If you’re looking to livestream for friends, family, or as part of a business, you should avoid making rookie mistakes. When using equipment and software you’ve never used before, it’s easy to get things wrong. Capturing perfect video and audio can be difficult, especially when you’re doing it in real time. Fortunately, this brief guide can help you avoid the most common errors.
Getting the Right Equipment
Over the past decade, livestreaming has exploded as a form of entertainment. Cameras are everywhere now and 4G Wi-Fi enabled us to stream real-time video with our devices.
Using both desktop and mobile, individuals have made a career from streaming and businesses have used it to elevate their marketing game. There are even business models that rely on live-streamed content, most notably iGaming where casino games are hosted online.
This allows a new level of interactivity with the game, as can be seen with Lightning Roulette UK where the action is overseen by a British host who interacts with the game’s players. This brings the online casino experience much closer to standing on the casino floor and also enables more varied games and game shows to be played on iGaming websites.
If you’re just starting, you’re not setting up an online game show anytime soon. However, you’ll still need the right equipment to get started. For most, that will consist of a desktop computer, a camera, a microphone, an internet connection, and streaming software. There are many other accessories out there, but it’s best to focus on mastering the basics first.
Beware Audio Clipping
This brings us to our first common mistake – neglected audio. Streaming is audiovisual, but the audio side of that equation tends to be ignored. This is because it’s much easier to see when a livestream has poor video quality, but it can be harder for an untrained ear to get the audio right. Make no mistake, bad mic audio will ruin the user experience by being either too quiet or too loud, as shown on Audio Solutions, you will experience audio clipping.
To solve clipping, you should allow yourself a clear and open space where sound won’t bounce around so much. Checking your audio waveforms, you should tweak your mic settings until each waveform has room above and below it. Test a lot and listen to the results back before every stream.
Prepare Content Beforehand
When casually streaming, it’ll pay to have your content prepared beforehand. Preparation looks different to everyone, but you should have some idea of what you’re going to do before you turn the camera on. If you’re just streaming to a friend while on holiday, it’s polite to not waste their time. So, have some idea of what you’ll talk about and if you want to show them a scenic view, get there before you start the stream.
If you’re trying streaming as a career, you’ll need a lot more preparation. Pundits spend time organising headlines and figuring out what they want to talk about. Travel influencers find places and activities that will keep viewers entertained. In each case, there are simple things you can do beforehand. Hamilton‘s article on audience engagement shows the things you can check when the camera goes live. Another beginner mistake is when someone is so focused on the content that they don’t engage much with the audience.
Don’t fall into this trap, interact with the audience at every opportunity, and don’t be afraid to stand out. Remember that viewers aren’t necessarily there to watch the content, they’re there to watch you interact with the content, and interact with you in the meantime.
