One of the most important choices you will need to make when planning your live streamed event is which platform you broadcast to.
This will largely be governed by where your main audience is based and what content you are streaming.
There are many available platforms which offer their own restrictions and benefits.
The options available from these providers changes fairly often so do keep an eye on them.
FACEBOOK
PROS: Free, Reach wide audience, has live polling feature.
CONS: Cannot stream published music, limited picture quality.
VIDEO DELAY: Approx 25 seconds.
BROADCAST DURATION LIMIT: 8 hours if you require stream recorded by Facebook, if not unlimited.
Many companies have a healthy following on Facebook so streaming here not only reaches them directly on their news feed, it also allows them to share the broadcast directly with all their followers.
Facebook also benefits from a wide range of interest groups and pages and streams can be crossposting to other pages. Views to live streamed videos on Facebook have 10 times more chance of interaction/viewing than pre-recorded videos.
YOUTUBE
PROS: Free, Reach wide audience.
CONS: Cannot stream published music, may not be best platform for your subscribers/followers.
VIDEO DELAY: Approx 25 seconds but this can be reduced to around 3 seconds if the recorder is turned off.
BROADCAST DURATION LIMIT: Approx 12 hours if you require stream recorded by YouTube, if not unlimited.
If you've already built an audience on YouTube then it may well be a good place for you to stream to. Building followers here takes time and you may find Facebook has more networking and sharing opportunities for your stream.
YouTube is part of Google, so you will benefit from their excellent analytics. It is thought that videos streamed to YouTube will also massively benefit your SEO on Google.
TWITTER VIA PERISCOPE
PROS: Free, Reach huge audience.
CONS: Very limited image quality, Cannot stream published music. Videos are only saved for 24 hours unless you add "#save" in the title.
VIDEO DELAY: Approx 25 seconds.
INSTAGRAM
PROS: Free, Reach huge audience.
CONS: Limited to portrait mode.
VIDEO DELAY: Approx 10 seconds.
BROADCAST DURATION LIMIT: 1 hour.
The downside of streaming to Instagram is that the broadcast is all portrait ratio making it hard for our team to accommodate as we work in widescreen.
PROS: Free, Reach wide business audience
CONS: Relies on existing contacts and followers. Paid for platform.
VIDEO DELAY: Not known currently.
BROADCAST DURATION LIMIT: Not known currently.
Linkedin are currently restricting this service for a select few and you have to apply to have your account or page. They do not allow for 'DIY" streaming and expect a level of production. We haven't yet streamed to Linkedin for any clients. Could you be the first?
ZOOM
PROS: Streams can be monetised, others can join with their webcam. Good audience polls and Q&A.
CONS: Cannot stream published music, limited picture quality. It's not a platform we are very familiar with as many of our clients choose to stream in other places.
VIDEO DELAY: Zero.
Zoom is fast becoming the 'go to' platform for video streaming. It offers excellent quality for pro video and zero delay. Read more here.
GOTOWEBINAR
PROS: Private and direct to your business colleagues.
CONS: Paid for service with limited audience reach, Limited to 1,000 viewers, no RTMP option so we have to stream via a webcam input. It's not a platform we are very familiar with as many of our clients choose to stream in other places.
VIDEO DELAY: Zero.
Read more about this service here.
MICROSOFT TEAMS
PROS: Private and direct to your business colleagues, RTMP option.
CONS: Paid for service with limited audience reach. It's not a platform we are very familiar with as many of our clients choose to stream in other places.
VIDEO DELAY: Zero.
VIMEO
PROS: Allows us to lock the stream to your website ensuring no one else can view. Allows to password protect a stream. Allows us to re-stream to other destinations for you. Can stream all music (As of 17/3/20)
CONS: Has little opportunity to build subscribers/followers.
BROADCAST DURATION LIMIT: 10 hours.
We love Vimeo and use it for most of our streams.
TWITCH
Twitch is very much still a gaming streaming platform but due to its specific audience has also seen music, and talk show streams in recent years. It's not a platform we are very familiar with as many of our clients choose to stream in other places.
We can stream to any platform that accepts an RTMP or webcam input. You can always speak to us about the best platform for your event.
The latest version of this article was written on 17/3/20 but please check each suppliers offerings yourself before using them.