Who do you plan your conferences and other events for? Obviously, the needs of your guests must come first. Should you consider anyone else’s needs? Is there anything you can do for the people who cannot make it to the event? There is a way to let everyone participate, whether they are able to attend or not. If you want to ensure maximum participation in your event, Live Streaming could be the answer you are looking for.
Introduction to Live Streaming
Everyone is familiar with YouTube and other websites for watching video online. Most of these platforms also support Live Streaming. Live Streaming puts a real-time video feed online where anyone you invite is free to watch it. You can also enable commenting so your attendees and viewers can interact with each other as if they were actually at the event.
Live Streaming is a relatively recent development in the world of online video; before you can incorporate this technology into your events, you will need to learn just a little bit. To this end, here are some common questions you might have about Live Streaming:
- What is easiest way to incorporate Live Streaming into my event?
Until recently, getting Live Streaming up and running required some special software. The major online video platforms either did not support live streaming or required special steps to get it up and running. Now, most major online video platforms support live streaming directly from a smartphone or tablet. You do not even need to download a special app; the native YouTube and Facebook apps now support Live Streaming.
- Is Live Streaming just a fad?
According to Cisco, video is expected to account for 80 percent of global Internet traffic by 2019. Live Streaming first became popular a few years ago. It is particularly well suited for citizen journalism because it allows anyone to stream breaking news in real time. This makes it a potentially world changing technology that will probably not disappear anytime soon.
- What are the privacy and legal concerns of Live Streaming?
If you want to use live streaming for commercial purposes, you will need to either avoid copyrighted material or arrange licensing ahead of time. Filming people at an event is generally legal, although you should let them know that their images may appear in any video related to the event.
- What Live Streaming platform should you use?
In the early days of live streaming, you were limited to just a few platforms. Now, every major online video platform supports live streaming, either natively or with a third party app. The choice is no longer governed by technology, you should make your choice based on demographics. Choose a platform that is popular with your target audience.
Live Streaming lets you interact with a widespread live audience from virtually anywhere in the world. Though it is still in its infancy, this technology is already an essential part of your video toolkit. How will you incorporate this exciting technology into your next event? The options are unlimited.