Did you know that 350 million people use Zoom daily? The company’s revenue has increased four times since 2019.
With everyone’s lives being blindsided by the pandemic this past year, learning to adapt on the fly was the new normal. With businesses and offices closing, left at right, the majority worked from home. Due to this, popular streaming apps and services such as Zoom were pushed to the mainstream.
This changed the landscape of how we conduct meetings, making online meetings a more powerful solution. How can you ensure your live streaming runs smoothly? Read our informative guide before you hit record.
How Live Streaming Works
Whether you are hosting an event or coordinating a meeting, live streaming is a great way to reach your audience. For those who cannot attend in the same physical space, a digital meeting is the next best thing, and in many ways superior.
Brands will use live streaming to their advantage to engage with customers. This relatively new medium helps connect clients and consumers to an organization. When people can view you and your team in real-time, there is a certain special connection that comes through.
The possibilities of online meetings are virtually endless too. Whether it is a small closed digital meeting or something for the masses, you’ll want to take advantage too.
Feel free to get creative too to appeal to a larger meeting room. For example, you could interview important figureheads in your company.
Step 1: Plan Your Online Meetings
As you would your offline meetings, your online ought to follow a similar planning method. If you expect things to run smoothly during a digital meeting, you’ll want a purpose or goal in mind first. Having a purpose or goal will help with the logistics of everything as well.
Who
Who is your meeting for? When you know your target audience, other factors will fall into place too.
For example, will foreigners be hopping on the digital meeting? If so, be sure to have time zones and holidays in mind beforehand.
What
What category does your live streaming meeting or event fall under? Is it an informative business plan or perhaps a roundtable?
Having a topic in mind will give your online meetings a center. You’ll want to know what points to hit during the digital meeting too. If there are guests speakers attending, be sure to have a moderator to introduce everyone, have talking points, smooth transitions, and a way to wrap up the conversation.
Where
The “where” in this case are the online meeting platforms you’ll choose. We’ll discuss them more in-depth below, but different platforms will attract different audiences. Knowing which platform attracts which crowd will help inform your decision on which is best for your purposes.
In terms of the physical space or venue you choose, you need something with a solid internet connection for your live streaming needs. A spotty or poor-quality digital meeting will result in dropped viewers.
Step 2: Online Meeting Platforms
Different online meeting platforms will help you and your team achieve different goals. Will you choose Zoom, Jitsi, YouTube Live, Facebook, or Microsoft Teams? You will hear these services referred to as content delivery networks (CDNs).
Many of these online meeting platforms will have HTML5 video players by default that allow you to embed your video on your company’s site. Other key features include a server and sufficient bandwidth to handle all your live streaming requirements.
Many of these services are white-labeled which means you can display your company’s watermark too.
Step 3: Proper Equipment
As for the equipment you’ll need for online meetings, a lot of it is intuitive to use. Much of which you may already have already (such as a smartphone or laptop).
If you do end up using a smartphone, be sure to use a tripod to ensure a stable stream. Doing so will create the professional look you’re after.
Make sure you have good lighting too—avoid harsh lights or things being too blown out.
For sound, you don’t want people shutting doors and shuffling going on. Whatever is picked up on the microphone, the camera on the stream will switch to that viewer.
A pair of headphones with a microphone that you plug into the computer will do the trick. You could also take advantage of a lavalier mic which is what plenty of talk shows will use for voice.
For professional cameras and video systems, you’ll need encoding software. This allows the camera to “talk” to the streaming platform and broadcast your online meetings.
To up the production value, consider using a professional backdrop with a company logo. Anything that can give your live streaming some consistency will help spread the company’s awareness.
Step 4: Have a Test Run
Before you have the real deal, why not have a test run? Doing a dry run will put you and your staff at ease. Any concerns or kinks you need to iron out can be smoothed over.
Rather than having a panic attack during a digital meeting, troubleshoot the technical mistakes without the audience present.
Check things like your internet connection, lights, camera, and sound. Have people on your team act as the audience to make it feel as real as possible.
Ensure Your Live Streaming Is a Success
Are you ready to hit record yet?
If you’re ready to take your live streaming to the next level, you’ll want to hire us as your professional team. When you do so, you will ensure the next digital meeting you hold is a success.
We will provide the equipment and obtain the professionalism you’re after. Do not hesitate to reach out.