This manual page provides details on what you can do to prepare for a large event.
It is critical that you follow each of the following steps to make sure that your broadcast location and account are sufficient enough for the planned LIVE event.
1. Ensure your network is sufficient for the live stream by checking your internet speeds and ports.
Before starting the stream, it is important to check your internet speed by utilizing the Internet Bandwidth Requirements manual page.
Then you can make sure that your connection meets the standards for broadcasting LIVE:
- 500 kb constant upstream for medium quality broadcasts.
- 1 mb constant upstream for high quality broadcasts.
Make sure that the required ports for broadcasting are not blocked by any firewall or antivirus programs. You can see which ports need to be opened and how to open them in the following Required Ports for Broadcasting manual page.
Please also check the following notes regarding your Internet connection for broadcasting:
- You will want to use a wired Ethernet connection and not WiFi. A WiFi connection can be more prone to fluctuation in quality and can more easily drop, causing your stream to end abruptly.
- Cellular (3G, 4G, LTE, and hotspots) connections can be very unreliable. It is strongly recommended to use a hardwired Ethernet or a WiFi signal over a mobile connection.
- It is important to use an Internet connection which is not shared with many other users. For example, when streaming from a typical corporate office, the amount of bandwidth available for your stream may be inconsistent depending on the number of other users on the same network.
- When choosing your encoding settings, you should take into account your upload bandwidth. The bitrate of your stream should use no more than 50% of your upload bandwidth capacity on a dedicated line. For example, if the result you get from an Internet speed test tool shows that you have a 2 Mbps upload speed available, your combined audio and video bitrate should not exceed 1 Mbps.
2. Make sure your account can support the number of expected users.
Utilize the Calculate Your Package on the Platform Upgrade page to make sure that your account has enough data for the event.
Make sure that you have sufficient bandwidth remaining for your event. This is calculated based on the amount of viewers that you will expect to have, how long you will be broadcasting for, and how long you expect your viewers to be watching you event. This can be calculated from the calculator on the upgrade page.
If your viewer limit is high enough, but more bandwidth is needed, you may need to Purchase more Bandwidth for your event. For example, if you know you are going to have 300 simultaneous viewers but will be streaming for a few hours, you may want to consider purchasing additional bandwidth to make sure you have enough, and do not run out during your event.
You will also want to inform your viewers to check their connections prior to the stream, making sure that they meet the expectations for viewing your LIVE broadcast. This can be done by testing their internet speed on speedtest.net and making sure they have the proper internet connection for viewing a live broadcast – more details can be seen on the Viewing Tips for Content page.
3. Pick the proper Broadcaster for your LIVE event
Make sure you have downloaded and tested a LIVE broadcaster, on location, prior to starting your event. See the Broadcast Options for Video Channels manual page for a list of our compatible broadcasters.
Make sure your channel is published to all of the devices you wish to be able to stream to for the event on as outlined in the Channel Publishing Details manual page.
4. Recording the event for a later use
If you are interested in recording your LIVE event, you can manage this in a few ways.
Option 1 is using the local record feature available when Broadcasting Using the HD Wave as shown in the manual page.
We highly recommend you record the live stream locally to your computer using the HD Wave (see point 10 from the Broadcast using HD Wave manual page). This will ensure that even when you experience any network issues, the complete file will be archived. You can then upload the complete local recording to the platform.
Option 2 is using the auto-record feature in the Record Settings of your dashboard in your account.
Users who have purchased a ticket to the event will be able to access the autorecorded videos at a later time and see it free of charge. Make sure that the Record is set to ON for the channel which the event will take place.
5. Publish the recording to different devices
After the recorded video is published on demand, you can publish it to different devices as outlined in the Video Encoding and Publishing manual page.
For this you will have to edit the video and select to encode it to the desired formats – we recommend to encode the video to be compatible with all HTML5 devices.
If you have any questions or comments, please be sure to post a support ticket and one of our streaming experts will be happy to provide additional details. We outline how to Add a New Support Ticket in our manual page.
Learn how you can prepare your live site for a PPV event, by watching the following video tutorial:
Note: There might be a delay between the live capture and the website video – the common delay is between 5 to 30 seconds (within 5 seconds when using HD Wave for streaming); this is due to the encoding and decoding process