Custom Streaming Setup

Many times, I was asked a very common question that “What is a best setup for live streaming? How to make a Custom Streaming Setup”. Though the answer to this seems very candid but it’s not. My answer to this question is there is nothing like a seamless streaming setup rather it depends on your area of work requirement. There can a setup that is best suited for my line of work but may not fit to your requirements. Moreover, technology is evolving at a rapid phase and what is best suited today technology wise may not be a finest option tomorrow.

So, I would suggest for the people who are planning to make a streaming setup to plan keeping in mind their work requirement and its eventual usage.

Things to consider before making a live streaming setup.

Having a custom streaming setup is a every live streamer dream. Today when live streaming is a hot selling cake everyone wants to jump into this business and want to have their share. But making a live streaming setup is not a piece of cake.

I have seen people spending a fortune on making such setup and landing into trouble. You must be thinking “What trouble?”. By making wrong business purchase decisions you can land yourself into a situation where you have pile of outdated hardware/software, where competitors having edge over you by providing more economical services, where you have a bunch of non-performing assets in your business, loss of clients to competitors, etc.

Even if you are not into business and an independent live streamer, you can also find yourself into situation where one wrong purchase decisions can land you into load of debts with compromising streaming quality in comparison with someone doing similar thing with much less money and setup.

You should keep the following things in mind before starting building a custom streaming setup.

When it comes to making a live streaming setup you should keep following things in concentration.

1. Purpose:

Before you start building as setup you should have a clear purpose.

Ask yourself “Why you need it?” Yes of course you what to do live streaming. But the answers you should be focusing on is that is this for business or personal use.

If you are making a streaming setup for your business than it has to build differently and if you are planning to make one for personal use (streaming on YouTube, Twitch, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) that it has to be built differently.  Similarly, if you are an organization and planning to have inhouse setup for live streaming than it ahs to be planned and build differently.

The purpose of the custom streaming setup defines its whole structure.

2. Scope:

Here you also need to keep in mind the scope of your setup. The scope of the usage of the setup defines the actual usage of the setup at work location. You may just want to have a setup for live streaming only, or live streaming and recording, or you want to handle everything with your setup like streaming, recording, lighting, display, capturing, etc. along with Audio/Video operations. If you want to make a setup for just streaming that it is planned in a different way than the case where you want to have multiple things handled with your setup.

I suggest here is you start from one end keep on adding things you want to add to your setup. When I started, I started with a basic streaming setup and keep on upgrading and adding more equipment’s to handle multiple tasks. But here you have to keep in mind your manpower availability, because when you keep expanding the scope of operation you may need extra person to share a few tasks. For example, you cannot handle streaming, video capturing, audio mixing etc on your own. You may handle small events doing all on your own but when it comes to big events you have to have some helping hands.

Another thing we have to consider is portability of the setup. A portable setup for outdoor events has to be customized differently than an indoor/studio setup. Here what I suggest is make your setup such that it solves both the purpose. You may not carry equipment’s specifically meant for indoors for your outdoor events and cannot use the equipment’s specifically meant for outdoor use for your indoor events. So, keep setup such that you can use maximum part of it in both use case. This will cut down you cost drastically if you make your setup portable enough to adapt to different event locations.   

     

3. Budget:

If you are a streaming service provider and have a fixed budget in your mind, then you just stop reading this article and google again. It may seem rude but it’s not. It’s the reality of streaming business and what we follow. To survive as a streaming service provider, you have to “Give the best to expect the best.” Which means if you want your business to grow, survive and compete in the current market scenario where there is mushrooming of Streaming Service Providers you have to be the best. Not just your best but the best in this business. And that surely comes for a price. Best services are result of good quality equipment’s, gradual learning and skilled resources, and this doesn’t come cheap.

But if you are a hobbyist and just want to have streaming setup for live streaming on YouTube or personal needs than you can follow your budget constraints and go for the setup which solves your purpose.

4. Technical Know-How:

Next important factor is how much you know about streaming. Are you well versed with the streaming technology or you are a beginner? Here it becomes very important to have an understanding of the live streaming technology so as to make wise decisions when it comes to choosing hardware and software you need for your streaming setup.

If you are, we versed with the streaming technology or already into such business or work than you already know what you are doing. However, you need to update yourself with what’s new available and coming in the technology you are working in. You don’t want to spend on something which is going to be outdated soon or buy something randomly despite the fact that there is a much better option available.

 

If you are a beginner with very less or no understanding of the streaming technology that I suggest you have to go back to your study desk and spend some time on understanding the streaming technology. There are plenty of online portals where you can find such courses. YouTube is also another good source of learning but you will spend more time struggling to find what you need specifically.  A word of advice here for the beginner’s is don’t just jump to conclusion, just do proper research and do some hands on the technology before making any purchase decision for your live streaming setup.

5. Ask the experts:

Everyone cannot do everything. There is no harm asking help and assistance from the experts in the industry. We understand you can learn and evolve but sometime timing is more important. Sometimes it needs to be done urgently and rather than spending time learning before doing and missing the opportunity or it becomes too late to consider. Every time you cannot spend time learning thing before you want to do it on your own. Sometime it become important that you take expert opinion from the people in the same industry and get your setup in place at much faster pace.

This way you eliminate the chance of mistakes when you take things in your hands. Also, you have suggestions from experts which are backed by their rich experience and years of learning. When is you have better chance of winning a court case, when you fight it on your own? or when you seek help of a lawyer? Similarly, spending some money on getting an expert advice is always a better choice, than loosing a fortune with a wrong decision.

Learn about our streaming consultancy services here:- Streaming Consultancy

In my upcoming blog ill share you what do u need for making an custom streaming setup.

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