What you need to know before you livestream your event

Recent advances in video conferencing and livestreaming technologies have enabled distant groups of people to meet face-to-face with ease. Platforms such as Zoom and Facebook live are becoming more and more popular every day, particularly since the pandemic has altered the ways in which we interact through these services. One thing has become abundantly clear–these platforms are here to stay. Although live streaming has been available for a while now, it has never been more accessible, and the video and sound quality is better than ever.

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Working with a professional streaming setup is absolutely the way to go if you want people to connect with remote content on a deeper level. Let’s break down everything that goes into our professional, tried and true setup:

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What does a Livestream setup look like?

In short, a typical professional livestream setup involves a switching board for live switching between cameras, an audio board to control the sound mix going into the livestream, and 3-4 cameras, depending on the type of event/client needs. This accounts for the setup at about 60 to 80 percent of our events, especially when it comes to weddings.

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What factors into the price of a livestream setup?

Location: A lot of our set up depends on location and the type of occasion calling for a livestream.  Popular occasions for livestreaming include weddings, graduations, and funerals. These are all events that not every family member or friend can travel to see, making livestreaming an excellent alternative for them. Depending on the location, our set up could be simple and easy to execute or more complex and challenging. If we’re working to stream, say, a wedding in the middle of nature, we would likely bring a generator and work to establish a solid network connection. Because of its participatory nature, a funeral might call for a combination of Zoom and livestream, which requires additional equipment and a more intricate AV set-up. Graduations, for example, tend to be more straightforward and predictable, given a more regimented and predictable schedule, and access to a solid wifi network. This alone can determine the many variables, and therefore the price, of your livestream.

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Switching station: All of our basic livestream set-ups come with a switching station, where we can view all of the different cameras and the live feed. This typically hooks up to 3 to 4 cameras which we switch between throughout the livestream, creating an experience much more engaging and cinematic than your average single-camera stream.

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Camera packages: When deciding between camera packages, you want to consider whether you want your event to have a more classic, less fancy “live” feel to it, or to look like a high-end hollywood show. There is no right or wrong here, but the type of camera you choose will set the mood for your stream while also impacting the overall price.

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Audio board: Another essential component for our setup, the audio board allows one to record live sound, balance levels, eliminate unwanted sounds such as wind and background noise, and feed that mix directly into the livestream, matching it perfectly with the video content. You will need either a small or large mixer with more channels depending on the amount of mics provided and how many people are speaking at a time. In the past, we have mic’d entire choirs, but on our average setup only requires three mics at a time.

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Microphones: Speaking of microphones, you’re going to want to have one or more for your stream, trust us. How many microphones do you need? That will depend on the occasion, but two lapel mics and one handheld mic is oftentimes sufficient for weddings, funerals, and graduations.

Lapel microphones, also called clip-on mics or lavaliers, are small microphones that are perfect for recording dialogue as they are discreet and can be positioned close to the speaker’s face while remaining undetectable and unnoticeable. For a wedding ceremony setup, lapel mics are preferable because it allows the officiant and couple to have their hands free, whereas using a handheld mic would require passing it from person to person. It also looks a lot nicer for video and photos. However, as Dj Sterling explains, lapel mics are not wind resistant, and in the case of high winds, it’s useful to have a wireless mic and mic-stand as backup.

Handheld mics work great when it comes to micing live musicians. Depending on the situation, you may need to mic both an instrument and vocals with two separate microphones.

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Visuals: During weddings, funerals, and graduations especially, slide shows are very popular because of their ability to provide a moving, visual and emotional storytelling experience. For the people physically in the audience, we can provide either a TV or projector and screen setup. Meanwhile, we wcast the slideshow itself to our stream for optimal viewing, avoiding problems like TV glare and overexposure.  

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Internet: It is impossible to stream without the internet, and your connection can quite literally make or break the stream. This is why we provide Liveview solo, which is a data plan that hooks up directly to the camera and streams to your platform of choice. This way, we don’t have to rely on the building’s potentially slow internet. Liveview solo also tends to stream at a much higher quality, in turn creating a more pleasant viewing experience for those at home.

For whatever reason, if the internet goes down at any time, we record a backup file. Once the stream is done, we can provide that file for you and upload it to your platform of choice.

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Zoom and/or livestream:

When choosing to do a livestream, there are two different routes you can take. One is streaming the video directly to Youtube, Facebook, etc with minimal interaction aside from comments. The other approach is incorporating videoconferencing such as Zoom, which allows you to bring remote people into the event. We are able to merge the two, but it becomes slightly more complex.

As you can see, there are a number of variables that factor into a livestream setup. We hope this article answers some of the questions you may have had about livestreaming your next event.

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