webcasts Archives - Mainstream | Live Video Agency

6 Best Practices for Running a Facebook Live Event

Nick Bacon — Wed, 23 Aug 2017 20:38:11 +0000

Streaming on Facebook Live

Live video streaming is a remarkably engaging tool that brands, content producers, and events can use to connect with followers and grown an audience. While a bit later to the game than other social media platforms, Facebook has made a significant push to incorporate live streaming into its platform. In 2016, 16% of marketers reported using Facebook Live – and with an engagement rate 3x that of traditional videos, it’s easy to understand why!

With a few dozen streams on Facebook Live now under our belts, we have identified a few best practices that can help increase your viewership and drive engagement with your audience. Whether you’re streaming a press conference, an annual meeting, an interview series, or a live music festival, these practices all apply.

(If you have any specific questions, give us a call or shoot us an email – we are always happy to walk people through their first Facebook live setup!)

Promote Your Event Beforehand

If you were having a party and didn’t tell anyone about it, you wouldn’t expect anyone to show up, right?

The same is true for a Facebook live event. In order to reach a high-quality audience, you need to promote it beforehand. This is especially important if paid promotion is a part of your marketing strategy, as you are currently unable to boost a Facebook Live event. Make sure you include event specifics in your promotion posts, such as when the event will occur, who will be involved, and how you want your audience to engage (like, share, leave questions for your presenter, sign up or register, and so on).

Run the Event Through Your Brand’s Facebook Page

If you have already built up your brand’s presence on Facebook, then you should absolutely run your event through your brand’s page. There is no need to create an event for your broadcast or run it through your personal page. Depending on time and duration of your broadcast, you can normally expect 10-25% of your total followers to engage with your content.

If you have only just begun growing your audience on Facebook, you may want to consider partnering up with a more established page in order to drive more viewership. For example: if you work at a university and want to stream an event for your department, work with your school’s social media team to stream the event through its main Facebook page.

Schedule Your Post

Facebook Live allows you to schedule a stream up to 7 days in advance. We recommend creating your live post 24 hours before you plan on going live. Viewers will be able to like and share your post prior to the event, as well as set a reminder so that Facebook alerts them once you go live. That way, your audience is already in place when you start your show!

When you schedule a Facebook Live post, it will automatically go live at its scheduled start time. You must begin your broadcast within 10 minutes of your scheduled start time, or your event will be cancelled – so make sure you are prompt!

Pin your event to the top of your Facebook page so any new visitors are alerted to your broadcast. That way, you can continue to post content prior to your event as you normally would without your stream being lost in the feed.

Keep Your Intro Brief

Unlike on other platforms, you do not want a long hold screen while your audience is settling in. Keep your hold screen up for under one minute, or your audience will begin to tune out.

If you need a bit more lead time, consider shooting pre-recorded content you can show prior to your stream starting. You could also set up a behind-the-scenes camera shot that the audience can watch while you are getting ready.

Engage Your Audience

Once you have begun your broadcast on Facebook Live, keep your audience engaged! Pin a message to the top of your comments so newcomers know what they are watching.

Your audience wants to feel like they are a part of the event. Encourage your on-screen talent to address the Facebook audience directly. It’s also very helpful to have a representative engaging in the chat, liking and replaying to your audience’s posts in real-time.

Encourage your Facebook audience to interact with your stream. Strategies may include asking questions to your presenters, participating in a raffle or give-away, voting on the content using Facebook emojis, or all of the above!

After the Event: Keep Engagement Going!

Once your event has concluded, Facebook will archive it in your video library. Your archived recording can be a powerful post-engagement tool (which, unlike your live stream, can be promoted through a paid ad campaign).

One trick that often gets overlooked: always, always, always add captions to your Facebook videos. There are highly accurate captioning companies such as Home Team Captions or 3Play Media which can help you with this. 85% of Facebook videos are viewed without sound, so captions are essential. Studies have shown that adding captions increases a video’s average watch time by 12%.

If there were some moments during your Facebook live broadcast that your audience found particularly engaging, cut those segments out and re-upload them as short clips. You can repurpose these shortened videos on YouTube, Instagram, or other social media channels.

Conclusion

A properly optimized Facebook Live event is one of the best engagement tools in the digital marketing tool belt today. If you are considering producing your Facebook Live event, contact us today and let us know – we are here to help!

Did Telestream Accidentally Create the Industry’s Best Webinar Production Tool?

Nick Bacon — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 15:10:07 +0000

Twitch Con, a conference celebrating the world’s most popular eSports streaming platform, is not the place where you would expect to see the launch of an incredible new webinar production tool. But this past week, that is exactly what happened.

At the event, Telestream launched its new stream production tool. Known as Gameshow, the low-cost tool – a stripped-down, sleeked version of its popular webcasting program, Wirecast – offers the gaming community the ability to create dynamic, interactive, high-quality streams at the bargain-basement price of only $9/month. It’s available for Mac & PC and streams directly to YouTube or Twitch.

Though unintended by Telestream, this tool can be a powerful asset for those who regularly produce webinars.

Webinar producers can learn a lot from the eSports & streaming communities. The two products – webinars and game streams – are structurally very similar.

Both webinars and game streams feature the following:

A screen capture – either a game being played, or a presentation being given
Live view of the presenters (via a USB webcam or full HD camera)
Interactive elements to drive engagement – Q&As, chats, and direct communication between presenter and audience

Besides the compositional similarities, there are similar goals in the positioning of the audience and the presenters. In both cases, presenters seek to be seen as thought leaders in a particular area. The audience sticks the presenter for an extraordinarily long time – Twitch users watch their favorite streams for an average of 109 minutes a day, while a typical webinar will keep a viewer engaged for over 30 minutes. Whether your goal is to distinguish yourself as an expert in generating PR for technology startups or in withstanding a 6-pool zergling rush in Starcraft, your method of attracting and engaging an audience is the same.

Even though Telestream’s “Gameshow” is geared towards streamers, it can also be a vitally useful tool for webinar producers as well. It’s designed from the ground-up to be streamlined into complex workflows: the last thing a gamer wants is to lose valuable clicks-per-minute on a clunky production tool. So production is as simple as possible. Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Select Your Template

With one click, select a pre-designed template. You can also build your own.

Step 2: Setup your platform

While Twitch is a great platform for streamers, most webinar producers will find YouTube’s interface much more suited to their goals. Input your username and give your camera and mic access, and Gameshow will prompt you to login to your YouTube account.

Step 3: Customize your broadcast

Gameshow’s user interface is incredibly intuitive – especially if you’ve used Wirecast. Customize each shot with screen /window captures, webcam shots, and a suite of dynamic interactive elements such as image carousels, web displays, social media icons, and more.

Step 4: Go Live

Once you’re all set, click the “Stream” button in the top-left corner. You’ll see a count-up timer start. If you go to your YouTube Live Dashboard it will look like this:

If the light is green, you’re good to go! Scroll down to the bottom of the page and go to the URL to your broadcast. You can then embed in your website as you normally would any YouTube video.

Using these tools to their fullest effect can have an immediate impact on your audience engagement, But there are key differences between the two industries to consider. While Twitch and YouTube are the platforms of choice for streamers, webinar producers have many more options. WebEx, GoToMeeting, WebinarPlatform, and more all exist and share a userbase. Currently, Gameshow only supports YouTube and Twitch, but with a “virtual camera” option, as we see in WireCast, webinar producers would gain access to the platform of their choice.

The other key difference is the “formal”-ness of the presentation: whereas streamers tend to show content off the cuff and in a less structured schedule, webinars tend to feature rehearsed presentations at a very specific pre-appointed time. You have to tune in at the right time and watch an entire webinar in order to get the most out of it; streamers encourage folks to tune in and out as they please, catching a few minutes here and there. You don’t have to watch Naniwa’s entire 8-hour stream to enjoy it; you can watch him rip apart an enemy for one match, crack a couple jokes in the chat, then go on to the next channel.

Webinar producers can learn much from the streaming community. Creating accessible, irreverent, yet high-quality broadcasts would cast a wider net and help create a more focused, engaged audience. Producers should also adopt the filmmaking mantra “show, don’t tell” – rather than deliver a rehearsed pitch, put your presentation into practice and let your audience come along for the ride. If your webinar discusses how to increase sales effectiveness, stream yourself as you call, qualify, and sell your product. If you’re leading an e-class on how to develop an electronic press kit, let them watch as you develop the actual materials in yours.

By adopting some of the tools and ideas from the streaming community, webinar producers can drastically increase their impact and effectiveness. See you at Twitch Con 2016, and if you need help producing your webinar, reach out to us!

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The Must-Use Tools for Live Stream Production

Nick Bacon — Sat, 10 Jan 2015 00:05:43 +0000

With innovative products and platforms in the field of live streaming emerging at an exponential rate, it’s tough to keep up with what works, what doesn’t, and what might if it got a little bit more love. With that in mind, we compiled this review of some of our favorite tools of the trade!

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Hardware

Blackmagic Decklink Mini Recorder

Why? Over the last few years, the cost of live stream production has plummeted, largely thanks to technical innovations from companies such as Blackmagic. Gone are the days where complicated switcher setups are required just to perform a simple 2- or 3-camera stream. With HD-SDI and HDMI inputs, the Blackmagic Decklink Mini Recorder is a powerful tool – and at under $150, the price is hard to beat!

Best for: Custom-built live streaming computers (you need to plug it into the PCIe slot on your motherboard)

Not recommended for: Folks streaming from laptops, or who require an output feed from their capture card.

Worth mentioning: Don’t have a PCIe slot? Just get a Blackmagic Intensity Shuttle (USB3 or Thunderbolt)!

Runner up: Teradek Bolt Pro

Why? Oftentimes, the most time-consuming and frustrating aspect of live production is running, hiding, and securing the miles and miles of cable necessary to connect all your components. The Teradek Bolt Pro removes the need for big cable runs, and at a reasonable cost (under $2,000) it’s affordable for most production companies.

Best for: events where running cable might be problematic, like live music events; events that require lots of camera movement within a compact space

Not recommended for: long events (the internal battery on the Bolt Pro lasts about an hour, although it has a 0B 302 series LEMO connector for external power); events where line-of-sight between receiver and transmitter may be compromised by structural elements

Worth mentioning: Teradek makes three models of the Bolt Pro: the 300, 600, and 2000 – with the number corresponding to the total range (in feet) of the device.

Software

Wirecast 5

Why? Wirecast is the de facto standard for live streaming software, and has been in the game for a very long time. Wirecast 5 can stream to any live encoding platform with the exception of New Livestream, and offers fully manual control over everything from the resolution to the bit-rate and everything in between. With up to 5 layers of elements, you can create rich, engaging broadcasts very intuitively. You can even pull other RTMP feeds as an input!

Best for: Anyone who wants to produce a live stream on any platform other than New Livestream.

Not recommended for: New Livestream users.

Worth mentioning: 5 had a good run, but was lacking in some key features. Wirecast 6, which came out in November 2014, added pretty much everything Wirecast 5 was missing: playlists, instant replay, a Twitter feed, and better hot keying!

Runner up: Livestream Studio

Why? Okay, we’ll admit it. Livestream Studio is really great live streaming software. Its interface feels like a sexy control room, you can output to any platform you want, and it comes standard with everything that Wirecast was lacking. While it’s a bit of a resource-hog, it’s a fully capable live streaming solution and would make for a smooth transition for anyone coming from the analog broadcast world.

Best for: New Livestream users, broadcast engineers

Not recommended for: Mac users (there’s no Mac version), any computers that aren’t top-of-the-line or custom-built.

Worth mentioning: Unlike Wirecast, Livestream Studio does NOT give you fine control over resolution and bit-rates of your stream. Rather, it comes with several output profiles from which you can choose. Annoyingly, you can’t output a single HD stream.

Camera

Sony EX-1r

Why? This camera is a workhorse. Arriving on the scene in 2009, you still find these cameras in the field everywhere, and for good reason. Its low light capabilities are top-notch, the zoom is nice and smooth, and we’ve never experienced any back focus issues as with other similarly priced camcorders. One of the first cameras to feature dual-slot recording, you could record for an entire day and never even have to switch out cards!

Best for: ENG production, camera rental facilities, press conferences, back-of-the-room event videography

Not recommended for: cinematic production

Worth mentioning: While the EX-1r uses annoying expensive SxS cards, a simple SxS->SDHC adapter allows you to use SD cards! It also pairs well with the Teradek Bolt Pro, as both can run off the same battery for around 3 hours.

Runner up: Panasonic GH2/GH3

Why? The Panasonic GH2 is a phenomenally versatile camera with an excellent community of support, but one of its best features is probably its most overlooked: clean HDMI output. With the ability to give crystal-clear, 1080p, menu-free video from its mini HDMI port, the GH2 is a great camera for folks looking for a simple one-camera HD live streaming setup. The only downside: it won’t output audio, so you’ll need to figure out an alternative method to run audio into your computer.

Best for: Folks looking to upgrade from webcams or consumer camcorders like the Canon Vixia HFS200; b- or c-cam shots.

Worth mentioning: Because quality degrades rapidly over HDMI, you shouldn’t use an HDMI cable longer than 10 feet for any HD broadcast.

Video Streaming Platform

YouTube Live

Why? Another major contributor to the decrease in cost of live streaming, YouTube is the first major platform to offer its services completely free. As of December 2013, any YouTube account in good standing is eligible for live streaming. And it’s free to embed!

Best for: Branding your live content and embedding in your website

Worth mentioning: As discussed in this previous post, be VERY CAREFUL if your broadcast contains any copyrighted music. You might get yanked from the air!

Also worth mentioning: Like other platforms, YouTube Live occasionally struggles with audio and video sync issues if you’re using the x264 codec. We recommend sticking with h.264 for now.

Runner up: DaCast

Why? DaCast is a true white-labelled platform. For an incredibly low cost (about 5-10% of what other platforms charge), you can embed ad-free streams directly into your website. While the analytics are still questionable at best, DaCast is a truly powerful platform at a very attractive price point.

Best for: Regular production of live events with audiences <100

Worth mentioning: While DaCast does have the ability to create multi-bitrate streams, your computer has to output each stream separately. This puts a greater burden on your computer – so be careful!

Also worth mentioning: We really, really would love to see DaCast implement DVR sometime in the near future. Everyone else does it! C’mon, DaCast!

Communication Platform

Twitter

Why? Because of this:

Got a shoutout on @Toontrack live stream of Devin Townsend’s concert today. Indeeeeeed #Ziltoid #toontrackmetalmonth pic.twitter.com/F6nU5JqhIf

— Storyboard Concept (@storybconcept) November 27, 2014

With more platforms adopting Twitter APIs to allow for broadcast integration, Twitter is the go-to way to have a live discussion with a global audience about your event. Bonus points if you’re able to show their tweets on screen!

Best for: Quick interactions with fans, media, or interested parties Worth mentioning: Hashtagging your event and building up a conversation takes time – make sure to engage with your audience regularly before, during, and after your event!

Runner up: Instagram

Ozzie Guillen and his wife on the red carpet. #Emmys2014 #EmmyChicago A photo posted by TV Academy (@chi_natas) on Nov 1, 2014 at 2:38pm PDT

Why? Conversation flows freely on Instagram, where people love to give love. While it might not be the best platform for live audience interaction, it’s a great platform for your fans to interact with one another!

Best for: #Hashtags. #Lots #Of #Hashtags.

Worth mentioning: Don’t forget – you need a smart phone to sign up for Instagram!

So, did we miss anything? Let us know what you think!

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A Comparison of YouTube and Livestream’s Live Video Services

Nick Bacon — Thu, 12 Jun 2014 19:16:28 +0000

December 12, 2013 was a day that will live in infamy for live streaming producers: it is the day that YouTube opened up its Live Video service for all YouTube accounts in good standing. For free.

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While support for the platform still lags behind other streaming service providers such as Livestream and uStream, recent rumors around YouTube’s negotiations to buy twitch.tv suggests that they’re willing to make the necessary investments to turn its service into a ripe economy of live producers. All that is well and good, but how does YouTube live currently compare to its competitors?

As a company specializing in live streaming services for events, festivals, and other web broadcasts, we felt it was our duty to compare and contrast YouTube’s current feature set to its competitors. Today, we’re going to focus on YouTube vs. Livestream’s Premium Package (which costs $399/month). We’ll try to be as thorough as possible.

Category #1: Features

Here’s a rundown comparing the feature sets of Livestream Premium and YouTube Live. Differences in bold.

Features	YouTube	Livestream Premium
Ad Free
Unlimited Event Pages
Unlimited viewers and storage
Unlimited On-Demand Embedding
DVR
Adaptive Bit Rate
smart device compatibility
Cloud Recording
Live Chat with moderation	No
Live Blogging Tools	No
Unlimited Event Archive
Vanity Account and Event URL	No
Local Publishing Server
Google Analytics Integration
Unlimited Embedding of Live Video Player
Event Page Facebook Application	No
White Label Player and Embeds	Kind of	No
Multi-camera		No
Highlight clips
Ad Insertion	InStream, commercial breaks, pre-roll	No
Call to Action overlays		No
Closed captioning		Available to partners; add’l production costs

As you can see, the basic offerings of both platforms are effectively the same. Both allow for ad-free, full HD live streaming with adaptive bit rates and DVR. Both purport to work on smart phones and tablets, although anecdotally we have had some issues with Livestream’s mobile broadcasts occasionally dropping out without explanation. At the Premium level, Livestream allows you to embed events in external web pages; so, too, does YouTube. Without taking into account the cost of the services, they are effectively a wash.

There are, of course, key differences to note. Livestream’s strengths lie in creating single event pages with full branding and live chat and blogging tools. YouTube features more robust options for ad insertion, includes call-to-action overlays, and has a more streamlined integration with closed captioning.

Advantage: YouTube. While the live blogging tools for Livestream are a neat feature, these can be easily replicated with a YouTube live stream by simply embedding your video on your own web page and incorporating whichever social media and blogging tools you prefer.

For example, one request we see quite often from clients is to embed a Twitter widget on their page. (Here is a recent example.) When embedding a feed into your website, implementing such a tool simply requires dropping in an extra line of HTML. This extended functionality increases viewer engagement with the event, while giving them the flexibility to join the social media conversation. While “old Livestream” used to have the ability to drop in a Twitter feed, “new Livestream” does not.

Category #2: Ease of Production

When Livestream switched over to its new platform, appropriately dubbed “New Livestream”, it dramatically changed the entire production workflow for stream producers. In essence, new Livestream is a closed system: in order to use it, you must use the tools that their company provides. This means you’re unable to use streaming standard software such as Telestream Wirecast, XSplit, or the open-source Open Broadcaster Software.

To get live video to New Livestream, you have two software options: Livestream Producer (free, Mac and Windows) and Livestream Studio (free or $799 for Pro, Windows only). Both applications have very limiting parameters.

Livestream Producer has dramatic limitations – only one camera input! – which means if you want to produce multi-camera events, you need external hardware such as a Tricaster or Blackmagic ATEM TV Studio.

Livestream Studio, while more robust, lacks Mac compatibility. If you have a Mac-based live streaming setup then you’re pretty much out of luck here.

YouTube, on the other hand, allows for the full spectrum of software- and hardware-based encoding and streaming solutions.

Advantage: YouTube. The issue with Livestream is that if you have already developed a streaming workflow, you will need to radically readjust your setup in order to produce high-quality streams. Additionally, YouTube’s Live Control Room allows you to preview your stream privately before pushing it live to your audience. With Livestream, there’s no good way to preview a stream before it goes live: you have to create an unpublished draft event, stream to that, verify that it looks good, then switch back to your main event. It’s a cumbersome process.

Category #3: Customer Support

According to GetHuman, the average wait for YouTube’s customer support is over 37 minutes, and has a frosty 1 out of 5 star rating. This can be an excruciating problem for live event producers, where a minute’s delay can cost thousands of dollars.

On the other hand, Livestream receives top marks for its customer support. Premium users are given a unique PIN number and phone number to call for any support needed; calls are answered promptly, and in my experience, the staff is very knowledgeable about how to fix common issues.

Advantage: Livestream.

Category #4: Copyright Infringement and Enforcement

As anyone who has uploaded a video to YouTube probably knows, Google is absolutely draconian in terms of enforcing copyright violation claims. This carries over with substantial implications to its Live platform.

If YouTube thinks that you are streaming copyrighted content, you are given roughly two minutes to take it down. Failure to comply results in your stream being removed immediately, and a strike being issued to your account. Three strikes and your account is suspended for 6 months.

This is a big issue for event producers because there is no simple process for purchasing broadcast rights to copyrighted content. (And if YouTube is really interested in purchasing Twitch and becoming a major player in the eSports/live streaming industry, they should address this issue right away.)

Here’s a pseudo-hypothetical situation: let’s say you’re streaming a great local event (like one of our favorites, the Chicago League of Lady Armwrestling). Prior to the show, the venue plays house music. If YouTube identifies any of that music as being a match in their Content ID database, they will take down your stream right away.

Livestream also has a ‘no copyright infringement’ policy, but they are not quite as severe or fast-acting as YouTube.

Advantage: Livestream. YouTube’s harsh copyright enforcement policy doesn’t translate to live streaming, and absolutely needs to be addressed.

The Bottom Line

While both services offer competitive feature sets, the fact that YouTube’s service is free while Livestream costs nearly $5,000/year makes YouTube a clear winner. If you have even moderate web development skills and your Google-fu is strong, then you can replicate all the additional features that Livestream offers on your own web page with a YouTube embed.

However, if you plan on streaming copyrighted content (provided you have purchased the legal right to do so) then YouTube’s nigh-on-ridiculous copyright enforcement policies prevent it from being the de facto platform for streaming.

Winner: YouTube. For most streams, copyrighted content should not be an issue and can be easily substituted for royalty-free or unique material. The vast difference in price and compatibility puts YouTube way ahead of its competitor.

Interested in streaming your event over YouTube? We can help. Shoot us an email at info@mainstreamchicago.com and we’ll get you started!

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webcasts Archives - Mainstream | Live Video Agency

6 Best Practices for Running a Facebook Live Event

Streaming on Facebook Live

Promote Your Event Beforehand

Run the Event Through Your Brand’s Facebook Page

Schedule Your Post

Keep Your Intro Brief

Engage Your Audience

After the Event: Keep Engagement Going!

Conclusion

Did Telestream Accidentally Create the Industry’s Best Webinar Production Tool?

Step 1: Select Your Template

Step 2: Setup your platform

Step 3: Customize your broadcast

Step 4: Go Live

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How to Host a Virtual Conference: A Beginner’s Guide

The Must-Use Tools for Live Stream Production

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Hardware

Blackmagic Decklink Mini Recorder

Runner up: Teradek Bolt Pro

Software

Wirecast 5

Runner up: Livestream Studio

Camera

Sony EX-1r

Runner up: Panasonic GH2/GH3

Video Streaming Platform

YouTube Live

Runner up: DaCast

Communication Platform

Twitter

Runner up: Instagram

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A Comparison of YouTube and Livestream’s Live Video Services

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