5 Things You Need to Check for a Stable Event Live Stream
Before going live, be it a zoom call to your team or the online presentation you have been looking forward to, you may want to consider these few things to make the most of your online presence.
1. Internet Connection
Before going live, verify your Wi-Fi or 4G/5G Connection is stable. In this internet era, having a good upload speed is important to ensure your livestream is smooth and is not affected by lag. An upload speed of 10-20 mbps would be sufficient. Any lesser, your viewers may have to suffer from a livestream which wont sync be in sync with the Audio; and that is quite an unbecoming for a professional setting.
The best way for ensure a secure connection is by using an Ethernet or LAN cable for a reliable internet connection.
An easy way to test your internet connection is by doing a Speedtest.
2. Plan Content Ahead
Before going live, any slides and video that may be used on screen sharing should already be open and ready for sharing. To ensure that your transition from your livestream to the video or slides are smooth and is not disruptive.
If you have any guests or talents that will be going on air as well. Its best to have these assets briefed for their cues to enter and be on standby before Livestream starts.
Deciding on the medium to go Live on is also an important factor. Even when using Zoom for conferences, a proper planning can go a long way. You may also decide to go live on Social Media platforms such as Facebook or YouTube.
If there is a Question and Answer segment in your your livestream, as much possible, its best to prime yourself for any potential questions that may be asked.
3. Sufficient Equipment
Technical preparation are as important for a successful livestream. Minimally, you will need camera, a microphone and adequate lighting. To ensure an even better livestream experience for your viewers, you can easily employ more cameras to capture multiple angles to provide a variety of angles to your viewers.
This can be easily overlooked with all the equipment preparation but its important that equipment used for the livestream are fully charged. From Laptops, cameras, lights and microphones. And if possible, to have everything on a direct current to ensure none of the equipment suffers any power outage that may disrupt the livestream. Having any equipment fail on in the middle of a livestream is quite a nightmare to tackle. Avoid it at all cost.
Even with the best preparation done and the worst case scenario happens, Its always advised to have a back-up for each component on standby as contingencies. As simple as having a holding screen to switch in a moments notice in case something unplanned happens on set can be a huge help for live productions.
4. Equipment Setup
It is important to have clear audio quality for viewers to be able to listen to the livestream clearly. Ensuring the volume is not too soft and is not muffled to make sure everyone can hear the stream clearly.
Good video quality is also important for a livestream. Having a camera which is able to record and deliver the stream in high quality will make the viewer’s experience more enjoyable.
Having a Technical Run before going live will help work out the kinks and reveal any dysfunctionalities that may appear so it can be remedied and won’t affect the actual livestream later on.
5. Engagement
Whenever its your turn to speak, look into camera when addressing viewers. This will help in making eye contact to viewers back home and improve engagement.
Every now and then, ask questions to viewers, even via livestreams. Encourage the viewers to respond by leaving their answers in the comments. This makes the viewers feel involved with your livestream even though they are not physically there. Conducting poll or survey in the middle of the livestream is also helpful in engaging your viewers.
Have a segment where viewers can ask questions and it is answered live. This makes viewers invested and engaged in the discussions and information shared, making them view the livestream longer.
6. Rehash
Once the broadcast has ended, release a link to the recorded live stream for viewers to share on social media. This will increase outreach of that livestream video even after it has ended.
Whenever you mention an account or a profile when you are live. It would be good for you to provide a clickable link for your viewers to visit and follow up with.
When you have viewers who have signed up and provided their emails or contact details. With their permission, reach out to these viewers and ask them to assist with a short feedback form or a survey. The results provided from these can be used to improve any points you are lacking felt by the virtual audience.
If you have reached this point of the article and still feel doing a livestream is too big a task to take on alone. Do not worry.
The team from Blissful are well versed in providing Livestream solutions on many different platforms. Be it Zoom, YouTube or even Facebook. Reach out to us here and we will be more than happy to work together to bring your Livestream to a reality. Albeit, a virtual one.