How to Create the Best Corporate Conference Live Streaming Production
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
The Best Way to Live Stream Your Corporate Conference
Corporate conferences are hard work, requiring extensive coordination from start to finish. However, without live streaming your corporate conference to remote attendees, you fail to make the most of that hard work. A live stream exponentially increases your audience reach, providing a much more accessible way to attend and participate. Conference footage is also perfect for making future content that highlights your company's work and mission. Keep reading for our pro tips on the best way to live stream your corporate conference.
1) Use a Multicamera Setup
First things first: A professional camera is an absolute must-have for high-quality live streaming. Regardless of how high-tech your phone or tablet may be, amateur equipment drastically detracts from the stream's quality and general watchability. For instance, we've seen businesses attempt to DIY their live stream by having someone in the front row hold up an iPad for hours of a presentation. This creates a live stream that is shaky, hard to hear, and glaringly unprofessional. Using this method also means an employee is stuck holding up an iPad all day, rather than being able to take full advantage of the conference. Next, not only do you need a professional camera, you need more than one. We're veterans of corporate conference live streaming production, and we can confidently say that people will (unknowingly) walk, or even stand still, directly in front of a camera. With a multicam set-up, you'll be able to cut between different angles, ensuring that the speakers remain the focus. Even more, having multiple camera angles makes the video far more engaging. We typically do a 2 to 3 camera setup for our conferences and use the Blackmagic ATEM Mini to connect them to the computer and live switch between the feeds.
2) Patch into the Sound Board
Consider the last time you watched a video with poor audio. How long did it keep your attention? How well were you able to focus on the content? And how quickly did it take for you to simply stop watching? Don't create this situation for your corporate conference's live stream attendees. While, of course, the video needs to look good, it's crucial that it sounds even better. The core content of any conference is what the presenters say, so it needs to be heard clearly. To accomplish this when filming small presentations, we simply clip a video mic onto the speaker. However, when we are live streaming an entire conference (which is typically multiple days with dozens of speakers), we make sure to patch into the AV sound board. This allows us to get a direct feed from all of the microphones the presenters will be using, eliminating distracting background sounds and feedback. We either use the Rode Go II Mics directly plugged into the computer or patch an XLR from the AV sound board into the Scarlett 18i8 audio interface.
3) Connect with Ethernet Cable
Even with the highest-tech cameras and audio gear, a live stream is only as good as the Internet connection. At corporate conferences, the WiFi is strained by attendee and venue guests all trying to use it at the same time. This doesn't leave any room for uploading a high-quality video for hours on end. We recommend asking the venue to patch into their Internet via an ethernet cable--as old-school as it might sound, it's the only way to ensure stable Internet which is crucial for a quality live stream. In our experience, many larger venues have this option but often charge for it. If this is not an option, you may be able to get a dedicated WiFi access reserved specifically for your live streaming production team. This typically also comes with a fee, but it is far better than using public or shared WiFi. Be sure the upload speeds (which tend to be slower than download speeds) are between 10-25mbps for live streaming, and expect to be using about 3-5gb per hour of streaming.
Where Do You Find Services for Corporate Conference Live Streaming and Production?
If you don't want to DIY this process, we're happy to handle it. Angela Wolf Video offers conference video production and live streaming. Click here to learn more about our packages.
Angela Wolf Video offers corporate video production services near Philadelphia, PA.
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