The designers say this website makes broadcasting your online TV shows as easy as blogging, and it certainly is easy to set up a channel. In minutes you can have set up your own channel, your show names and logos, and have scheduled your first episode. Video tutorials take you through the necessary steps so that even a first-time broadcaster could manage. After that the service is designed mainly for people wanting to broadcast by streaming live and then archive a show to broadcast as a repeat later on the channel.

Your channel will show an ‘Off Air’ screen while you aren’t streaming, and once your episode is being broadcast you can add members to the team to work on it and even allow viewers to comment during the broadcast, with or without moderation. All of this is very like Livestream, the benefit being that VideoLobby feels easier to set up and use with all the video tutorials and links to a Wiki page for extra tips. In fact the Wiki pages are invaluable for anybody interested in broadcasting because they’re so full of information.

It’s not quite so easy to see how to broadcast shows users might already have in their own archives. Other services allow shows to be easily imported from other places including YouTube. All of this might be possible on VideoLobby to make it a complete service for people wanting to set up and run a channel, but an extra video tutorial is needed to explain how to do it, plus easier step-by-step guidance on the menus.