In the modern literary classic I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the illustrious Maya Angelou wrote, “Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between.” For anyone who’s ever dabbled in live streaming… they can relate.
Producing a successful live stream takes patience, practice, and planning. Sounds simple, sure, but in reality there are many moving parts. If just one goes awry, your event could go off the rails, fast.
With folks shifting towards virtual events and live streaming, tips and advice are in high demand, especially for those brand new to live video. We’ve compiled nine live streaming tips — things to do before, during, and after a live event — to help make your next stream a success.
Before: How to best prepare for live streaming success
1. Understand your bandwidth requirements
Many of us have experienced live streaming from mobile apps to social media platforms. While live streaming over WiFi or even a 4G connection works fine for personal use, it may not be the right move for a business’s live stream.
Ask yourself:
Do I have a dedicated Ethernet connection? The first thing you should do is set yourself up with a dedicated, hardwired connection. If you’re live streaming over WiFi from home, don't! Get an Ethernet cable. If you don’t have a direct Ethernet port on your computer, you’ll need to buy a USB adapter, which run roughly $20-$30.
What is my upload speed? Your upload speed dictates how high of a resolution you can stream your event. The higher the upload speed, the higher the resolution. Here’s a handy graph to help you understand which upload speed you’ll need based on your desired viewing quality.
2. Anticipate the size and location of your audience
How many people do you expect to tune in? If you’re simulcasting, chances are you’ll have a larger audience than, say, streaming from a single website. Estimate how many viewers you'll expect to tune in, and think about how you'll manage feedback and questions accordingly.
Is your video content private or public? Another factor that influences audience size is how viewers will access the content. Depending on your needs, you may require a private video embed on your company’s site, or secure authorization to Vimeo through single sign-on (SSO).
How stressed will your networks be? Lots of people tuning in from one place (like a branch office) places added stress on your servers. This, in turn, clogs networks and creates a less-than-ideal viewing experience. An enterprise content delivery network (eCDN) is a fancy-sounding solution that can help ensure your business networks stay happy during lengthy live streams.
Learn more about eCDN and how to live stream a global event →
3. Practice, test, and have a backup
Okay, so this is sort of a three-in-one live streaming tip, but they’re all related (promise!).
On-screen talent should practice their talking points. In the world of live streaming, comfort brings confidence. This means your hosts and guests should do a dry run of the event at least once, ideally the day before, to ensure they’re comfortable with all the information and questions they’ll share.
Your production crew should test all the things. Test streaming workflows and ensure the moving parts of your setup function smoothly, including any cameras and mics. Premium and Enterprise customers can use our Stream Preview to double (or triple!) check that everything is working as it should, from encoder to platform, before you go live.
What’s your (instantaneous) Plan B? For truly no-fail events, it’s important to have a backup stream in case your first stream stumbles. Backup streams offer peace of mind to fall back on automatically if your stream fails due to network, encoding, or hardware issues.
Handily, Vimeo Enterprise includes access to a backup stream, so in the event that something does go wrong, your event will switch to the backup stream without a hitch.
During: Live streaming tips to ensure a smooth viewing experience
4. Have the right tech and team
A polished live stream doesn’t require tons of fancy equipment, but some gear is essential, like cameras, microphones, switchers, and encoders.
You’ll also want to have enough physical space for your production team to work their magic behind the scenes. You didn’t think those cameras and mics and switchers and encoders would run themselves, did you?
If you realize you need more support with your event production, Vimeo Enterprise customers can tap into our friendly live production team for on-site services and in-person trainings.
As we all do our part with social distancing measures, our live production team is currently offering virtual support, training, and consulting.
5. Keep a pulse on your stream health
Monitor what’s going on, both on-screen and off. Once you go live, tracking the performance of your live stream lets you better plan for and adapt to any snags.
Stream health monitoring in Vimeo automatically keeps tabs on the stability of your frame rate and bitrate. If it catches wind of a 15% drop, it’ll automatically let you know so you can pinpoint the source of the issue, whether it’s with your network connection, encoder, or something else.
6. Engage your viewers in real time
Beyond these technical aspects, keeping your audience engaged is paramount to a productive live stream. Your audience enjoys your content from behind a screen, but that doesn’t mean live streaming has to be a one-way street. Encouraging dialogue with your audience is a must-have for any successful stream.
Vimeo has plenty of audience interaction tools to help spark engagement from your audience. Take questions as they come in through Q&A, gauge feedback from polls, and encourage conversation from all participants in the public chat. If you require a buffer as your questions come in, Vimeo Enterprise includes Q&A moderation, so you can check what’s coming through before your whole audience sees.
After: Review, reflect, and rethink
7. Review your live stream's performance
Stream performance reviews are imperative to maintain a great live stream from start to finish. How many folks tuned in to your stream? How long did they watch for? Of course, what you measure will vary based on your goals:
- For marketers, a win might look like hundreds of thousands of views across social channels.
- For internal communications, tracking user-level data to see who tuned could be a key indicator.
- For IT and production pros, a consistent bitrate and frame rate throughout may be a marker of success.
Understanding the when, where, and how of your live stream can help you better understand your audience, and optimize how you reach out next time. Vimeo includes plenty of analytics to help you make sense of your stream and audience.
8. Reflect on wins (and areas to improve)
Even when you prepare as best you can, there are almost always things that won’t go the way you planned. That's no reason to be scared, though! Any hiccup during your live stream is an opportunity to get better next time. (We hope these live streaming tips help, too.)
Yes, when the live stream ends, your learning continues, grasshopper.
If you hit a snag during your stream, make a note of it. Ask for feedback from your viewers. In the hours and days that follow the event, hold a port-mortem with key stakeholders. Use this time as an opportunity to think through what you could do to alleviate (or eliminate!) the issue next time.
9. Rethink how you’ll tackle the next one
With your learnings now documented, make an effort to apply them to your next live stream. How can you better “plan to fail” next time? Be transparent about what you plan to do differently, get buy-in from your stakeholders, and then put it into action.
No doubt that all of this can feel daunting, so remember to take it bit by bit. Julie Starr, Director of Learning & Development at Convene, advises to not get bogged down with making tons of improvements every time. "At Convene, we like to talk about "Getting 1% better every day,'" she says. "It’s important to keep the content fresh, and respond to the needs of your participants."
While there are many more steps to take around the content, distribution, and strategy of your live stream, we hope these live streaming tips will help your team be better prepared to act on the fly for an awesome event your viewers will remember.
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