Start with who is watching and where
Before any kit is discussed, I ask organisers to describe the audience in plain terms. Are they ticket holders who could not travel, sponsors watching from an office, or relatives following a stage production from home? The answer shapes almost every later choice, from picture quality to how long the stream needs to stay live.
It also settles whether viewers will watch on a phone over mobile data or on a large screen with a good connection. A stream tuned for a laptop in an office is a different job from one that has to survive a patchy signal in a car park.
Write down a realistic number of viewers, even a rough one. A few dozen relatives and a few thousand festival followers need different delivery arrangements, and it is far easier to plan for the right size from the start than to correct it on the afternoon.
- Who is the audience and what device will they use
- Roughly how many people will watch at once
- Does the stream need to be public or private
Check the connection at the venue itself
The most common surprise in live streaming is the upload line. A venue may advertise fast internet, yet the figure that matters is the sustained upload speed at the exact spot where the encoder will sit, measured at the hour the event runs, with the building full.
We ask for a test on site, or for the venue contact to tell us who manages the network. Shared guest wifi is rarely suitable, and a wired connection reserved for the stream is far safer than anything wireless.
Where the line looks weak, there are sensible options: a second connection bonded with the first, or a cellular backup that takes over if the main route drops. Neither is free, so it helps to know early whether you need one, rather than discovering it during the soundcheck.
- Measure upload speed on site, not by reputation
- Ask for a wired connection kept for the stream
- Decide whether a backup route is worth its cost
Decide what the viewer sees on screen
A stream is more than cameras. Think about what appears over the picture: the event name, speaker captions, running order, sponsor credits, a simple holding slide before the start. Each of these needs wording and artwork agreed ahead of time, not typed in a rush while the show is running.
Be honest about how many cameras the event genuinely needs. One wide shot can be perfectly respectable for a talk, while a concert usually earns several angles and someone cutting between them. More cameras add crew and cabling, so they should earn their place.
Finally, decide how the stream begins and ends. A short countdown, a clean sign-off and a closing slide make an event feel finished, and they give latecomers somewhere sensible to land.
- Collect names, titles and logos before the day
- Match the camera count to the kind of event
- Plan the opening slide and the closing slide
Ask what is monitored while you are live
Once the stream is running, somebody has to be watching it as a viewer would. That means checking the outgoing picture and sound, the encoder's health and the platform's own feed, not just the monitors in the control room, which can look perfect while the public stream stumbles.
Ask any provider who will do this and whether they are free to concentrate on it. If the same person is also cutting cameras and fixing graphics, a quiet problem can run for minutes before anyone notices it.
Agree in advance what counts as a fault and who decides to switch to the backup. A short written note, shared with the venue and your own team, saves arguments at the worst possible moment.
- Name one person who watches the public feed
- Agree what triggers a switch to the backup
- Keep audio levels checked throughout, not just at the start
Settle rights, permissions and the record afterwards
Music, performers and speakers may each carry conditions about being filmed or broadcast. It is the organiser's job to confirm these, and it is much better done weeks before than on the day, when a performer's representative asks a question nobody can answer.
Think too about what happens after the stream ends. Do you want a recording, and in what form: the full event, a trimmed highlight, or just an archive copy for your own use? Recording usually costs little to add if it is planned, and a good deal more if requested halfway through.
Decide where the recording will be kept and for how long, and who is allowed to see it. These are small decisions, but leaving them open is how a good event ends in a muddle.
- Confirm filming and broadcast permission in writing
- Choose whether you want a recording and its format
- Say who may access the archive copy
Agree the timetable and the fallback
Work backwards from the start time. Allow for crew arrival, cabling, camera checks, a full run of graphics and a proper test of the stream to the platform, with a margin on top. Events that squeeze this into an hour tend to spend the first part of the show catching up.
Then ask the unglamorous question: what happens if something fails? A spare encoder, a second route out, a held slide and a plain message to viewers are not exciting, but they are what separate a brief hiccup from a lost broadcast.
If a provider can describe their fallback calmly and in specific terms, that is a good sign. If the answer is vague, it is worth pressing before you commit.
- Build in time for a full end-to-end test
- Ask for the fallback plan in specific terms
- Share the final running order with everyone involved
None of these points is difficult on its own, but together they decide whether a live stream feels calm or fraught. Go through them with your venue and your production team, write the answers down, and leave nothing to be discovered on the day. If you would like a second pair of eyes on your plan, send us the details through the contact page and we will talk it through.
