3 Reasons To Use Professional Live Streaming Software
Live video is being utilised now more than ever as a way for small and large businesses, schools, families, friends, and more to connect. When it comes to sharing your live video content though, you get what you pay for. Here are three key reasons to use a professional live streaming platform over a free or unspecialised option.
The current pandemic has forced the entire population to adapt to a new way of life in a very short space of time. At first, most of us naturally went into a state of panic and fear at the sudden disruption to normal life. Slowly but surely though, we have learnt how to adapt our daily routines and discovered new ways to communicate and keep connected with both our loved ones and colleagues.
How? Through technology and the power of live streaming.
Live video is being utilised now more than ever as a way for small and large businesses, schools, families, friends, and more to connect from the comfort of their own homes.
Many businesses are relying on live streams to make company announcements, host virtual meetings and offer staff training so they can function as normal and continue to reach goals. Aside from the more professional purposes that live streaming can serve though, it is arguably, more importantly, helping people all across the world to stay sane and simply have fun. Families, friends, clubs, theatres, pubs and more are all getting involved, using live video to simply enjoy themselves at a time when its easy to feel overwhelmed.
As live streaming becomes such a popular form of content online, it is now super easy and quick to go live. All main social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more now have ‘live stream’ options, where users can click a button and put themselves in front of huge audiences for free. Despite this though, these free or cheap platforms have their disadvantages. When it comes to sharing your live streams, you get what you pay for.
Here are the three main reasons to use a professional live streaming platform over a free or unspecialised option.
1. Features
First things first, a professional streaming platform can offer far more when it comes to creative freedom and technical abilities. The range and volume of features available on paid platforms far outweigh the options provided by free tools, allowing users to completely customise their video players to represent their branding and share content with specific audiences.
For brands or agencies that plan to implement large scale live streaming strategies over lockdown as a means to communicate with their audiences or raise money for charity, professional platforms are really the only option. There’s no good trying to rely on free tools to stream events to large audiences as social platforms are renowned for cutting streams off halfway through or when they detect music or the mention of money. On top of this, live streaming tools like Zoom may not be able to offer you the image and sound quality your require, risking your video’s message being impeded and people not sticking around to hear what you have to say.
Here are just some of the features that professional live streaming platforms can offer you:
- Professional-quality video resolutions - stream in 1080p or even 4K HD.
- Stream from or to any type of device - smartphones, cameras, webcameras, smart TVs, tablets and more.
- Video security - control who can access your videos using IP addresses or location.
- Analytics - analyse the success of your videos with various statistics.
- White-label HTML5 players - brand up the appearance of your videos.
- Transcode videos to a resolution that suits your audience’s device and internet connection.
Whether you’re an agency that is implementing live streaming or VOD campaigns for a number of different clients, or you’re a large business that wants to offer multiple live streams simultaneously for your audience, professional live streaming software allows you to control your campaign from one user-friendly interface. Users can ensure that videos are targeted and representative of their brand in terms of quality, appearance and content.
For businesses or professionals looking to host large scale virtual events using multiple visual and audio feeds, you simply cannot rely on a free platform to provide the quality and control that you need. Professional streaming platforms support multi-camera streaming and offer all the capabilities and support you will require to offer an enjoyable, dynamic and consistent virtual event. The benefits to your online reputation and the results you can achieve from a successful live event completely outweigh the costs involved in the streaming process.
2. Cost-effective
While professional live streaming platforms come at a cost, the quality, control, and security that comes with it make it entirely worth it. What’s more, you can manage your costs easily to suit yours or your clients’ budgets with most platforms only requiring you to pay for the cloud storage that you use. With professional-grade platforms allowing you to go live from any device, you can save money on recording equipment and avoid the need to invest in a complex setup, while still offering viewers a smooth and high-resolution playback experience.
3. Support
Social platforms offering live streaming features are great for people looking to go live quickly and easily without quality or duration being an issue. For those that want to host impressive and long-lasting virtual events, business meetings, conferences, or even quizzes, online classes and more, professional platforms are simply necessary for the level of support they can provide.
If you’re new to live streaming or haven’t yet attempted to host an online event, the process of setting up and broadcasting can be complicated and unfamiliar, which is why most professional platforms will have an around-the-clock customer service team willing to answer any queries and offer support throughout the process. If anything is to go wrong, for example, paid platforms will be able to step in and offer advice or diagnose any issues so you can minimise disruption and optimise your streams for the ultimate success.
Zidivo is one of the companies stepping up to help businesses, families, and friends to stay connected, with their affordable and user-friendly live streaming platform. The team are working day and night to provide top-quality live video streams and large scale virtual events for a huge range of industries, whether its virtual business meetings or all-night raves.