The Mega Guide To Live Streaming Events

Special occasions and events have long been declared an excellent way to publicise something, adding live streaming to that increase the visibility of your efforts. Your live event broadcasting not only reaches a much wider audience, but it can also be shared with other people easily. If a friend or coworker has not heard of that, they can get to know more about it after others have shared the stream.  

The audiences today get to see a lot of live videos in digital media marketing done by brands across the globe. When your audience already expects professional live streaming for events, it is better to get with the times and live stream your event. Before combining 360 streaming solutions with your events, here are a few things you need to do:

Consider The Cost of Live Streaming An Event

With so much easy access to so much live content, cost of live streaming an event is not too high. In fact, online streaming services for events are highly cost-effective for all parties involved. The time, effort and money to travel and attend an event are saved when the audiences can see it live online from anywhere in the world. In the planning part of the event, the money on meals, transport, and accommodation for all the people who would have been attending in person is saved.

Define The Purpose of Your Live Stream

Don’t take part in something just because everyone else is doing it is good advice that we often hear. In this case, too, if you live stream your event just for the sake of streaming, the results are more likely to disappoint you. First, check if you need it and if it fits the strategy of your event. It is up to the host to decide how live streaming is beneficial for the event and does it answer the following questions:

• Do you want to give your online audience the experience of witnessing an event live virtually?
• Does it help your far-away audience in networking?
• What kind of experience do you want the online audiences to have from the live stream?
• What is the primary goal of live streaming? Is it to showcase and promote your brand?

Answering these and other related questions can help you target the right people, deliver relevant live content and help in building the kind of message that you want to share with them.

Form Your Strategy First

Once you have defined the purpose of your live stream for events, you can go ahead with making a strategy for it. In the case of corporate events live streaming especially, needs precise strategic inputs and planning for the whole process. How the logistics will work, securing technical aspects, equipment, and how the streaming will be done; all of this needs to be thought of beforehand. You can’t make the most of a live stream if it is ill-timed or does not target the correct people, all of these being mistakes in strategy making. So make sure that all of these things are in order, and your live streaming vendors can handle everything well.

Understand The Components of A Live Stream

To create an efficient and successful remote event, professional live streaming has 5 main components that work in tandem. To help you understand them better and make sure you don’t skip anything, here are all the 5 of them:

1. In-Room Production Team – This is the team that sets up the production and equipment including cameras, mics, audio feeds, etc.
2. Encoder – It can be a software or a hardware device that transforms camera and audio signals into digital signals that are broadcast to the viewers.
3. Venue Internet Service – A high speed, large bandwidth, and stable internet service are required at the venue for streaming events live to the web.
4. Provider Platforms – Be sure to choose a reliable platform for live event broadcasting and make sure any events streaming vendors are up to the task.
5. Viewer’s Internet Service – once everything is ready from your end of the job, it is the viewer’s internet that ultimately affects how they experience the stream. No matter what live webcasting vendors you choose, if your audience’s internet is not good, you will have unhappy viewers at the end.

Recommended: Top 5 Live Streaming Apps For Special Event Broadcast

Do Your Research About Live Streaming Vendors

There are so many types of events streaming vendors available in the industry. You have to do a bit of research for the one that suits your needs the best. In general, the quality of service is proportional to the fee that they take, meaning expensive live webcasting vendors are generally better. However, vendor fees are based on the type of event, the size of the audience and the speed which you require. Looking into an array of options gives you the benefit of finding the vendor who fits your budget without compromising on the service.

Recommended: How To Start Academic Events Live Streaming?

Build a connection with your audience

Just setting-up the live streaming for the event is not the end of it. You need to make sure that your viewers have a pleasant experience. This is where connecting and engaging with your audience comes in. Your online audience is not supposed to be a passive participant, so make sure that the online streaming services you are using allow them to be more interactive and participative. Here are some strategies and activities that you can do to make sure that your audience is not feeling neglected:

1. Provide your viewers with additional online incentives like downloadable materials and links to speaker websites etc.
2. Do interactive chat sessions with them like Q&As so that they get exclusive information and feel part of the event. It can be an extension of your 360 streaming solutions and expand your activities too.
3. Having a particular moderator assigned to this group of online viewers makes them feels acknowledged and important. This moderator can cater to their needs specifically.

Streaming events live to the web can be a powerful resource and marketers everywhere are certainly making good use of it. Whether it is establishing brands, corporate events live streaming or facilitating learning, the purposes of professional live streaming are seemingly endless. So if you are looking to accomplish your goals with the help of online streaming services, the pointers mentioned above will be immensely helpful to you!