A live transmission field unit allows you to go live from anywhere. All-in-one production-level field units are one of the most useful innovations in the broadcast industry. The ability to sustainably go live from various locations in the field enriches engagement with your audience and allows you to comfortably venture outside the studio.
It comes with other advantages. Events that otherwise would have had limited viewership can be accessed from anywhere in the world over the internet, resulting in really large audiences. Additionally, the field of live streams is not yet overcrowded. It is easier to cut through the noise through live streams compared to video-on-demand. Having live streams also helps strengthen your brand.
Nowadays, field units are advanced and even support multi-camera live transmission. In the past, pulling off a live event with multiple cameras would have taken a significant crew and multiple advanced equipment. However, now, it is not only possible to run multi-camera live events on a one-person crew but also at a fraction of the initial cost.
Live Transmission Field Unit
A production-level field unit can be a game-changer, enriching any production by allowing more events to be covered within budgetary restrictions. Moreover, it is a cost-effective and dependable solution for remote production workflows. It comes in handy especially in news and sports coverage. Below are the considerations to be made in selecting a suitable field unit.
Functionality
A suitable field unit should be all-in-one, integrating camera feed and transmission. Ideally, it should support multi-camera live transmission. It should have advanced audio and video capability, supporting HDR transmission and multiple audio channels. It should have reliable transmission to be able to transmit in diverse weather conditions and ideally, in poor network coverage.
It should also provide support for synchronized feeds.
Reliability
Live sports and events can be broadcasted from a wide variety of locations. Some live sports are broadcast from outdoor venues, where weather conditions may have an adverse effect on the communication technology being used to relay the broadcast.
To counter this, the unit could be equipped with multiple modems and highly-efficient internal antennas.
High quality of service should be a priority, to enable mission-criticial transmission.
Communication Technology
5G technology has matured. It comes with signficant benefits for live transmission. These include lower latency and increased bandwidth. A suitable field unit should make use of superior 5G technology and should support 5G network evolution.
To this effect, the best units on the market are optimized for 5G, and come with multiple 5G modems. This leads to increased sustainability of live transmissions in different venues.
Multi-Camera Transmission With a One-Man Crew
Multi-camera transmission can make a huge difference in the viewing experience. It can significantly improve the quality of your live stream.
Traditionally, to pull off multi-camera transmission, you needed a small crew. There are many things to handle, including switching between feeds, panning as required, and ensuring smooth transition. Normally, this would take several camera-people, a director of programming, as well as audio and encoding engineers.
However, not all businesses have such crews at their disposal. Does this mean that you give up the advantages of a multi-camera transmission? No. You may have to make do with fewer cameras, but you can pull it off.
With two cameras, an audio mixer, an encoder, and a switcher, one person could comfortably pull off multi-camera transmission. But to do that, they’d need high quality live stream software.
Typically, the best software has mixing tools, support for video effects, support for multiple sources, and the ability to stream to multiple destinations. Bonus features such as instant replay capability might also come in handy.
Video Encoding
The process of live streaming includes encoding video to produce a form that is suitable for the end viewer. It also involves saving video footage not as a sequence of images but as fluid video. A reliable and compact encoder could come in handy in the field.
Why You Need a Good Encoder
Whether you are using a hardware or software video encoder, you’ll probably have common objectives. One of them will be to compress your video without losing quality. You may also encode video to alter the footage to make it more suitable for end viewers. This may involve changing the aspect ratio and resolution or ensuring compatibility with certain devices. You might also do it to alter the bit rate and convert to a format that is easier to work with.
For live transmission outside a studio setting, a compact but powerful encoder could come in handy. Such a solution should enable either point-to-point or point-to-multipoint distribution of video, all while automatically handling the encoding.
Whether to use a hardware or software video encoder depends on cost, the need for customization, and the performance required. Hardware encoders are more expensive but more reliable and can be used for always-on streaming without crashing. Software encoders are more affordable and have more customization options. However, they have more latency.
Live Streaming Trends to Align Yourself With
With live streaming becoming more mainstream every day, there are trends that you should align with to survive and thrive. Some of these trends will give you an edge over competitors in your space while others are just best practices.
Optimizing for Discoverability
Live streaming is getting more popular. Some niches are getting crowded and it’s getting more difficult to be discovered. While providing high quality content is one of the most reliable ways to attract a bigger audience, you can also optimize your feed to be discovered by more people.
You will need to become more creative in the way that you plan your live streams. Additionally, the use of keywords that are relevant to your niche will give you an edge over competitors in search engines.
Better Engagement
One of the biggest advantages of live steams is the direct engagement with customers that it affords brands. This is one of the biggest advantages of live video over traditional on-demand video. It’s a great source of market intelligence for product development, as well as general customer feedback. In addition, it gives the customers a voice.
Moving forward, it will be important to amplify this voice; to go beyond one-way live sessions and to incorporate viewer participation. This feature is increasingly being used in platforms such as Instagram. In addition to viewers participating in the live with real-time comments, they can also ask to go live together with the host.
Another engagement feature that is fast gaining steam is clickable polls during the live stream.
The Need for High Quality
As more businesses get into live streaming, quality will be an important differentiating factor. To stand out of the crowd and attract the audience you want, you’ll have to provide them with great content. Here, as in many other digital marketing methods, content is king.
One of the ways to increase the quality of your live stream is to involve subject matter experts. This way, you establish your live stream as a credible source. This credibility is likely to rub off on your brand as a whole.
Another way to go is to not only be relevant but to also take a problem-solving approach in your content. If you can find out what is bugging your customers most and solve it for them through your live event, and continue doing that consistently, you’ll delight your audience and it will keep growing.
Additionally, thought leadership content is key. Original content or content with a fresh perspective is what you should go for.
