Recently we got approached by a potential client who was interested in having his event live streamed.
Live streaming is technically more difficult to execute properly as there are more moving parts so everything had to be taken into consideration.
First thing we did was to get on the phone and ask a few questions about the venue such as
Indoors or outdoors?
Internet speed
photos of the venue
and of course the BUDGET.
A bit part of working with the client is educating them on how things are done and just what pulling off an event successfully entails.
We usually make a list of everything that is going to be needed and if we don't have something that will have to be sourced out.
In our case this was going to be a live performance with a band plus the client talking, basically it was going to be a live streamed Sunday Church Service.
On the day of the event we got to the venue and started setting up.
Tasks were split up three ways:
Myself - I was going to take care of everything camera related.
Will Brown - as Technical Director would set up the live stream.
and Stanley Brown - would be in charge of audio and mixing.
Now a popular question here would be:
- Well how much time would all this normally take?
- Anywhere from 4-6 hours.
The reasoning is, not only do we have to set everything up and make it all look presentable and make sure it all works properly and as intended, but we need to allow time to troubleshoot any and all kind of problems that may arise in the process.
To stay within client's budget here's the setup we decided to go with:
Cameras: Sony A7SIII, Sony A7SII, 2x Gopro Hero 7 black.
Audio: Shure SM57
Live Streaming Console : Atem Mini Pro
Live Streaming software: via VMIX
So this was going to be a 2 camera setup: A Wide shot (locked off), think 35mm lens, then a tight shot, I went with Canon 70-200mm F2.8 for close ups and it looked fantastic, and then tossed a few GoPros on stage, one on the keys and the other one on the drums.
This would allow my TD to switch between different camera angles and have something to cut to.
Of course a huge part of a live stream is the audio and we needed to make sure that the audio would be on point. This entailed collecting all the feeds and mixing them on the console (see above) and then feeding out a mixed signal into the VMix to be streamed online.
This is where problems can occur. Literally anything can happen, the feed can cut out , or may not be audible, and you have to troubleshoot very quickly.
When the band finally showed up, we were all set to do a quick rehearsal, adjust camera angles, adjust lighting that we were working with, setup the GoPros, place the mics, make sure that we were getting audio and that the levels were good, and make sure we had all the access keys to stream the broadcast.
Now this is where the client will give us the access key to his/her website and to his/her YouTube channel for example. Without those there will be no streaming so make sure you have those on hand when considering live streaming.
All in all the stream went great, the client was super happy and so were we. Here are a few shots of the stream. If you have any questions plz direct them to Art@C137prod.com or text us at 310 620 3934.
