Live streaming blunders

Live streams can attract thousands of viewers to your event but, much like a physical event, planning is key. Here we discuss what we consider to be the biggest blunders that can affect your event broadcast.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth is the speed that data can travel over the network. Without adequate bandwidth video can buffer continually causing viewer numbers to drop off. It is vitally important that the available bandwidth is determined before the event.

The critical factor is the upload speed, this is how fast the stream can be sent to the company hosting your webcast. We recommend at least 1.5 times the upload bandwidth of your combined video and audio feed. For example a 4Mbps 1080p feed requires at least 6Mbps.

Careful coordination with the venue’s IT team can help to ensure the required bandwidth at the time of the stream.

Poor Equipment

The cost of the equipment needed to produce a webcast is dropping, people are even using mobile phones to stream to services such as Facebook. Streams with shaky cameras and indecipherable audio quickly lose viewers, and also damage the reputation of the event.

Always choose the best equipment for the job, and preferably someone who knows how to operate it! Many technical issues can arise during a live broadcast and skilled technicians who are able to quickly respond to problems can save a potential disaster.

Video anywhere

People will want to watch your stream on a huge variety of devices including traditional laptops and PCs along with tablets and smartphones. Your stream must work perfectly on all these devices and adapt to viewer’s connection speeds.

Adaptive Bitrate streaming creates multiple versions of the video at various qualities, this technology ensures that no matter what device people are using they should receive buffer-free video playback.

It is also worth considering streaming to social media sites such as Facebook Live and Periscope as viewers can then watch the event within the social networks they visit.