Perhaps you’re an animal enthusiast with a penchant for cameras, or maybe you’re just fascinated by the world of live streaming. Either way, animal live streaming is a glorious way to channel your inner Steve Irwin and capture a happy digital user foothold while you’re at it. Five years ago, live streaming would have entailed an enormous arsenal of hardware and software technologies. Today, all you need are a few hardware tools and a superior live streaming framework. Thanks to the upswing of turnkey platforms in the market, establishing a live stream is no longer a long-wound, cumbersome process. In fact, thanks to technologies like StreamNow, you can set up quickly and easily without breaking the bank.
If you harbour a love for animals and communication, setting up an animal live stream can marry your interests perfectly. Here’s how to set up a live camera feed.
Steps to Set Up an Animal Live Stream
If you aspire to be on the best live animal broadcasters’ map, there are seven key steps you should follow to set up a superior animal live stream.
Step 1. Acquire a Camera and Audio System
A live stream, or any video for that matter, can be projected significantly better with a good live stream camera setup. If you prefer to complement your animal live stream with a voiceover, then consider investing in a microphone too. However, know that a large number of live streams are broadcast without a running commentary, simply capturing an animal in its natural habitat. When it comes to recording an animal in its natural state, it’s advisable to keep a camera tucked inside the trees or other nooks within the forest. Human movement may throw off an animal, threatening it and in turn, affecting the authenticity of your animal live stream. IP cameras and surveillance cameras are apt for outdoor shooting, allowing you to be restrained and discreet during a capture. Capturing domesticated animals in an indoor environment can be just as entertaining for viewers. An indoor capture also gives you flexibility in terms of lighting, camera and connectivity. In either case, if you use a professional camera, you’ll need a capture card to go with it.
Step 2. Secure a Robust Internet Connection
When you’re live streaming from a forest environment where network coverage can be sketchy, it’s imperative that you acquire a reliable, sturdy internet connection. A poor stream peppered with empty screens can tip your viewers in favour of alternate means of entertainment. That said, it may be next to impossible to seek an internet source in an obscure environment, but a well-configured hotspot may serve you well.
Step 3. Use a Content Delivery Network
Think of a content delivery network (CDN) as a tube that keeps its contents flowing smoothly and seamlessly. A CDN sits atop a streaming service and monitors the flow of content to servers, to save them from being overburdened. As a result, the quality of your animal live stream remains optimal. The truth is, wildlife enthusiasts tend to be exceptionally loyal to brands of wildlife content. This special group of viewers even resort to leaving their broadcasts on for hours together, just to watch a predator attack. Although around-the-clock live content typically garners very few viewers, wildlife content stands apart from this generalisation. Such channels witness more users per hour than any other live broadcast format. A CDN can help to manage large numbers of viewers as well as cater to viewers across the globe.
Step 4. Establish a Live Streaming Channel
StreamNow is a professional, user-friendly turnkey technology that will spotlight your animal live streams effectively. Along with a framework like StreamNow, you will also need an encoder for your live stream. Adobe Flash Live is a good option for this.
Step 5. Scatter Your Live Streaming Presence
Avoid keeping your animal live stream restricted to one or two locations on the web. The more locations, the better. Make sure you embed your source code on your website to make it easier to spread your video across cyberspace. To do this, simply copy the source code from your ‘Publish Settings’ tab to the code page on your website.
Step 6. Line Up Your Animals
There are several things to consider when you’re live streaming an animal. There’s your safety, your crew’s safety, proximity to the animal, lighting, internet connectivity. And that’s just the beginning. However, amongst these peripheral worries, your main concern should be the animal you intend to film. Make sure that your stream begins when the animal has acquainted itself with its environment and is displaying attributes worth capturing. Also, ensure that your camera is stationed at a safe, yet adequate distance. The last thing you need is a provoked attack on your live feed.
Step 7. Market Your Live Animal Cam
An effectively shot live animal cam can be a sensational source of entertainment for viewers and it is important that it is marketed well. Create a Facebook page and an Instagram business account to get your word out. The latter is a visually rich, engaging medium that can work well for your brand. Twitter is also effective, leading you to promote your content in bite-sized nuggets. StreamNow offers an exclusive feature that lets you plug your live stream right into social media platforms so that your content is streamed concurrently across the board. Posting entertaining tidbits throughout your animal live stream can attract users and promote cross-pollination of ideas and thoughts. Hashtags can tie your posts together so remember to use key hashtags to highlight the nature of each post.
A live animal cam can provide viewers a real-time keyhole to content they can possibly never view in person. Unlike documentaries on National Geographic, animal live streams are not edited. This makes them more genuine and relatable.
Now that you know how to set up a live stream, you can take one step closer to your animal cam dream. We promise you, it will be an adventure of a lifetime that you won’t regret.
Live streaming is a great option for getting the first impression for your organization. Live streaming is more powerful than one can even realize. It could be the first point of contact with your organization. And we all know that first impression is always hard to reserve hence, a company having live streaming could make a better progress compared to the one without it. Live streaming can also generate revenue, making its contribution to an overall success to your organization. The live streams are supported by live streaming platform provider that makes a good mark. A live streaming provider is said to be the best if it has got an excellent branding, viewing experience and messaging, support and monetization options.
Live streaming is significant for your business and here are the reasons why you need to choose it for your business:
Growing online videos:
Online videos are having massive growth in recent times. Companies like Cisco expect that online videos account for 80% of all the internet traffic by 2019. Huge social media websites like Facebook expects their platform would be all video by the next five years. Online videos improvethe communication medium that enables to capture the experience of the viewers. Videos are the best ways to communicate within technical limitations and the images added make it popular. The users expect more content of videos because they are easier to use and immediate connectivity within live streaming.
Engagement of audience:
Social media websites are very keen in making live streaming a significant option for their business. Facebook gives live stream content a boost on the live streaming platform and the videos generate more reach to the audience than any other content type. The videos need not be highly produced or scripted much and this is a great chance for brands, to promote their usage and live streaming is a great way to do that.
Future challenge for television:
TVs being an only entertainment device is now being replaced with online contents particularly video content. These videos promote the brands through ads which are mostly viewed through online resources. With time, more people started tuning-in to live streaming which resulted in a bigger opportunity for brands to reach targeted audience.
Live Streaming Platforms
Live streaming platforms offer built-in marketing modules and in 2017, businesses have got a wide variety of social live options to promote their brands such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Periscope. Periscope is easy to expand to the audience and can easily gain new followers and viewers. But, each business has different live streaming needs.
There are few areas that need to be evaluated before selecting a platform. They are:
Messaging & Branding:
A first impression is the best impression and this impression should be reinforced in the organization messaging and branding. There needs to be an attractive portal for viewing custom built for the organization, the ability to upload notifications and graphics and a notes or news section such that users can know about the social activity and announcements of the organization.
Experience:
The video content should be having relevant and immersive features for the viewers. It should have enhanced integration with social media, access from any device, highlights and live data feed.
Monetization:
This helps the business to get most of it from the live stream through pay-per-view (PPV) or ads and sponsorship. The funds generated in this way can help the program keep going or even improve it. Stretchable PPV options should be available on the platform. There should also be a flexibility to adjust inventory options and ability to generate 100% revenue from ads.
Support:
There needs to be an awesome support system not only for the business but for the viewers too. They need to identify the issue early and help the users and handle customer support problems and questions. When live streamed events take place, they need to work consistently.
Various Live Video Streaming Platforms
There are various live video streaming platforms available in the market. Based on the features, one can choose a live streaming platform for their business.
LiveStream: This is a paid live streaming platform where a user can upload videos from cameras and mobile devices through the internet. It has more than 200 TV affiliates and it can be used with World Economic Forum, Spotify and many more.
UStream: it has more than 80 million viewers and it is used to helps soldiers to communicate and let their families know what they are doing and how they are rather than waiting for a letter or call. This can be used with Twitter which gives a chance to connect with more viewers.
Dacast: It is one of the widely used live streaming platformsfor many users. This can be streamed through the cloud, which can save the device space. It is simple to use and monetize. It is used by many business individuals as it is customizable. Simple to use, particularly for beginners. The support system of this platform is round the clock which would be useful for the business.
StreamShark:To record and stream high profile events worldwide, StreamShark is a best live streaming platform for your business. Users can manage different parts of events streaming and reach them worldwide giving an opportunity to grow the business. Many people like to have an experience of 360-degree videos, with StreamShark they can get the feature and make it easier for their viewers to view it from any device.
Facebook Live: Social networks are the best place for live streaming videos. Facebook is one of the biggest social networking platforms, Facebook live streaming platform, it has many benefits. This has control over viewers who watch the videos and targeting a particular kind of audience is easy. Here you can target audience geographically which is great for business to reach out their purposes. There is no payment option here and live videos have been shown to be watched over three times compared to non-live video.
Periscope: This is a live streaming video platform that allows the users to shoot using cell phones. The app can be conveniently used with iPhone and other devices. Live streaming videos can reach the masses faster because they watch the video without edits. Through Twitter, people are notified about the videos and they are available to be watched for 24 hours allowing those who missed up.
The Best Amongst all Live Streaming Platforms: StreamNow
StreamNow is the best solution to start a live streaming business. StreamNow is highly scalable live streaming software with various revenue channels which includes features to serve as Ustream clone or Twitch. This live streaming software can transmit live video and audio coverage for an event over the internet. It is available to the audience for free of cost or through payment on a monthly or per view basis.
Features:
Communication system:
A peer to peer comment or chat system helps the user to discuss about videos, and can express their view or opinion. This can help the business to increase the brand value in a long run.
Unbeatable Live streaming:
The quality and continuous live streaming without any kind of technical issues make SteamNow a widely used live streaming platform by many business firms.
Follow-up:
A live streaming viewer or a user can easily follow others and gets a notification each time the person update anything or does any activity like attending an event or a session.
Subscription:
For viewing a premium live streaming sessions, the user needs to subscribe. StreamNow has got various plans for a subscription for its users.
Dynamic Administration:
It has a dynamic and robust admin panel which gives a wide range of options to the users. Such options include deleting a videos, flag or changing the social login configurations.
Pay per View:
Some users may not be convenient with the subscription plans. In such a case, StreamNow gives them a feature called pay per view, where they can pay depending on the live streaming videos they watch.
SEO Friendly:
Search engine optimization (SEO) has an important role in digital marketing. StreamNow has implemented different strategies of SEO to get more quality visitors or traffic through an organic search.
Payment Options:
The payment collections are through PayPal which seamlessly facilitates payments from all over the globe. It has other convenient payment options too.
Suitable for Android/iOS App:
52 percent online orders are from mobile devices. StreamNow is available as an app for Android and iOS for the users of streaming business.
Social Login:
StreamNow helps users to sign up or login through various social media networks such as Google accounts, Facebook or Twitter.
StreamNow is a live streaming platformwhich provides live streaming servicesfor any business. Using it one can generate billions of dollars profit every year. This can happen through live streaming ads alone. The platform has a ready-made turnkey solution which can launch live streaming solutions. The business can launch their own live streaming videos and get the users subscribed for the same. StreamNow has various social features which make it the best live streaming solution.
If you have any doubts or concerns, feel free to drop a line or two in the comments section. I shall reply in a day or two. Keep watching this space for insights on live streaming servicesand live streaming platforms. Do subscribe to our newsletter to know more about live streaming solutions. My best wishes are with you and your live streaming venture. Cheers!
