Live streaming provides you with many production options to reach your audience. You have the flexibility to name the time, content, who will be featured and who it will be streamed to, how you want to format it, and where you want to live stream your production. Freedom to stream video content through your website or social media makes it easily accessible to a broad group of people online or to your selected audience. Your live stream production can be viewed on multiple devices simultaneously, including mobile allowing your viewers to view it on the go from wherever they are.
Not only do you have the flexibility of where and when you want to stream, but you also have different options of content you can create. Your entire event can be live from one location or multiple locations, or you can “roll-in” pre-recorded material to ensure a glitch-free production. Whether you plan to stream out a three-day conference with breakout sessions, an awards show, or a simple lecture – options abound. Interested? Read on!
Live Streaming Options
Full Live
A fully live show is staged, lit, and performed with the live stream originating from one place. All equipment, actors, and participants are in the studio or at a remote location equipped with all the necessary gear. Full Live is the traditional “in the studio” or “remote’ broadcast that we all know from television, adapted to live streaming.
Hybrid Live
A local live host can moderate a number of remote video callers. Remote participants could be award recipients, presenters, interview guests, and more. A remote guest can use as little as a cell phone to call in all the way up to a full crew. For high-profile talent, professional gear can be sent to their location and run by a remote engineer. This kind of show has become popular due to a need for social distancing. Additionally, content can be pre-recorded for high production quality and replayed into the show as a video segment.
Full Remote
A completely remote show uses all remote content, connected via various contribution methods. Full Remote shows can include pre-recorded content. The important distinction is that all LIVE contributions are off-site.
Full Live Replay
Full Live-Replay describes an experience that is all pre-produced. All playback and is a safer way to live stream as signal flow is completely controlled at the origination source. Non-interactive, really not live at all.
Now that we got that covered, you can explore how you want to go about your next project and how you want to cater to your audience.
Your Audience
Live streaming provides plenty of opportunities to be creative and allows for customization. Whether you are shooting a virtual event or show, you decide where you want to live stream it and who gets access. For example, suppose you are hosting a virtual exclusive or paid event. In that case, you want to provide a link to your audience, or if you are looking to live stream to a broad audience, you might want to choose a social media channel or live streaming platform. That’s the great thing about streaming video is having an array of options. The key is to KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE and where they are at. The other part is awareness, you can create content all day long, but if your target audience doesn’t know about it is a missed opportunity. Promotion before the live-streamed event or show is a must, long before the event or show airs.
The benefit of creating video content is that you can re-purpose it or convert it to video on demand (VoD) for people to view at their convenience, allowing more flexibility to your audience.
How do you pull off a seamless live stream production? You get the proper streaming team that will help you mitigate the technical issues and set up a realistic production timeline. Planning in advance, communicating, and working closely with your streaming is imperative to the success of your production. Each production will have its challenges regardless of how similar it might be to another.
