For event agencies, marketing/HR and the public sector

How to live stream an event successfully

Marcel

Marcel

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How to stream live successfully

Livestreaming - little effort, great benefit

Livestreaming - little effort, great benefit

Livestreaming is one of the most efficient ways to convey information to many people at the same time with little effort. Not only the Corona pandemic has shown that the use of modern tools makes a presence of the participants almost forgotten. Even without a pandemic, the advantages are obvious:

  • Savings on travel costs
  • Opportunity cost savings
  • Reduction of the CO2 footprint

 

When planning a livestream, the following questions need to be addressed:

Will it be an online-only or hybrid event?

A pure Online event can be performed directly from the PC with very little effort. There is no need to install extra software, which makes a trip to the IT department unnecessary. A Chrome browser is all that is needed. Tools like any offer all the necessary functions for this:

 

  • Live on air in 2 minutes
  • Up to 100,000 simultaneous viewers in the live stream
  • Connecting guests
  • Chat
  • Survey tool
  • Top image quality
  • Password protection
  • Automatic subtitling
  • Automatic recording
  • Pay per view with payment system
  • Parallel streaming to social media accounts
  • ISO 27001 certified, DSGVO compliant, no tracking, no cookies
  • Own designs and logos can be used
  • Video player compatible for all devices
  • Recordings can be used as live streams
  • No external advertising
  • No sharing of player usage data with advertising networks
  • No transfer of rights to Video.Taxi

 

Pay attention to the fact that authorities are obliged to offer their content accessibly. This means that all livestreams and videos must be subtitled. Video.Taxi offers you automatic subtitling here. For larger companies, it is now good practice to contribute to accessibility, even if it is not mandatory.

Tip #1: Evaluate your venue

To make sure your venue is suitable for live streaming, you should check the most important considerations.

Internet connection - it's the upload speed that counts

Whether your livestream is virtual, hybrid, or in-person, make sure you have a strong internet connection.

At a physical venue, you should locate the Internet source to which you connect your Ethernet cable to establish the strongest possible connection. Wi-Fi connections are not recommended. Make sure you have exclusive bandwidth. In hotels, it's not uncommon for surfing hotel guests on the same network to bring a livestream to a halt.

When everything is ready, perform an Internet speed test to check the bandwidth for your location and for your virtual speakers. Most important is the upload speed, because you want to send data. A good download speed is at least 10 megabits per second (Mbps) and a good upload speed at at least 10 Mbit/s. For higher image qualities like 4K, 30 Mbit/s is the minimum.

Find a suitable place for the control room. There, all cable connections converge as tidily as possible:

  • Internet line
  • Power supply
  • Sound cables (mixer, microphones, loudspeakers if necessary)
  • HDMI cable from presentation laptop

 

Be aware of the physical limits of the cables for your devices. The maximum cable lengths are:

  • Power cable (depending on power consumption, approx. 50-100 meters)
  • HDMI cable - 25 meters
  • Ethernet cable - 70 meters
  • Fiber optic cable - several hundred meters

Offer pre-registration for your online event

 

Video mixer

The number of video inputs you need on your mixer depends on the number of cameras or computer screens showing presentations (or videos, websites, etc.). Look for a good video mixer that provides professional-quality camera-to-camera transitions.

I recommend the following systems:

Number and type of cameras

The number of cameras determines the production quality. The longer the event lasts and the less visually varied it is, the more important it is to have a larger number of cameras. Only the regular change of perspectives will keep the viewer from getting tired of the screen. Here, the creativity of the cameramen and the person at the mixing desk is also required to give a maximally realistic impression of the location by switching between close-ups and long shots. An ideal setup for most requirements is three cameras, one of which is unmanned.This one provides the long shot. The other two cameras show the speaker(s) and, as a moving camera, the audience and the event location from alternating perspectives.

The following cameras are commonly used to produce professional looking streams:

  • Webcams
  • Stream Cameras
  • Camcorders or studio cameras
  • PTZ cameras
  • DSLR and mirrorless cameras

Don't you want to invest yourself? You can also rent cameras with staff..

Tripods

You know the seasickness caused by shaky video content? To prevent your content from being clicked away - or worse, viewers staying away altogether - keep your cameras steady by installing them on a tripod. Depending on your configuration, you may need more than one camera, which in turn means you need multiple tripods.

Which tripod you choose depends on the weight and design of the camera.

Audio

Audio is more important than video. Surprised? But it's true. If the sound fails or is simply distorted, you lose all your viewers. Unfortunately, sound is often neglected. Sound deserves professional planning just like the other trades.

If you are running an online-only event, you should run tests with all connected participants well in advance of the event. For a hybrid event, you need to clarify: Do both the room and the stream have to be provided with sound? If so, the mixing console must be able to provide two different outputs with different levels.

Microphones

The choice of microphones is also important. Handheld microphones are less suitable for less experienced speakers. Everyone holds the microphone at a different distance and then speaks at different volumes. The person at the mixing desk has to constantly adjust the volume. Nevertheless, you should always have a handheld microphone on hand as an emergency microphone.

Headsets

Headsets offer the advantage that the distance between microphone and mouth always remains the same. However, many speakers are overburdened with putting on the headset. This must be practiced beforehand in a quiet room. After all, if the audience has to watch the star speaker destroying his or her hairdo, this could spoil the success of the presentation.

Tip #2: Choose the live streaming platform

Whether you're streaming for the first time or already have some experience, choosing the right platform is one of the most important considerations. You should choose a platform that is flexible and reliable.

The platform should give you the following options:

  • Working in compliance with data protection
  • Deliver best picture and sound quality
  • Interactivity via chat and polls
  • Enable invitation management
  • Password protection
  • Social streaming to other destinations

Sometimes you'll want to stream to multiple places at once. For example, let's say you need to stream to a virtual event as well as Facebook Live, YouTube Live, and Instagram Live. In this case, it's critical that your technology enables social streaming, i.e., that it can route the stream to multiple destinations at once.

Video.Taxi customers can stream to players embedded on the website but also to social platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Twitch and other custom RTMP outputs.

Tip 3: Configure the settings of your streaming software

The most exciting part of the job comes when you configure your streaming settings - another reason why choosing the right streaming partner is so important. Video.Taxi Studio takes care of this for you. If you use an external encoder or the free OBS software, all you have to do is enter the livelink and stream key that Video.Taxi created for you.

Tip #4: Check your equipment

The equipment you use for your livestream depends on the type of live event you're hosting. Virtual events are the easiest to pull off because they only require your computer's camera and microphone - or ideally an external camera and microphone - to give the event a professional feel.

If you're producing a hybrid event where you're live streaming content to or from a physical event, there are many factors to consider.

Microphones

You want your audience to hear your message loud and clear. Fortunately, there are more than a few microphone options to record the presenter's audio. If you're streaming more than one speaker and are worried about different speakers having different volume levels, consider an audio mixer. With a mixer, you can adjust the volume of each speaker and create a more consistent sound.

We recommend using wireless microphones. Choose a microphone that fits the delivery style of your speakers.

  • Handheld microphone (always as emergency microphone, then wired)
  • Headset
  • Lavalier or lapel (attachable)

Encoder

If you want to create a livestream and reuse your event content, an encoder is the best choice. It converts your video from a raw format to a digital format that can be streamed online. The common formats are called RTMP Stream, or a the slightly rarer variants HLS or SRT.

or beginners and mid-range streaming configurations, an inexpensive and easy-to-use encoder software like the free OBS Studio is sufficient. However, for a worry-free experience, encoder hardware is recommended. Hardware encoders are simple and stress-free and do only one thing: encode. Popular are e.g. the Video mixer ATEM Mini with built-in encoder.

Additional equipment

Finally, you should gather all the extras you need for a functional and optimized setup. Consider setting up an accessories drawer for different devices. Start the collection with these useful accessories:

  • Extra batteries
  • Extension cable
  • Ethernet cable (also for NDI)
  • Network Switches
  • HDMI cable and splitter
  • Extension cable
  • Gaffer tape (for fixing cables)

Video inputs

The video inputs are different for each encoder and video mixer. Common are HDMI connections (limited range, no security against disconnection) and SDI (range up to 70 meters, bayonet lock against disconnection). Once your encoder is set up, connect all video and audio sources to your mixer and then to your encoder so that the stream can be sent to Video.Taxi.

Livestream creation

Once your stream configurations are set up, it's time to create your livestream. You create your stream at Video.Taxi in a few moments. You'll then get a destination URL and a stream key.

Then enter the URL and key into the encoder you want to stream from.

Tip #5: Test the stream

Before you go live, you should test the stream to make sure virtual subscribers can see your content. Testing a stream is different on every platform, but here's an easy way to do it with Video.Taxi:

There are two options. You can always do a free livetream to max. 10 simultaneous viewers with a maximum duration of one hour - free of charge. The second option works as follows: You can test the live connection of your stream three times free of charge for 15 minutes each before a booked stream. Here you have to make sure that the player for viewers is not recorded, because otherwise the users would see your test content.

Tip #6: Control the stream

Now it's time for precision. You're responsible for making sure that fade-ins, presentations and camera angles are timed correctly for the stream. Video.Taxi's Cockpit or Video.Taxi Studio will show you real-time viewership and other important data. Note that there is a delay of ten to 30 seconds in streams. This is completely normal for live streaming. This also means that messages in the chat cannot refer to the livestream until it can be perceived by the audience. This is not a problem because the audience at the stream has no reference to the real time.

It is very important to monitor the state of your stream to avoid delays or lags. Connect headphones to the computer you are using to watch the player from the viewers’ perspective, test listening to it and turn down the volume so that the delayed sound doesn't irritate you.

Pro tip: Get creative. Livestreams offer the opportunity to pique the curiosity of your audience in real time. Host a poll, show virtual attendees a behind-the-scenes look, or engage in direct conversations with your online audience using moderated chat.

Tip #7: Get support

You shouldn’t have anydifficulties when streaming with Video.Taxi. You should practice the connection of guests with these guests beforehand, in order to avoid surprises.

For productions on location, you will work in a team. Here it is important that the team members have sufficient experience. This saves time and nerves.

If you don't want to do it alone, you can book someone to do the streaming for you. Video.Taxi offers you this kind of service in cooperation with its partners.

Whether you're streaming live for the first time or already have extensive streaming experience, it's good to have support. Talk to one of our team members and get started today with Video.Taxi Livestreaming.

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