Expert Tips for Pulling Off a Live Video Event

Live online video events are surging in popularity, and you're probably thinking of streaming a live event to your customers or business partners. Before you do, learn the specific challenges of live video.

Offering tips for successfully hosting a live streaming video event, insiders from Ustream, Livestream, Suite Spot, and Perform sat down for a panel discussion at the recent Streaming Media West conference in Los Angeles. The first thing to know, said Alden Fertig, product manager for broadcasting at Ustream, is that getting viewers for a live event is far harder than with video-on-demand.

"One of the big things with live events is people understanding the difference between live and VOD," Fertig said. "Sometimes people think, 'Oh, if I've got this many views on my VOD, then I'm going to get that many views live.' They don't understand that this many people viewing over the course of six months is completely different than asking those people to show up on a specific day at a specific time and watch something."

Since live video is hot right now, companies might be tempted to overuse it. But not every event should get the live treatment.

"It doesn't make sense to do all content live, so you need to think about what's interesting enough for people to show up at a specific time and watch it," Fertiq added. "Live is inherently more complicated. It's inherently more prone to something can go wrong, and it's more expensive, so you don't necessarily want to do it live just because you think you should do it live. You need to think about how can we make sure this is interesting enough content and how can we build in the right promotion to make sure that people actually show up and watch this at the time we need them to watch it."

For more live video best practices, watch the video below:

Troy Dreier's article first appeared on OnlineVideo.net