Live Streaming considerations:
Live streaming events is a great way to expand your viewing audience. Of course, you will have a live audience at your event … but what about people, employees, students in different locales? What about expanding your revenue potential beyond your live audience?
First, you must ask yourself the question, “to stream or not stream”. Is there value in your showing this content live? What is the value of the live event over making your content available VOD? Do you want to do both? With live events, a lot can go wrong … there are no retakes. Live streamers really need to do it right … or don’t do it at all.
One of the most important things you can do is test your environment multiple times and then lock it down. Ensure all your connections from camera to production gear to streaming encoder are rock solid. Then test your network out of the event. It will be wise to have a couple of networks out of the event and then not to let anything else on those connections for traffic. A best practice is to have all tests done 24 hours before an event is live and then go into lockdown mode. For important events, many live streamers will use redundant CDN providers and have those connections on separate networks.
You also need to consider where you will host your live streaming event. Will you have it on Facebook, YouTube Live, Periscope, your own website? All of these, some of these? These are considerations to make and to pretest before your event.
Niagara Video has some excellent encoders to support live events. Our solutions range from those where you send just a single stream or multiple streams from the same event. Different camera angles, for example, are a good use of a multi-stream encoder. We can easily support up to 8 high-quality HD stream in a single 1 RU. Our encoders have been widely deployed and have been available in the marketplace since the beginning of live streaming. Some of our models to check out in this area include the 9300, 9200 and 9100 for multiple feeds. Also check out the 7500, 2200, B264, for single streams plus the Mini 150 and Mini 150 when you are on a tight budget.
Niagara can help you cover any requirements where you need to stream live. Please give us a call or an email to discuss any specific concerns or needs you may have.
Happy Streaming from Niagara Video!
October 10, 2016