Secrets from Live Streaming Experts

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In this 30 minute crash course on live-streaming – two experts sit down to share tips, tricks, and lessons learned. If you’ve done a few streams already and want to take things to the next level – this one’s for you!

Galen Bond is the owner of Stage Right Consulting and is truly a live-streaming pioneer in his community. He can be contacted at galen@stagerightconsulting.com

Curtis Allen, owner of Solid Rock Video live streams to clients from various industries regularly. curtis@54.188.109.185 – www.solidrockvideo.com

Open Broadcaster Software is a free and open-source cross-platform streaming and recording program. As of 2016, the software is now referred to as OBS Studio. There are versions of OBS Studio available for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux distributions. www.obsproject.com

DIY video tips from a pro

Do it yourself! Video Production tips from a Pro

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Now more than ever, a lot of people are looking to produce their own videos as a way to share news and connect with their clients or staff. As the owner of a video production company, I know full well the power video has as a tool to connect us and share a message. When […]

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Knowing when to live stream and when to pre record

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In my last post I talked about why live streaming is becoming a very important way to keep engaged with your audience. This time, I want to talk about knowing when to live stream, and when to simply record a video for future uploading.

If you’re broadcasting something that you’re looking to get live engagement with, live-streaming is definitely the right answer. Being able to pose questions to your audience and get replies in the comments, or conduct and tally polls live is a huge benefit you’ll get from a live stream that you won’t with a prerecorded video.

Obviously if the message you’re trying to convey is time sensitive like a press conference, live streaming is the only way to get that information out in real time. The downside to live streams is they’re often times less polished, you only get one chance to get your message across and there are no do overs. If the dog starts barking or the cat jumps onto your laptop – well, that’s the nature of live video and you need to be prepared for that.

Most live-streams from home won’t have any graphics with information on them, background music, or anything else like that – it’s just the presenter and their camera. People love to be part of something that’s happening in real time. Experiencing something with other people around the world at the same time, and it’s one of the reasons we’re seeing a surge in live-streaming popularity.

But, what if you could have the production value of an edited video – with on screen graphics, multiple takes, no mistakes – with the experience of broadcasting to your audience live? Well, the folks at YouTube & Facebook have just the thing. They each have a feature called Premiere that’s available when you upload a video. This feature allows you to premiere your video live on their platform at a specified time so your audience gets to watch the video at the exact same time – as they would with a true ‘live-stream’.

We did this recently with a concert I filmed. I took all my camera angles, edited them together and made a really great video of their show. Then the band took that video file and set it to premiere at 2pm and then shared the link to the premiere to their social media. When it was time for the video to premiere, everyone got to watch it at the exact same time. Another really neat feature was the text based chatroom at the side of the Youtube video player while the premiere happened, which allowed everyone who was watching the video to comment on what we were watching and the band was able to respond to those questions and comments as they came in. After the video was done playing to it’s live audience, it immediately was added to the YouTube channel of the band and people could view and comment on it just like any other video on Youtube.

So, if you don’t need to be broadcasting live, why not consider filming your video, throwing it into a free editing software like iMovie or Davinci Resolve, make some edits, remove any mistakes, and then export your video for uploading to YouTube or Facebook as a premiere. How have you been using live streaming lately? I’d love to hear your experiences in the comments below and if you have any questions – feel free to ask – I love helping people discover the wonderful world of video production.

Solid Rock Video 778-760-0567 info@54.188.109.185 www.solidrockvideo.comk

live stream in vmix

Why live streaming is becoming so popular during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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With the cancellation of so many public events and rules limiting public gathering sizes due to Covid-19 many people who were going to be hosting events in the coming months are now left with their plans completely destroyed. Many have cancelled altogether, others postponing until things get better. But some are thinking outside the box, refusing to lose the connection with their audience all together and they’re turning to technology to help them in these uncertain times. You see, never in the history of humanity has it been so easy to broadcast yourself to the world through the internet.

As recently as a 5 years ago, if needed to be broadcast on live television it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. You’d need professional camera gear that could hook up to a satellite truck or series of fiber optic cables to connect to a TV station where the signal could be processed and then sent to the respective channels for an audience to watch at home. Today, you hold the technology to do all of that with a device that – more likely than not – you’re using to watch this video. Yes that’s right, you can broadcast yourself or your surroundings all over the world using just your phone.

So if you’re feeling down about the situation we’re in around the world and wish desperately to be able to connect to your audience like you were planning to do in person, it’s time to think outside the box.

In the last few weeks tens of thousands of progressive thinkers have shifted focus to Live Streaming.
Weddings are now being held in front of an online audience. Live streamed funerals are allowing mourners who can’t be present in person to still be present for the memorial service. Entire concerts are now being held from living rooms of artists who want to give their fans a reason to smile, and houses of worship have completely shifted gears to doing their services with nobody in the room.

 There are multiple ways to handle live streaming. The first option that comes to many people’s mind is clicking that live button inside of your Facebook app to broadcast your Facebook friends or people who like your business page. That’s certainly one option that’s working very well for a lot of people but if you want to take things up a notch there are plenty of other options to step up your live streaming game. You can hold a live event that’s only available to those who purchase tickets. You can stream to multiple platforms at one time such as YouTube Facebook and your website. You can stream with just one camera angle or from multiple camera angles.

One really cool thing that we’ve done with live-streaming lately is hosting a live conference with multiple speakers, each broadcasting from different locations and switching between them live so audiences never miss a thing. We’ve also been able to show keynote message slides on the screen at the same time. It’s incredible the technology available to us, all we have to do is take advantage of it.

So, before you cancel that live event, challenge yourself to come up with a way to connect with your audience online. Anything is possible, it just takes some creativity.

Let me know how you’re using live streaming in the comments below, and if you have any questions feel free to shoot me an email.