Not all live streams live up to expectations…
Due to its increasing popularity live streaming is being used by more businesses than ever before to communicate with a virtual audience. With a plethora of available platforms and streaming options many organisations make the mistake of choosing a streaming platform and assuming their job is done. In fact, choosing a platform is just one piece of the puzzle and there are many elements that need to come together to create a successful, memorable event.
We’ve seen a ton of streaming mistakes over the past 12 months and have pulled together this list to help you avoid making these very frequent errors.
Here are 5 major mistakes people make when live streaming:
Poor video quality
Live streaming is all about making awesome events available to people who can’t be there. So, it’s important that you provide those people with an experience that makes them feel like they’re not missing a thing. Live streaming with poor quality video can easily ruin the entire experience. Viewers are expecting to see high quality video as a live stream should be the same quality as if the audience members were attending the event in person. One of the best ways to avoid bad quality video is to use a professional software to host your live stream on, as well as using professional camera equipment.
Poor audio quality
Audio is a huge part of the viewing experience. Terrible audio can be just as damaging to your live stream as a bad video. Even if you have high quality visuals, if your audience cannot hear you, they’ll soon switch off. Best practise is to avoid using the internal microphone on the camera, as this can pick up lots of background noise as it isn’t directly next to the speaker. Our advice is to invest in an external microphone that can be placed next to the speaker, limiting background noise and distractions.
Not enough preparation
Preparation is the key to success for any live stream regardless of whether you have lots of experience or not. Many businesses attempt to host a live stream without any practice. This can lead to awkward pauses and no contingency if things don’t go as planned. Some things that happen during a live stream are beyond your control. What you can control, though, is how prepared you are. Practice capturing any anticipated or planned situations before your stream goes live. Ways to prepare could include having a script next to you during the event, pre-recording some more important sections to ensure they are the highest quality or even creating a slideshow of the key points to present while you are speaking.
No promotion
Why hold a live stream if no one knows about it? Even the best live streams will fail if nobody knows about them. To make sure your streams gets maximum exposure, ensure you promote it well in advance. Some promotion ideas could be to post teasers across your social media platforms, using paid advertisement to reach a new audience and run an email marketing campaign to your database. It doesn’t stop there, once you have some interest in your event you need to ensure the confirmed attendees are reminded about your live stream. This can be done by sending out an email a couple of days before the event, or you could create a social media page they can join for event updates and reminders.
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Not testing equipment and connection beforehand
Don’t put all of your trust into technology! Although the equipment you are using will be ready to go most of the time it is always best to double check up to a day before you host your live stream. You may come across problems such as cameras not being fully charged or faulty equipment. Check everything before you go live to ensure the lighting is correct, the cameras and microphones are working, and your internet connection is stable. It would be a little embarrassing if you go to start your live stream and then find these issues!
#dreamteam
If your business wants to host a live stream event and wants to ensure all these mistakes are avoided, then #dreamteam can help.
Dreamtek is trusted by the world’s biggest brands such as Google and Jaguar to deliver the highest quality live streaming services.
For more information visit our live streaming services page.