How to Livestream Events Online : Ultimate Guide to Live Event Planning

The emergence of the pandemic has overturned many industry trends, while large concerts, year-end dinner parties, and other physical events have turned into online activities, but without proper planning of event live streaming content, not only the audience will not feel the atmosphere of the event immersive, but also the professionalism of the organizer may be affected, due to frequent problems with the live streaming equipment. Therefore, in this article, we will introduce you to the preparation strategy before live streaming from the perspective of a professional live streaming service company, to understand the process of live streaming and the details that need to be paid attention to during the process, as well as the live streaming techniques to deal with unexpected situations.

‍

How Does the Live Streaming Process Work: 4 Important Elements of the Live Streaming Process

The general live streaming process goes through several steps: recording, encoding, uploading to the cloud, delivering, and playback. In order to perfectly transmit the video from the recording site to the audience’s playback device in real-time, the following 4 major elements should be confirmed in advance from the hardware level.

Live streaming process 1: (filming site) sending signals

• Signal source: The filming team needs to ensure that the filming equipment is actually transmitting audio and video signals. Depending on the scale of the event, the filming equipment can be a cell phone, camcorder, camera or webcam built into a computer.
• Encoder: The encoder’s task is to encode the signal source into a cloud-ready format and then push the source to the cloud streaming service platform. Common encoders include Amazon Elemental Link, OBS.

Live streaming process 2: (cloud) processing + transmission

• Cloud live streaming platform: After receiving the live signal, the streaming platform still has many steps to process in order to broadcast the video smoothly, including transcoding, encryption, recording, backup, packaging, etc. You can think of this process as processing ingredients into ready-to-eat dishes and packaging them for release.

Live streaming process 3: (cloud) Deliver

• Content Delivery Network (CDN): Next, the content delivery network allows the live streaming video to be delivered to each viewer’s playback device more quickly and reliably.

Live streaming process 4: (playback device) receiving signals

• Player: The audience can receive the signal, decode it, and watch it through the player. Some live streaming events will have a player embedded in the event page so that viewers can watch the content on the webpage. For this part, you need to pay attention to whether the player is compatible with mainstream playback devices such as computers, tablets, and mobile devices, otherwise, viewers may still not be able to watch your live stream.

‍

3 Steps To Plan A Thorough Live Streaming Event

A good live streaming event is related to both “event design” and “technology”, and good content, smooth event session, engaging real-time interactions, and low-latency streaming technology are all details that can be paid attention to when planning a live streaming event. Here are the 3 steps for planning the event:

1. Determine the purpose and specifications of the event live streaming

live event streaming has a wide range of applications. Different types of events such as large concerts, webinars, international conferences, corporate training, sports events, etc. require different specifications for lighting, audio, cameras, picture quality, bandwidth, broadcast area, etc. Therefore, it is recommended that the organizer should first confirm the format, expected number of viewers, and length of live streaming before finding the corresponding service specifications.

The following questions can help you to have a clearer framework when preparing the details of the live streaming event.

[General & contents]

1. What kind of live streaming event do I want to organize?
2. Who is my audience? How many viewers will there be?
3. Will there be a physical participation format?
4. Is this a paid event?
5. What kind of interactive session do I need? What kind of interactive session design is interesting?
6. How many hosts and guests will there be? (This will involve live streaming footage, radio reception, etc.)
7. What are the indicators of good or bad event organization?

[Technology]

1. What kind of filming equipment and radio reception equipment do I need to use?
2. What is the format of the live streaming I want to use?
3. Live Streaming: Live streaming of footage, such as New Year’s Eve TV broadcasts.
4. Simulive: Pre-recorded video and broadcast at a specific time, such as pre-recorded online courses.
5. Hybrid live streaming: A combination of the previous two formats, using a part live streaming and part simulive format.
6. What live streaming software do I need to use?
7. Where do I need to broadcast?
8. What data do I need to collect through the live streaming tool?

2. Planning your program and rundown

Live streaming emphasizes real-time interaction, which means that it is difficult to increase the fluency of the video through editing and relies heavily on the fluency of the interaction between the hosts and the guests. This is why advance planning is so important. When planning the live streaming content, it is recommended to cut each session into smaller time units, arrange speaker note and expected results in detail, and insert some interactive segments such as live chat and voting sessions to prevent the audience from getting bored. You need to go through the actual planning process at the beginning of the event and think of ways to deal with various unexpected situations in order to help you create smooth live streaming content that will grab the audience’s full attention.

3. Find a live streaming solution

Different types of events have their own suitable live streaming tools. For live streaming e-commerce promotions and small live streaming events, you can use a free live streaming platform with high convenience; however, for paid commercial shows that focus on privacy or large corporate internal events, it is recommended to use video streaming services provided by professional live streaming vendors. Video streaming services provided by event live streaming companies can usually provide the appropriate scale and format of live streaming according to the organizer’s needs, and also ensure the security of the video, which can effectively prevent theft by people with bad intentions to avoid affecting the organizer’s brand reputation.

‍

8 Commonly-Overlooked Details In Live Event Streaming

After understanding the steps of planning for event live streaming content, the technical aspects of the live streaming also need to be checked well, in order to make the whole live streaming more smoothly. Here are 8 precautions for your reference before, during, and after the live streaming of the event:

Precaution 1: bandwidth requirements

When the number of live streaming viewers is large, there may be a delay in the screen, so it is recommended to confirm the expected number of live streaming viewers beforehand so that the event live streaming vendor can provide more bandwidth according to your traffic demand to ensure that your live streaming does not lag.

Precaution 2: cross-country live streaming requirements

If you need to live stream across countries, in addition to ensuring that your live streaming can be broadcast smoothly in other countries, you may also need to ask the vendor to provide real-time subtitle translation services.

Precaution 3: video codec compatibility

Make sure your video encoder is compatible with the live streaming platform before broadcasting, so that the specifications are not mutually exclusive, thus affecting your live streaming. For example, if your live streaming platform is receiving RTMP signals, make sure the encoder can convert the captured raw video files to streamable RTMP signals.

Precaution 4: low latency requirements

For live streaming of large-scale commercial shows, e-sports, and competition events with high fluency requirements, a low latency streaming service may be required to avoid the negative perception of users due to latency issues.

Precaution 5: video content security

If the video involves important corporate internal information or personal data, it is recommended to choose a professional live streaming service that provides device and replay limits, digital watermark, etc. to prevent illegal copying of video content in order to effectively avoid information leakage and damage to intellectual property rights.

Precaution 6: create a sense of immersion

If you only rely on the hosts to talk about the content while live streaming, it is easy to make the audience feel like they are watching a video and feel bored. Therefore, it is recommended to insert some interactive sessions when planning the live streaming content and use unique interactive methods such as chat rooms and polls on the live streaming platform to create a live event-like atmosphere so that the audience can be more involved in the live streaming.

Precaution 7: playback function

If you want to be able to watch the video over and over again afterward, you need to ask the vendor to help provide a playback function so that users can watch the content again after the live streaming

Precaution 8: data analysis

The real-time traffic and user data recorded in the live streaming backend can help the organizer analyze the effect of the live streaming, and serve as a reference for subsequent customer CRM and the next event.

‍

What Should I Do If I Encounter An Unexpected Situation During A Live Streaming Event?

The following are 4 tips to deal with the unexpected situations that are often seen in event live streaming.

Live event streaming  tip 1: prepare teleprompter and cue cards

During live streaming, guests may not be familiar with the environment in front of the screen, so they may forget their words or go off track. It is recommended that in addition to rehearsing beforehand, the organizer can also present the content behind the camera in cue cards or teleprompter so that the speaker can follow the prompts on the screen in front of him/her when he/she is nervous to make the live streaming go well.

Live event streaming  tip 2: arrange backup sessions in advance

Better safe than sorry. Although it is impossible to avoid unexpected situations, you can turn them into opportunities and leave a good impression in front of the audience through a good response. You can avoid uncontrollable problems, such as the late arrival of guests and audio interruptions by planning in advance with lively music or short advertising segments to avoid live streaming interruptions and help you effectively deal with live streaming crises. In addition, the above-mentioned “simulive” format is to avoid the occurrence of unexpected situations in the live streaming, so the video will be recorded in advance and then broadcasted, depending on the situation.

Live event streaming tip 3: rehearsals and auxiliary tools to prevent malicious attacks

It is very important for live streaming to drive up the sensation through interaction, but sometimes there are many crowd interactions that organizers do not like, such as overly emotional comments, malicious attacks, and high-frequency advertising messages. In this case, in addition to internal training before the event, where the situation simulation exercise allows the activity staff to practice how to quickly handle such problems; you can also find a live streaming chat room tool with the ability to block malicious users and delete messages to help you prevent malicious attacks in the first place.

Live event streaming tip 4: ask for professional support during the event

It is easy to encounter equipment problems that affect the live streaming flow. It is recommended to arrange a standby mechanic to deal with equipment problems, or find a live streaming service provider that offers 24-hour live technical support to give you professional technical support.

‍

Recommended Event Live Streaming Vendor｜BlendVision, To Help You Create Real-Time, Zero-Distance Interaction

If you are new to event live streaming and are looking for an easy-to-use live streaming platform with multiple interactive features, then BlendVision is your best assistant for event live streaming! The BlendVision One is a live streaming technology that meets the needs of online events, allowing you to enjoy 4K HD live streaming on any device, even for large-scale cross-country live events, with stable and smooth streaming. The platform is simple and intuitive to use, providing real-time chat and polling interaction, as well as a highly protective DRM content protection mechanism to enhance the protection of your content privacy and help organizers create smooth and rich live streaming events.

If you have any event live streaming needs, please feel free to contact us for more details.