How To Create A Live Streaming Website?

How To Create A Live Streaming Website?

Communicating and collaborating with people has become much simpler today with the popularity of modern technology and social media. Live streaming is quickly gaining momentum and that is why visionary businesses are creating live streaming platforms and these businesses have high chances to succeed with the right planning and approach. It has never been easier for streamers to stream the live content of their choice and generate revenue.

Thousands of streamers are flocking to social media platforms and exclusive live streaming platforms like Twitch for the same. While these live streaming platforms offer immense opportunity to grow their brand and make money, changing payment structures and less stable income makes it difficult to reap success. Well, whether you are a business or live streamer looking to create your personal brand, it is time to get ahead of the curve and create an exclusive live streaming website.

With the live streaming industry expected to hit $70.5 billion by 2021, there is no wonder that more businesses are looking for effective ways of building a streaming platform. So the question arises- how to make a live streaming website. In this blog, we will discuss the importance of creating a live streaming website, must-have features, business model, cost to create your own live streaming website, and a lot more.

Powerful advantages of live streaming

Live streaming is quickly gaining momentum among people who are always looking for brand new and innovative ways of delivering content. Social media platforms are the key source of live video content and live streaming is becoming a daily activity that facilitates social interaction. The number of viewership accessing live streaming is set to grow further and is changing consumer behavior to a great extent.

When it comes to the type of content live-streamed, here are the common types of content that are broadcasted live.

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Currently, more brands are experimenting with live videos and the advantages that it offers is not just for businesses, but for users as well. Let’s quickly discuss the real power of live streaming and its effectiveness.

Viewers consume live content on your time

One of the biggest benefits of live broadcasts is that your viewers consume the live streams on your time as opposed to when it is convenient for them. This implies that you are engaging with the audience who care about your brand and find your content extremely helpful. This helps to automatically target people who are more likely to follow you further or convert.

Reach highly targeted niches

As we said just now, as users consume live content on your time, it is a deliberate choice that they make. It takes more commitment from your viewers as they must tune in at the time you decide regardless of whether it is convenient for them or not. Hence, this interest and dedication applies an automatic filter that opts out random audiences away.

Requires less production time

Live streaming takes less production time when compared with any other form of content like on demand videos, podcasts, or even blogs. While it might take hours to write a blog post and a lot more than that to create on demand videos, live streaming takes very little time to produce interactive and engaging content. If you want to produce a 5-minute live stream, it just takes 5 minutes and that’s it.

Better user engagement, that too in real-time

One of the primary reasons why live streaming is continuously making waves in content marketing is due to its capability to provide real-time user engagement. The real-time nature and the engagement factor makes live streaming interactive and a great way for you to engage in direct conversation with your users.

It’s cheap

Considering the costs to produce live streams, it is quite cheap compared to on demand videos. If you are doing it in a small set up, you just need a smartphone with a good camera and an internet connection, and an active account with a chosen live streaming platform to stream your content live. Whereas, if you need more of a sophisticated set up to produce professional-styled videos, you might need a few more additional equipment.

Analytics tracking

It is important to be able to track live streaming in terms of viewership and behavior of your users. Most professional live streaming services come with analytics dashboards and tracking tools to help you evaluate the outcome of your live videos. This data will help you identify more clearly who your audience really is. Assessing the performance of your broadcasts will help you refine your overall content and strategy.

Video monetization

Another advantage of live streaming is that; it is a great way to make money. One way is to charge your users to watch your live videos just like they would pay for a live show ticket. If you are building a streaming platform, you will have more control over choosing the monetization strategy that works for you and your goals. Whether you are a business looking to promote their brand or improvise marketing efforts or an independent streamer interested in making some extra money by cashing in on their hobby, monetizing live streaming is an excellent idea.

Repurpose your content

Live streams can be easily repurposed to other forms of content one the broadcast ends. Once transformed it can be published as on demand videos and uploaded to video streaming platforms like YouTube, the choices are actually limitless. Hence, it is always recommended to repurpose live content to broaden the reach of your message even long after your live broadcast ends.

Why you need to create a live streaming website in 2020

Facebook Live, YouTube Live, Periscope, Instagram Live, Periscope- there is no shortage of live streaming websites to select from, but they all share a common problem. They come with a lot of restrictions for users. When you make a live streaming website of your own, you gain control over the experience and the audience.

Having your own live streaming platform allows you to:

  • Build an interactive community of users
  • Secure the long term future of your brand
  • Keep the revenue generated with yourself

Having your own live streaming platform stops you from being at the mercy of some third-party platform and allows you to take complete control over the activities you do.

Building a live streaming platform- Must-Have Features to build a live streaming website

How to make a live streaming platform that is appealing and functional at the same time? The platform must have a lot of features to make the users satisfied and engaged.

When it comes to must-have features of a live streaming website, there are mainly 2 types- Basic and advanced. Basic features are the essential features that must satisfy the expectations of users from the site. It is common to release basic features and get the user’s feedback after which you can upgrade your website and go forward with adding advanced features. The web functionality and the features you add to your live streaming website affect the final cost.

Let’s look into some of the must-have features to build a live streaming website.

Signup/SignIn

Signing in up via email id, the phone number is a must-have feature for all live streaming platforms. Once registered, users must be able to login and create user profiles. To make it more convenient for your users, integrate social login sign-ups, too.

Search

A search is another essential feature that will help users filter and find relevant content. Integrate a content recommendation algorithm that will offer recommendations based on user interests and previously viewed videos. 

Seamless Live streaming

Integrate functionality of seamless live streaming without buffering for a great viewing experience.

Peer to Peer Comment/ Real-time Chat System

The feature helps your uses to chat with each which helps to increase your brand value.

Multi-screen compatibility

Ensure your live streaming platform is compatible with various digital devices of different screen sizes.

Follow users

After creating an account, users can create user-profiles and follow each other. When the users you follow attend a live session, you will be notified about the same.

Settings

Integrate the functionality of modifying settings for users to make your live streaming website more user friendly. For example, users can set the account to public or private, turn message alerts, block users, etc.

Security

When you want to make a live streaming website, security is one of the most important aspects you need to consider. Integrate multiple security strategies to make sure you protect the videos in your platform and the payment information of your users.

Dynamic Admin Panel

An efficient admin dash is necessary to manage users effectively. Admin panel makes editing videos, moderating, and deleting content, banning users, etc. easy.

Analytics

Analytics is an essential feature that must be an integral part of the streaming platform. With the right analytics tools, you can understand the user behavior and the performance of your live videos based on the information you get.

Payment Gateways

Integrate secure payment gateways to make payments to access your live streaming. You can integrate payment gateways like Stripe, PayPal, or Braintree.

Notifications

Push notifications can be used to alert your users about the new video releases, discounts on membership, live stream reminders, and other important information.

Native Apps

Develop scalable live streaming apps, both iOS, and Android that meet the tech and business requirements.

How To Create A Live Streaming Website

If you are planning on how to start a live streaming business, the first thing you need is a full-fledged streaming platform to power your offerings. To put your own live streams and attract other streaming in the industry to broadcast on your platform, you must build a live streaming site around a specific niche. It can be a personal platform for your personal brand or a platform for other streamers as well.

Using ready-made scripts that are easily available in the industry to create your live streaming platform is the best development approach. Ready-made solutions allow you to customize the script to integrate unique features and functionalities to your live streaming platform according to your needs in simple steps and affordable cost.

How does a live streaming video website make money?

Live streaming is not only streaming videos live and inviting other people to watch you, it is a great revenue stream to make money. How to create a live streaming site that is lucrative and brings in a significant amount of revenue? The money you can make from your live streaming website depends on the monetization techniques you adopt. In addition to the business models of your streaming platform, your live streaming platform must have good content as well.

Here are some of the monetization strategies you can implement when building a live streaming platform.

Subscriptions

Most live streaming websites make money through subscriptions. The subscription monetization model works in a way where your viewers can access your live streams by making quarterly, monthly, or yearly payments. You can combine a subscription business model with a free model where some live streams are offered to viewers for free but they need to pay to access exclusive content unlimitedly.

Pay-per-view

Pay-per-view or transactional revenue model is where your viewers have to pay for individual videos they want to watch.

Revenue from ads

Advertising revenue is a great way to fund your live videos. You can integrate ads to your live streaming platform to start earning the advertising money. To get the best results, you need to exercise more control so that you don’t go overboard with advertisements during your streaming, annoying your customers. It is not the best idea to place ads as the sole monetization option for live streaming especially when you are starting out.

Brand deals and sponsorships

Brand deals and sponsorships are another great way you can engage with other brands in a mutually beneficial arrangement where you can generate revenue as well. If you have a large following on your live streaming platform and you have established a brand name for yourself, brands will come in search of you with offers. You don’t have to wait for people to approach, you can reach out to them as well.

Some of the ways you can make money through brand deals and sponsorships are:

Sponsorships– Where your entire live streams are sponsored by a particular brand.

Banner ads– You can display advertisements during your streams on your live streaming platform.

Sponsored content– You get paid by sponsors when you live stream their content.

However, when you choose the sponsorships, make sure it directly resonates with the interests of your audience. If your audience doesn’t like your content and if you lose them, you will lose the sponsors as well. When selecting the live streaming provider to partner with, ensure they offer support for the monetization strategies you want to implement.

Join an affiliate program

Affiliate programs have become a standard component of most online businesses. Affiliate marketing is when you promote products and make money as an affiliate. It works this way- You place the affiliate link in your live streams and whenever a viewer of yours purchases from the link, you get a share of the revenue. Instead of posting links, you can integrate a coupon code that your viewers can use when they shop from the brands you are promoting.  

Cost to create your own live streaming website  

Now, it is time to consider the most important aspect, what would be the cost of creating a live streaming site or how to start a live streaming business cost-effectively. As we have already seen, building a live streaming site using a clone script is an affordable and cost-efficient approach. Choose a live streaming provider with a blend of expertise and proficiency to customize services according to your requirements.

Besides software charges, here are some of the costs you have to bear when looking for how to create a live streaming website.

Domain name

When building a live streaming platform, you need a unique domain name for your live streaming site. Having a simple and relevant domain name makes it easy for your users to find you. You can buy your domain name from sites like GoDaddy and the price would come around $10-$30 annually.

SSL

When looking for how to start a live streaming website, one of the most important aspects you need to consider is the security of your website. You need to secure your live streaming site with an SSL certificate to show your visitors your site is authentic and trustworthy. You can purchase SSL certificates from Go daddy or from Wildcard which would come around $50-$75 annually.

Hosting server

To host your live streams, you need the service of a reliable hosting service provider. Consider reputed cloud solutions like Digital Ocean that would cost somewhere around $20 per month.

App Developer Account (Play Store and App store cost)

Along with your live streaming website, you also have to launch mobile applications. To submit your live streaming app to the Apple store and Google play store, you need to create app developer accounts that come for a price. The price of creating an account for the Apple store comes around $99 annually and the Google Play store is $25 which is a one-time fee.

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How StreamHash can help you create a live streaming website

StreamNow from StreamHash is the live streaming software with which you can create a live streaming website of your own. It is a fully responsive one-stop solution that includes all the features and functionalities that servers as a UStream or Twitch clone. The flawless live streaming software comes with both advanced and unique features for fastest and bufferless live streaming. It comes with features like social login sign-ups, seamless live streaming, real-time chat system, monetization, payment gateway integrations, profile settings, admin panel, push notifications, native apps, and other features.

Here are some of the reasons why StreamHash makes a great live streaming provider for your business.

Customization to any degree

If you want to create your own live streaming website with the basic and advanced features customized according to your unique business requirements and goals, there is no other better solution than StreamNow from StreamHash. StreamHash offers complete customization over the features you need in your live streaming platform.

Valid expertise

With adequate expertise in the video streaming industry and reputed client base, StreamHash has the experience to create professionally styled live streaming websites in different niches including entertainment, fitness, online teaching, religion, and astrology.

Affordable solution

If you wonder how to create my own live streaming website on a budget, StreamNow makes an excellent cost-effective live streaming solution. The price varies from $499 to $999 for a deluxe and premium version respectively which is quite cost-efficient when compared to the total cost to develop your live streaming platform from scratch.

Great customer support

StreamHash offers your excellent technical support and assistance both during the initial consultation time and once the product is delivered to you. Our expert team will be at your service to assist you with the customizations and the guidance you require even after the product delivery.

Conclusion

Live streaming is quickly gaining momentum and becoming more popular year by year, and so is the live streaming website. Live broadcasting is expanding into every industry like entertainment, education, online retail, religion, sports, and a lot more. With the immense popularity the technology enjoys, the number of entrepreneurs looking for how to start a live streaming business is increasing as well.

However, creating a live streaming platform requires an excellent business vision, a well-prepared business plan, and advanced technology to offer a highly live streaming experience to your viewers. If you need expert assistance and guidance on creating a live streaming website, do not hesitate, get in touch with us. We are here to guide you through the entire process of creating a professional and functional live streaming website to power your business.

How to Set Up an Online Live Streaming Classroom

How to Set Up an Online Live Streaming Classroom

Online education has never been this significant as it is today. The ability to teach virtually and pursue education online gives more flexibility to both teachers and students. The recent pandemic COVID 19 has made live streaming significant and a necessity to reach people across the world. Students are involved in online distant learning to connect with their teachers and accessing education online. Even in the absence of a critical crisis, online education is becoming a norm and is opening doors to the future of modern education. 

Be it an urgent situation like an ongoing pandemic or regular opportunities to reach a global learner community, live streaming needs to be a part of your communication strategy as a fundamental element to distance eLearning. 

Advantages of Live Streaming for Online Teaching

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Live streaming for educators will allow students to watch the expert educators in their field as they solve problems in real-time. Live videos will definitely change the future of learning. Let’s look into the advantages live streaming offers to both educators and students alike. 

Broaden Online Reach

Online educators allow to reach a wide global audience through live streaming. While video conference works for small sized online classes, live broadcasts help educators to expand their online reach and connect with thousands of students across the globe. Educators can effortlessly take online classes by broadcasting live on social live streaming solutions like Facebook Live or YouTube Live to get more exposure when broadcasting live. 

Easy Access to Knowledge

Getting access to online education has never been easier. Everyone who has access to a strong broadband connection can easily get access to online courses. When you integrate live streaming to your regular online classes, learners can grow their knowledge and expand the learning experience much further. Live broadcasting helps to increase the level of interaction between educators and learners.  

High Level of Interaction

Compared to normal video courses, live broadcasting facilitates a high level of engagement that boosts online education experience. The real-time engagement opportunities offered by live classroom streaming platforms allow students to take part in online interactions, ask questions, interact with each other, and express their feedback. While most students are hesitant when it comes to asking questions in a classroom, an online space gives them a more confident platform to feel much easier and express their opinions. 

Cost-Effectiveness

Unlike traditional education, online education in general, is a cheaper alternative for educators, teachers, and institutions which is an advantage in itself. But, live streaming takes it further. While the most common way to live stream your online classes is to use free platforms like Periscope, Facebook Live, YouTube Live, etc. Alternatively, you can think about how to create a live streaming classroom if you want to take it a step further. Even if you want to build your own live streaming platform, the cost to create professional live streaming is of less cost again.

Show and Demonstrate

Live streaming calls for highly visual online learning experiences that are beneficial to both teachers and students. The attention span of students is short and live streaming is a great way to capture the instant attention of your students and keep them engaged. 

When online education meets technology, especially live streaming, the opportunities are limitless. With the capability to live broadcast, share the screen in real-time, use recorded videos, add multiple cameras, teachers have limitless opportunities to impact students with an online video education platform. 

Analytical Features

One major advantage of live streaming in the field of online education is the analytics offered by live streaming solutions to gauge the performance of your online classes. Teachers can analyze the performance of their live classes to find out what is working and what needs to be optimized. For example, if you have thousands of participants in your live class initially, but half of them dropped out later, you can use the analytical tools to evaluate what causes this. Tracking performance and optimizing and your online courses will improve the performance and expand your online reach.

Collaboration and Sharing

Another considerable benefit of online classroom live streaming is the collaborative teaching environment and sharing opportunities. As your classes are live, you can also allow other educators to join your live classes from any part of the world. Live classroom streaming platforms offer fantastic opportunities for you to grow your user base and get more learners to subscribe to your online courses. 

Teaching and Learning on the go

Both educators and educators can reap benefits from live broadcasts. Live streaming allows students to access your real-time classes from anywhere across the globe which accelerates the chance of them coming back to your platform for more. As it is easy to get in touch with students via smartphones, you can easily notify your students when you are going live. For educators, the ability to live stream from anywhere creates wonderful opportunities and possibilities to reach their student base. 

Creating an Online Classroom with Live Streaming

To provide an uninterrupted online learning experience to students, live streaming is an important tool to stream your online classroom sessions to your students. The online classroom live streaming also helps educators to deliver an in-person classroom experience and engage students with real-time interactions. 

Let’s all look into how to create a live streaming classroom for educators to broadcast over the internet to connect with their students. 

Plan

Try to plan your live streaming content capture way too in advance. This is because you don’t want to miss out on your potential students when you are actually going live. Incorporate live streaming to your content calendar and announce it earlier so that your students will come to know when you are going live. Again, plan to do a test live streaming run to test the audio and sound quality and find the right spot to place your camera. 

Set Up the Equipment

To get started with live classroom streaming, you need a high-quality camera and a microphone. As your live broadcasts are a replacement for a real classroom learning, ensure the quality of your live broadcasts matches that of a real classroom. If your live streams are of poor quality, students will lose their focus even if the content is great. 

To avoid this situation, invest in high-quality live streaming equipment if your budget allows. Another important piece of equipment you need is a video encoder which is a hardware that creates compressed versions of your live streaming as it is recorded. This is to ensure the delivery of good quality streams without buffering even if a viewer doesn’t have a strong internet connection. 

Here are some of the essential pieces of equipment to invest in.

  • Professional quality video camera
  • Best quality microphone
  • A capture card
  • Proper lighting set up
  • An encoder
  • A tripod

Choose the Right Live Streaming Provider

With the right plan and equipment in place, the next thing you need to choose is a good live streaming provider to broadcast your live sessions. Choosing a reliable live classroom streaming platform with a good content delivery network is an advantage. 

A powerful live streaming solution will offer all the essential technologies to build an ideal environment that is equipped with analytical tools to track the number of viewers and their performance. It’s a bonus for educators that offer a wide range of live streaming benefits and features beyond the basic live streaming capabilities. 

Configure a Fast and Secure Internet Connection

Live broadcasting educational content over live classroom streaming platforms need a strong internet connection with robust speed and security features. Make sure your streaming platform is configured with TLS and internet security protocols to protect your content from unauthorized third-party access. To stream high-quality live videos for teachers and students without any glitches, a reliable internet connection with a speed of minimum 2Mbps is required for the smooth streaming of your online educational content.

Prepare your Educational Content

As live classroom broadcasting happens in real-time you need to prepare for the upcoming sessions beforehand. You must have a clear understanding of the lessons you are going to deliver and make sure the content resonates with what your students need. Prepare your lessons and use interactive tools if required if you want to engage your learners. Make it a practice to use whiteboards, recorder screens, or smartboards without distorting the user’s views. Prepare most out of your resources for a clear and intuitive live streaming experience.

Create an Outline of Live Streaming Courses

Live streaming on an online video education platform requires the preparation of courses. Research, plan, and build complete curses details that last a certain duration say for a few weeks or a couple of months. 

Regardless of the subject, you want to stream, creating convenient access to reliable resources is the objective of your online live streaming courses. Live streaming educational content fosters a better relationship with your students to increase the engagement rate. 

Maintaining Consistency is Important

When you are delivering your online classes through live streaming, consistency is an important factor that online education streaming demands. Make sure you live stream your classes to your audience on the promised date and time. Delivering consistent live streaming sessions will prove more effective in creating a positive engagement between you and students facilitating a better learning experience. Determine to create better engagement and incomparable online education resources to deliver to your students. 

With Everything in Place, Start Live Streaming

Once everything is set up including your online video education platform, it’s time to actually go live. Every educator will have their own teaching style but make sure you follow some of the basic live streaming tips. 

  • Speak clearly and loudly to make sure your students follow you.
  • Allow students to share their feedback when participating in discussions.
  • Make sure all your equipment is functional and working fine. 
  • Check your internet connectivity and its speed. 

Set your equipment sometime before the actual broadcast to check the quality of the set up for better live streaming. Once you have passed all the checklists, make sure to relax to prepare yourself for the upcoming live session. The final goal is to educate your students and deliver your online courses to them.

Conclusion

Live streaming in online education has been around for a while and will continue its quest in the future as well. The popularity of social live streaming apps like Facebook, Periscope, YouTube Live, and Meerkat, gives us a glimpse into what the future holds live streaming in online education. Live streaming will continue to transform the online education space with technology and innovation. If you want to take advantage of this highly potential technology, it is recommended to learn how to create a live streaming classroom to deliver a great online learning experience to your students.

The Cloud Business is Built on Live Streaming

The Cloud Business is Built on Live Streaming

Live video streaming has come a long way from the old times when transferring video over the Internet was not even possible. Today, individuals and businesses across the world use live streaming as a tool for communication and marketing, as well as modern means of offering entertaining content to the audience. 

The advancements in cloud computing have revolutionized live streaming and brought in the emergence of massive corporations and popular live streaming platforms. When you analyze in-depth, live streaming and the cloud network share a symbiotic relationship. One will not expand without the other growing. The increasing demand for live streaming has grown rapidly and the cloud business has also experienced a stable growth curve.

In the past live streaming was limited to traditional TV broadcast networks. However, today with the expansion of cloud networks, anyone can stream a quality video that is close to the broadcast networks. The increasing demand for live streaming will require cloud technology to expand at a rapid rate to meet this rising demand.

Benefits of Live Streaming For Your Business

Undoubtedly live streaming presents a brand new way of digital communication, content consumption, and promotion. Beyond the growth of the audience hooked to live content, live streaming presents a great way to drive revenue for businesses. Streaming live videos to your customer base may sound like a fun and easy thing to do. However, implementing a live streaming strategy requires careful planning to achieve your business goals. Before learning how to start a live streaming business, it is important to understand the benefits of live streaming. 

Here are some of the benefits of live streaming for your business. 

Low Barriers to Entry

Most of the time, all that is needed to live stream is a smartphone, an internet connection, and a social media profile. This ease of entry to leverage the potential of live streaming makes it the most effective marketing tool.

Real-Time Communication

When you conduct a live streaming event of your business, you are engaging with your audience in real-time. This gives your viewers a sense of belonging to the moment as people love being part of stories as they happen. They actively understand more about your business in a personal way and are likely to share it with their friends.

Interaction

Live streaming evokes a sense of excitement among your audience. During your live streaming, you can ask questions and connect with your audience, offer to poll, or get creative to any extent to engage them. The live streaming itself is inherently about building a community to make your customers feel inclusive and exclusive at the same time. 

Cost Reduction

Some brands use live streaming as a part of their training programs, webinars, employee onboarding, or even seminars. Everyone who is physically and virtually present receives the same training simultaneously, thereby saving the company’s budget. Implementing live streaming in your business strategy can save a lot of money in the long run. 

Why Is Live Streaming More Popular Than Video Streaming?

Compared to pre-recorded videos, live videos are in high demand with the younger audience. It is mainly because they feel more engaged with live content than pre-recorded content, Further, live videos are more engaging to users due to its “real” element as it is exciting to witness something that is not scripted. Statistics show that people tend to watch live videos 3 times longer than other types of videos on Facebook.

Video on demand content in many aspects is the exact opposite of live streaming content. Video on demand is a traditional system of creating and sharing content. Create a video, upload it on video sharing platforms like YouTube for the viewers to watch it, and you are good to go. 

While there are some obvious benefits to video on demand like the ability to have more control over video creation and publishing, live streaming is a modern approach to the traditional way of creating video content and hence, the most preferable choice these days. But, it doesn’t mean that live streaming alone can satisfy your marketing needs. A combination of live streaming and video on demand is what your business needs.  

Both have their own benefits and there is a lot you can achieve from embracing the best of both. For example, you can repurpose live content for on-demand viewing. Once the live stream is over, you can upload the videos to video-sharing platforms and make it on-demand content. 

That’s not to say that live streaming doesn’t have its drawbacks. Live streaming can be more technically demanding than traditional methods when you want to add a professional edge to your live videos. It might require you to buy additional gears, capture cards, multiple card setups, and a professional live video streaming software for high-end streaming.

That’s without even mentioning the importance of upload speeds and cloud technology for live streaming. So yes, it can get demanding if you want to create a high-quality live streaming experience. However, the engagement factor is so popular today that it alone would make worthwhile to explore live streaming for your business.

Benefits of Cloud Technology For Live Streaming 

The age of domestic servers has been surpassed by a quiet revolution of cloud technology. When you create a live streaming website, you have to deliver live content to a range of devices in a matter of seconds. To get things in place, you need to choose a technology to support your services. There is no one size fits all approach as every scenario comes with a unique set of requirements. 

Handles Compatibility Issues and Encoding

A major advantage of using cloud technology for your live streaming service is that both encoding and device compatibility issues will be taken care of. For example, cloud services like Microsoft Azure offer a multiple platform player for displaying studio-grade encoding that is dynamically encrypted with 28 bit AES. There are no server upgrades to worry about which can free up resources as well.

Scalability

The scalability of cloud-hosted solutions for live streaming represents another major advantage of eliminating the startup costs associated with physical servers. This ensures that customers only pay for the services they are using at a given time. As the number of users increases, greater bandwidth can be allocated to offer multiple streaming simultaneously and offer buffer-free viewing on a number of output devices.

Current and Future Trends in Live Streaming

Keeping aside the ease of access, live streaming is loved by people. Live streaming is an excellent opportunity for two-way interaction with your target audience. The popularity of live streaming apps like snap chat, Periscope, Facebook live, etc. supports this idea. Here are some of the current trends in live streaming.

Social Media Dominion

We have witnessed the demand for live streaming on social media capturing significant events across the world. We are also seeing eSports live streaming constantly breaking viewership records. Live streaming services like Periscope, Snapchat, Facebook Live, YouTube Live, and IGTV has skyrocketed its popularity, especially among the younger audience. Sending live videos as a method of communication with peers seems to be natural for the young generation. 

Marketing Media of Choice

Live streaming video is reinventing the way brands plan their marketing strategies. Live streaming has already become an essential marketing tool that can help businesses grow. Brands are becoming more willing to invest in live streaming than ever. Reports show that 95% of businesses say that live video will be an important part of their 2020 marketing mix, with 25% stating that “live content will be a top priority, edging out the scope of pre-recorded videos. We also see businesses going live regularly on social media and their websites. Companies are getting better and better at using live video to bring down those unapproachable corporate walls, adding an authentic human interaction to the mix. 

Internal Corporate Communications Booster

In business relations, brands are using live videos to strengthen their corporate culture and build solid relationships internally. Internal team meetings, employee training, etc. can be done through live videos which increases productivity and engagement. This is why Cisco acquired a video conference startup WebEx back in 2007. They successfully foresaw a future where live streaming is helping people to communicate better.

Education Empowerment

Live streaming is enhancing the way we learn. Conferences, talks, and events are being live-streamed on a regular basis. Universities like Harvard and Stanford are taking advantage of live lecture streaming. This gives their students access to knowledge anytime, anywhere, taking down barriers to education. Consequently, students who may not otherwise be present at the lecture are now able to partake.

Machine Learning In Live Streaming

Machine learning is the latest digital transformation that helps streamline and personalize the user experience for all kinds of technology. This algorithm essentially “learns” what yields a positive result and what doesn’t, and continuously improves itself based on this collected data. There are many opportunities for machine learning applications in live streaming scenarios of all sizes, including large multi-camera events, smaller single-camera live streams, and even lectures at educational institutions.

Computers will be able to learn certain cues like lighting, face and speech recognition, etc. in order to automate live switching, recording, and even adding lower thirds. For example, “smart” live video will be able to automatically start the stream when it recognizes a specific voice or person has appeared on stage. This technology can even track the presenter across the stage, keeping the focus on them. Once the stream is over, the technology can automatically generate and upload a highlight reel of the event based on cues like audience applause and lighting. The potential for AI and machine learning is huge, and there are many specific examples of how it can be applied. 

Further Marketing and E-Commerce Involvement

Just like video ads before normal videos, we will also see the live video start to ingrain deeper into marketing, becoming its major tool. We will see more brands going live with their own shows, introducing their own brand ambassadors and trusted experts like the following example.

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More live events will be used as “see-now-buy-now” eCommerce platforms for a live online shopping experience. As a result of frequent and intentional use in marketing, live video production will become a regular part of the marketing education curriculum. New and better tools for measuring ROI of live streaming campaigns will become available.

Purchasing Power

The revenue impact of live video cannot be ignored. Nearly half of the users say they would pay for live, exclusive on-demand video from a favorite speaker, performer, or sports team. In general, video boosts sales, as well as recognition of a brand. 64% of customers are likely to make a purchase after watching a branded social video. 

Getting the Timing Right

Like with written content, length matters. Live videos up to two minutes long hold viewer’s attention, after which time there’s a drop-off. Many videos in that one-to-two-minute-long duration are explainer videos, which tell about a product or service and helps consumers understand the company better. The zone where you don’t want to be is between two to six minutes long. Attention span and time spent on videos picks back up again for those that are between six and 12 minutes long.

Of course, this timing is for video in general. The rules change a little when it comes to live videos, streaming videos which are often sporting games, events, television shows, movies and the like. With this type of watching, viewers will often spend up to several hours watching their favorite team play or binge-watching a favorite show.

For social videos, the rules are a bit different. Here’s the breakdown by the platform. 

Facebook– While there is no minimum time for the length of a Facebook Live video, but it’s best if your stream is at least 10-15 minutes long. Facebook itself states that longer broadcasts attract more viewers, as more people have a chance to learn about the broadcast and tell their friends. Engagement on Facebook Live streams keeps increasing until about the 15-minute mark, then remains fairly stable through the maximum length of four hours.

Instagram– The ideal length is under 30 seconds for a regular video post and 15 seconds for a Story. For IG Live, it can go up to one hour.

YouTube– The average length of the top 100 most-watched videos on the platform is between five and seven minutes.

Video customer support

Live Q&A sessions as a way to receive help immediately and from real, knowledgeable people will become more and more widespread. Similarly, to current over-the-phone customer support, live video customer support centers will emerge. Receiving support with real-time visual aids will help solve issues faster.

Live streaming and cloud

Live streaming solutions have adopted cloud scaling to enable larger bandwidth and better speeds. As live streaming happens in real-time, it can’t be repeated. Hence it needs to get right the first time itself. The factors like speed and bandwidth are necessary to handle heavier video requirements and offer a better viewing experience to the audience. 

One of the greatest examples of a video platform that scales massively on the cloud to offer a better video viewing experience is YouTube. Thanks to advancements in cloud technology, YouTube emerged as the second largest search engine online. Not just video streaming, the cloud powers its live streaming solutions as well. 

These days, even small businesses leverage live streaming o bring their customers close to their brand and make them feel more connected. These interactions help in taking their marketing strategies to the next level. 

However, it also comes with the transmission of large data that results in latency issues. By scaling on the cloud, live streaming platforms can increase their bandwidth to offer better streaming performance and viewing experience. While CDNs handle that part efficiently, many businesses don’t have access to it to handle the heavy traffic and hence cloud scaling is very important.

Cloud technology also offers live streaming platforms a cost-effective, flexible, and secure solution for setting up their workflow. This serves to meet the requirements for both live streaming and video on demand services. 

Let’s understand this with an example. During a live broadcast of a sports event, the traffic is easily 10 times or even more than on normal days. Provisioning for servers and other infrastructure will end up creating a large up-front cost for infrastructure which otherwise won’t be utilized in normal scenarios. The cloud technology with its pay-per-use strategy serves as an ideal solution for live streaming platforms with an effective costing method at a very high rate of security, scalability, and reliability. 

A typical End-To-End functional workflow for cloud-based live streaming looks like the following. 

Production

The production process begins with the acquisition of the camera feed. In the case of live streaming, the camera feed may be backhauled to a central production faculty via a dedicated Internet connection.

Ingestion

In live streaming, the camera feed is directly connected to the cloud-based live streaming solution. As opposed to video on demand content where the content is uploaded via a CMS. 

Monitoring

Any disruption in the ingestion process during live streaming will directly impact the viewing experience. For the automated workflow running in the cloud, you need a way to identify any failure and report it. This is where monitoring will help to ensure that everything is running as expected. 

Encoding

If you are looking for different ways on how to create a live streaming website, you have to be mindful of the various different platforms and devices on which your content will be played. The streams uploaded to the cloud will be of one format and specification. For your live videos to be played across different devices like smartphones, tablets, desktops, and smart-TV’s, the video must be converted to different formats and specifications. This process of conversion is called encoding and is an intense concept. 

Ad-Insertion

To make money out of your live streams, it is important to insert monetization channels to your live streams. You can either offer your live content to your audience for a fee or offer it without any fee, but insert ads in between the broadcast. If you are using an advertisement based monetization method for your live streams, you need to insert it along with the process of encoding to serve as a reference point to display ads during playback. 

Protection

The major challenge with live streaming or any digital video playback is content protection, especially if you follow a pay-per-view or subscription-based business model. If your business involves the scenario of piracy prevention and revenue generation, it is highly important to protect your content. Some aspects of content protection are authentication and authorization. Choose a secure cloud technology that adheres to digital rights management to encrypt the content. These security measures restrict viewing or copying of content by unauthorized parties. 

Delivery

Besides understanding how to start a live streaming business, you must also learn in-depth about how to deliver content without any potential delays. This is where CDN’s come into play. Content delivery networks with their vast networks of servers spread across several locations offer web acceleration by serving users with a cached version of the live stream requested. Hence, it is highly important to choose live streaming solutions with in-built CDN’S to optimize the delivery of live videos with low latency, high speed, and low packet loss. 

This is how a sample cloud-based workflow based on Microsoft Azure’s media service looks like. 

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Source

Conclusion

Live streaming offers a great opportunity to reach out to a broader audience and is spurred to be on a positive growth trajectory with improving mobile broadband connectivity and increased Internet penetration. Demand for live videos is expected to rise along with cloud technology. Ensuring a smooth and swift playback experience across different platforms under different network conditions is a challenging task bringing some of the best cloud technologies to work together. A cloud-based workflow for live streaming is proving to be the core of building a scalable, reliable, extensible and robust live streaming platform.

OTT Video Streaming Trends For 2019 That Platforms Must Know

OTT Video Streaming Trends For 2019 That Platforms Must Know

The old concept of prime time has changed over time. Viewers today have a vast catalog of content to choose from, and there are certainly more places to watch the content, too.

The viewership of traditional TV is falling apart as the OTT platform is offering high-level customization to the content browsing experience. OTT refers to over-the-top devices that use the internet instead of traditional cable TV to broadcast and watch TV content. 

In 2019 alone, there are over 182 million OTT subscribers in the US. In this article, we are going to discuss eight powerful trends that have influenced the growth of video streaming. From cutting-edge business models to sophisticated video streaming technologies, we will talk about everything responsible for bringing OTT to the masses. 

Hybrid Monetization Tools

A prerequisite for sustaining an OTT platform is to generate a significant amount of revenue. There are mainly three monetization models that OTT streaming operates on: Advertising model, subscription video-on-demand model, and transactional video-on-demand model.

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YouTube, one of the biggest OTT platforms works on an advertising revenue model. General YouTube users are ready to wait patiently for the Ads to finish before they can watch their favorite video. However, the advertisement model is not suitable for most new players as they don’t have a stable subscriber base to drive this model by volumes. 

The subscription model is offered by major OTT platforms like Amazon Prime and Netflix where users pay a fixed subscription fee to access unlimited content available on the platforms. The major advantage of a subscription on-demand model is that it is convenient to use and you can unsubscribe whenever you want. Transactional on-demand model, on the other hand, offers a broader viewing experience by allowing users to down the content of their choice and pay a single time fee to watch the content of their choice. 

Unlike the advertising and subscription model, the transactional on-demand model does not rely on volumes. Now, live streaming platforms have begun to experiment with hybrid content monetization models and are leveraging multiple opportunities as users are willing to pay for premium content. 

Increasing Demand For Originals

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Netflix changed the game by rolling out House of cards, its first original web television series. The streaming giant has put more emphasis on its programs over the last few years with over 100 Netflix originals. Orange is the new black, American Vandal, Stranger things, Russian doll, Master of none, are some of the popular Netflix originals loved by the audience. Millennials and the new-gen audience are preferring VOD streaming platforms because of the exclusive original content. 

Mobile Surpassing TV as a Primary Content Consumption Medium

Not everyone today watches TV shows on a conventional TV screen. People prefer to watch TV shows and movies on the go on mobiles and tablets. Mobile is emerging as a dominant content consumption channel. For example, a viewer who watches Game of Thrones in his TV screen while at home, whereas streams content directly from mobile devices while traveling.

AI to Make Streaming Better

The OTT industry is expected to leverage the power of artificial intelligence through recommendation engines. The recommendation engine is nothing but an AI-driven extension that keeps a tab on user activities and recommends customized content to subscribers.  This offers your subscribers with a personalized viewing experience curated by a combination of user behaviors like content browsing trend, viewing pattern, when they prefer to watch, preference of genre, etc. 

The Growth Of Niche Services

For the past decade, the OTT market has been dominated by giants like Amazon Prime, Netflix, and soon Apple and Disney will enter the scene. Recently it’s been clear that there is a real opportunity for a niche video content market. Niche platforms are ultra-specialized video-on-demand platforms that directly aim for a targeted audience. They offer independent cinema, niche sports, documentaries, fashion, luxury, children’s animated content, and Auteur cinema, etc. Niche platforms bring together active customers of similar interests around the content that excites them. Be advised that consistency and regular renewal are the keys to success for niche services if you are planning on launching your OTT Platform

Content Goes Hand in Hand With Distribution

The OTT platforms not only focus on the content but also on the distribution side. Those who benefit from the widest distribution will have better chances of winning the stream services competition. For example, Apple plans to launch its own streaming services during fall 2019. Even if it is late to the scene, it can count on its 1.4 billion devices that are already in the market and one its final resources with avid support of Hollywood studios. 

Similarly, AT&T relies on its network of subscribers to promote its warner media services that merge the HBO channel with the turner channels. To establish in the market for long term and to consolidate the business, distribution is an important aspect for OTT platforms. 

The Cloud Revolution

Till a few years back, OTT VOD streaming was a risky affair, but thanks to the cloud revolution, new opportunities arise as cloud simplifies workflows, reduces maintenance, and seeds funding. The development of cloud solutions significantly lowered the costs associated with technical implementation. With that said, now just a 2k subscriber base is sufficient enough to cover the technical costs. This also allows broadcasters to reduce the costs and improve efficiency to a greater level. OTT platforms can be launched and grown quickly without compromising the service quality.

Being Interactive With Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality

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Source: empactlabs.co

Augmented reality and virtual reality have slowly started getting into OTT platforms and have the potential to become a new way of entertainment and engagement. In the future, we will see more live streaming platforms and OTT services depending on hardware manufacturers for the distribution of VR devices as a part of their service. 

One of the most important content segments for OTT is sports, which when combined with AR and VR will increase views. Imagine being able to watch a sports event in VR as if sitting in the stadium. VR is expected to offer an immersive experience that will elevate the brand engagement. 

To build your own OTT business, you need not have to invest too much. You can build your own OTT platform and stream videos using VOD streaming software in an affordable manner. Once the platform is ready, prepare a marketing strategy and focus on branding and promotions. As more people shift to online channels and more businesses join forces in many different ways, the challenge is to identify the opportunities to attract customers and maximize revenue. Taken as a whole, these popular trends affect the OTT ecosystems in significant ways. Where some business players see maturing the market, others see fresh opportunities in these emerging trends to transform their services based on the industry standards. 

How Live Streaming Platform Dominates the Social Media Landscape

How Live Streaming Platform Dominates the Social Media Landscape

Finding new tactics to grow your business is a daunting task, especially when your competitors do the exact same things. In this scenario, you need to make yourself different. The old marketing strategies won’t help you. The best way to attract your audience is to use new platforms where they engage often. That’s where live streaming comes into the picture. It’s no secret that videos generate lots of traffic, views, and engagement. Though slowly, but surely a live video is getting established as the future of online video marketing,

Live Streaming on Social Media

It all began in 2011 with You Now, a live streaming app started streaming for the first time. Later in 2014, we saw the launch of Snapchat. A year later, Twitter integrated Periscope, a live streaming app into their social platform. Later in 2016, Facebook launched Facebook live and many social media giants including YouTube and Instagram followed it.

Video Grabs More Attention

80% of online users prefer watching a video than reading the content. The number of people staying tuned to live streaming content is increasing too. Popular video content marketers state that they drive 41% traffic higher than others. It reaches 100% more audience than a photo post. All these shows and constant growth in the popularity of live streaming among internet users. Considering the previous year, 2019 will be an even bigger year considering both audience and brands have settled into the format now.

Why Social Media

The majority of brands choose social media as the Live Streaming Platform to host videos for several reasons, as mentioned below.

Social Media Platforms are Free

You need not invest any money for live streaming on any of the social media platforms. Having a smartphone with a good camera, and an internet connection, the mobile app is just enough to start with live streaming. However, if you want a professional grade streaming quality, you can go for professional live streaming applications like Ustream.

It’s Interactive

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Source: skedsocial.com

While live streaming itself is a great engagement booster, social media platforms combine an array of interactive features like live commenting, sharing, stickers and donations. Add it to your profile and users can take part in discussions even after the event is finished. If you are representing a brand, you can also conduct live streams in the form of a chat session or Q & A session to interact with your audience.

Live Video Content Shows to Dominate Social Media Feed

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Source: newsroom.fb.com

Facebook live and Instagram live has received a high uptake. Therefore in social media feeds, in the coming years, we expect to see more video content. Social media uses text and images to express opinions and feelings. With the introduction of live video content on social media, both people and brands prefer video content to express their feelings. Therefore, it is one of the biggest social media trends that are here to stay for long.

With the introduction of a live broadcast on Facebook and Instagram, this trend is gaining traction across all Live Streaming Platforms. Brands have also been using live video content in their marketing campaigns.

Masters of Storytelling Will Dominate Live Streaming

We have been seeing many brands utilizing live streaming to market their products and services. However, the more engaging content is, the chances are high for it to create an impact. We will soon see social media dominated by storytellers.

Wondering how to start a live streaming business? The secret to reaping success with live streaming is sharing stories in a unique way that your users feel the appeal. While individuals take advantage of features like Instagram or Facebook live to share personal stories, the brand will move towards investing in advanced technology like Facebook watch to broadcast their stories through shows.

The Challenges and Drawbacks of Live Video

The most prominent challenge that businesses face with live video content is that they are live. The live content demands authenticity in a way that is not easy for businesses to deal with.

Consider this example- A small business goes live to show the new collections in their store. In the background, you hear noises and disturbances that make it difficult to what is being spoken. Along with such things, live streaming also poses the challenges of unexpected interruptions. Maybe it can be any technical difficulty or interruptions like the phone starts ringing or something else. Or simply, an unexpected disruption comes in the form of you slip up and say something incorrect or even stumble.

With live video, things always happen in live and you can’t go back to re-record the video to make it perfect. This can bring in pressure, but if you follow best practices, you can take care of this.

Live Video Streaming Best Practices

All the live video content best practices come down to preparation. Though it’s live and at the moment, you have to be prepared for it as it would be any client interaction. You have to represent your business well and make a good impression.

Some of the best practices include:

Actually Practicing

Have an idea of what you want to present in the live streaming ahead of time. Go through the content until you are comfortable with it. This makes you comfortable with what you have to present and the chances are less to go blank when you go live.

Have Notecards Handy

Though you have practiced the content and got familiar with it, it is better to keep notecards handy. Have your content written in bullet points so that you can quickly go through what you want to talk in the live video.

Make Sure the Location is Brightly Lit

Choose a location that is quiet and doesn’t have background noises. Similarly, the location must be well lit and free of any possible interruptions.

Announce That You are Going Live Ahead of Time

If you want to improve the views and engagements, let your users know when you are going live before you actually do. For example, Facebook makes it easy with their scheduling features, but even on other social media platforms, you can post a day or so in above. There are facilities to remind users an hour before. Ensure that you cross-promote on other social media platforms, too.

Choose Strong Headline and Descriptions

This helps you stand out and get more viewers. It also keeps users to have an idea about what you will present in your video. As you will have viewers entering and exiting throughout the video, it is recommended to have a clear headline and description so that people understand the essence of your video. The only exception is Instagram, which doesn’t have the option to create descriptions.

Share the Video Later

It is a great idea to save and share your video alter with your users. This maximizes the reach of the video and allows users who couldn’t actually watch you live to listen to your content. You can share the video on other platforms if it meets the time requirements.

How Successful Brands Get Results with Live Streaming in Social Media?

Have a Plan

Live streaming is not about the produced video. It is not a place for polished talks. Start it casually, ask questions to your followers, and have them talk to you. People want to see who you are in real. Live streaming is a real kind of two-way exchange. There is always a market for polished and produced video, but a Live Streaming Platform is not meant for that.

Viewers will have questions and they won’t be ready to wait till you finish. Have a clear strategy on how you will pull it off. When your plan isn’t working, adopt spontaneity by ditching the script. Plan, change, adjust, let go and have fun interacting with your audience.

Let Your Audience Know You Value Them

Once you start the live streaming, welcome your audience and thank them. Tell them how much you care and value them. Use these conversations to make your content strong. Brands who can establish a strong connection with the audience are likely to succeed with their live streaming efforts. This connection makes your viewers believe you. Another great thing with engaging your audience is discovering their needs and using it to sharpen your marketing strategy.

Be Ready to Trust People and Take Risks

Investing in ideas and people are much more important than technology. Invest in and empower your best storytellers. Popular brands conduct short Q&A sessions before a show or match and use live streaming to weigh in behind the scenes or the actual show. The key to finding success with live streaming is to collaborate with others and explore new things. You need not do it alone, you can invite others to extend the reach of your brand to their networks. This requires trusting people.

Demonstrate Business Value for Your Audience

Use the live streaming to initiate conversations, offer your customers significant information, highlight employees and fans. Sharing the behind-the-scenes clips with your audience is yet another way to thank them and help share your brand story. When done right, this gives returns in terms of downloads, publicity, customer engagement, lead generation, and influencer marketing.

Conclusion

The world of live streaming and social media is constantly undergoing changes and deriving new ways to reach customers. Thanks to technological advancements and improvements in networks and connectivity, we can now watch our favorite personalities in real time. Live streaming can cover a large number of topics from video games to sports. Social networking applications and live streaming platforms have introduced new features, giving users a genuine way to connect with brands and celebrities.