtasia can be used to show how a given task is accomplished in a specific software environment and the file made generally available through screencast.

-Screencasts can be excellent tools for teaching how to use computers; very likely, it can be a cost-effective instruction method.

-Computer Based Tutorials (CBTs), seminars, and training programs can be recorded and made available on DVDs for future reference or for sale. This can be an additional revenue stream for educational and training institutions, and seminar organizers to make the knowledge readily available to a broader audience at a lesser cost.

With Camtasia Studio 4 and Screencast.com, users are in a better position to provide multimedia content to a broader market base at a fraction of the cost of other high-end video editing/production/authoring products without sacrificing functionality