It’s 2009 now, and everybody and LITERALLY their mother has their own web show. *yawn*

It’s time to move forward. This year is all about Live Streaming. All of a sudden, everybody wants to do it, but they just don’t know how. They think that turning on a webcam and having any audio at all equates to a quality experience for their viewers. Nope. That’s not how it works.

Here’s a list of live streaming tips that will bring you from ZERO to HERO in no time flat:

2006

This is a screencap from November 2006 from Jonny Goldstein’s live show, “Reinventing Television”. I’m not on screen, but I’m in the text chat.

2008

I streamed several sessions live from PodCampNYC 2.

I did live shows from my “Live” page:

2009

“Everybody wants to get into the act”. I already asked the question “Why are you doing a live show?” back in June, 2008, when there seemed to be an epidemic of people creating garbage live channels where you could watch them eat cereal, sleep, or leave the camera running while they walk to the general store and back.

So now that live streaming is a fad, it’s time to hand out some tips on how to do it properly…

Hire a host

It’s literally IMPOSSIBLE to party and host a live stream at the same time. Impossible. You’re either paying attention to the event or you’re paying attention to the quality of your broadcast. If you want to participate in the event, hire someone else to be the host of your stream. Do you see Dick Clark running around Times Square? No. He’s the HOST. His job is to HOST. It’s other people’s jobs to run around in the streets getting interviews.

Check your audio

Audio off? No good. Audio too “hot” (distorting)? No good. Audio on, but you can’t make out anything that anyone’s saying, because they’re too far away? No good.

Teach people how to use the mic

If you’re using a lavalier mic, which is supposed to be attached to a person’s body, TEACH people that you hand the mic to not to attempt to swallow it as if it were a hand-held mic. When lavalier audio levels are checked, the mic is relatively far away from the person’s mouth. Moving it closer will overdrive your signal and distort the audio. On top of that, people breathing directly onto a mic that’s not made for that causes the levels to jump up and down, erratically.

Use a monitor

If you’re using a webcam that’s attached to a laptop, make sure you MONITOR the output. If you rotate the laptop screen so that you can look at it while you’re standing up in front of it, you are ALSO pointing the webcam AT. THE. CEILING. Either mount your webcam on something other than your laptop screen or if it’s built in, like a MacBook Pro iSight, make sure you point the camera at the PEOPLE, and not AT. THE. CEILING.

Select a good location

I saw one stream last night where the camera was sitting on a desk, and there were people crowded in front of it. The viewer experience was as if we were seated at a party where everyone else was standing up with their backs to us. No good. Remember that your laptop is now a CAMERA and not just a computer.

Tell people where to stand

When people are ready to make speeches, MAKE. THEM. stand in front of the camera instead of off to the side, or completely out of view. This is where having a designated host comes in handy as well as using a monitor.

Plan your location ahead of time

In my PodCampNYC2 video I posted above, I had the perfect position for filming the presentations, except I didn’t realize that the old-ass school they decided to use didn’t have electrical outlets in the desks in all the rooms. I was running out of power on my camera that I was shooting with as well as my laptop that I was broadcasting with, so I had to go to where the only outlet was in the front of the room.

Make sure you plan your location of the camera and the direction(s) the camera’s facing for the benefit of your VIEWERS, not for the convenience of people that don’t want to properly host their own live streams.

Bring your own internet connection

I was the only one live streaming from PodCampNYC2, because I was the only one that brought my own EV-DO card. Lots of other people ADVERTISED that they were going to stream live, because they were counting on the venue a) HAVING wifi, and b) having GOOD ENOUGH wifi for them to live stream over with everyone else pulling on the same resources.

Don’t advertise what you can’t deliver. Bring your own connection and test it ahead of time if you can.

Make sure you have a text chat

Without a text chat, you’re as useless as television. Make sure you have a way for your viewers to ask you questions, such as “Why are we looking at the ceiling?” and “Who is that person, and do they have a website?” and “How much money did you raise for the charity from walk-ins?”.

Have a chat moderator

This is technically the same tip as “Have a host”, except the moderator’s job is to provide Quality Assurance for your live stream viewers. If someone’s acting up in the chat, they get kick/banned. If someone asks a question, it doesn’t just float by. There’s someone assigned to watch the board and act as a go-between between the host and the viewers. Jonny Goldstein adopted this style for “Jonny’s Par-Tay” by bringing on Scott Stead as his “Super Producer”.

Recognize who the STAR is

If you’re using a live streaming site that allows you to have a co-host, recognize who the star is. Once you figure out who the star is… Normally, the person whose NAME. IS. ON. THE. SITE…. Make sure THAT PERSON is in the big box and anyone else that feels they need to be on screen is in the SMALL box. Nobody’s tuning in to see “the sidekick show”. They’re tuning in to HEAR, and more importantly, *SEE* the person they came to hear and see. Ensure that they want to come back the next time you announce a stream by giving them the experience they expected when they show up the first time… and EVERY time.

Have a call-in number

As you can see in my clip above, I’m running not ONE, but TWO audio “dial-ins”. The left side is coming from skype and the right side is coming from iChat/AIM. I’m talking to four other people and they’re talking to me and to each other. We’ve taken it entirely outside of the realm of “broadcasting at” and now everyone’s participating.

Plan topics and guests

Make sure people know what we’re going to be discussing in the live stream, and, if possible, who the guests are going to be. Jonny did a great job with this, lining up guests ahead of time and then advertising during the week who was going to be on:

This way, you get people who are actually INTERESTED in the topic showing up, participating and contributing.

The customer’s always right

Bill Cammack & Phil Campbell

There’s no reason to live stream unless you’re providing VALUE to your viewers/participants. If you’re not focused on what the audience is going to get out of the stream, don’t bother. If you’re serious, take your show on the road, like Phil Campbell.

Phil streams live using his phone, which also allows him to receive text chat messages WHILE he’s recording. You want to know more about something or see something again? Type it to Phil and he’ll make it happen.

So, If you’re gonna do it, do it right…. Like A-Rod & Barry Bonds will tell you… Go BIG!…
or Go HOME!

~Bill Cammack

Twitter: BillCammack
Social Media Category: billcammack.com/category/social-media
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