How to Keep a Live Event Stream Running When Venue Internet Fails
Speedify bonds Wi-Fi, Ethernet, 4G/5G cellular, and Starlink into one reliable internet connection for live event production. When venue internet becomes congested or a single connection drops mid-stream, Speedify automatically shifts traffic to the remaining active connections without interrupting the broadcast. Speedify’s Enhance Streaming mode prioritizes stream traffic over all other internet traffic on the production device.
This article covers how Speedify works for live events, which streaming software integrates directly, and how to set up a reliable bonded connection for your next event.
Why Live Event Internet Is Harder Than It Looks
Live event production teams routinely arrive at venues with no reliable information about the internet infrastructure available to them.
Venue-provided Ethernet may be shared with every other vendor and exhibitor at the event. Venue Wi-Fi is almost always shared with every attendee in the building. And once an event begins and the room fills up, internet conditions can change rapidly in ways that are impossible to predict in advance.
The consequences of a dropped stream at a live event are different from a dropped stream in a studio. There is no second take. There is no opportunity to troubleshoot and retry. The audience is watching live, the speaker is on stage, and the production team has seconds to respond to an internet connectivity failure before the stream is lost.
The right approach is not to find a better single internet connection at the venue. It is to combine multiple internet connections so that no single failure can drop the stream. Speedify makes this possible in software on hardware the production team already owns.
Speedify and Ecamm Live: A Proven Combination for Live Events
Ecamm Live is one of the most widely used Mac-based live streaming platforms for professional event production. Speedify and Ecamm Live work together without any special configuration: run Speedify on the Mac running Ecamm Live, and Ecamm Live automatically uses the bonded internet connection Speedify creates. The Ecamm Live community has documented Speedify’s reliability in live event conditions directly.
At an Ecamm Live multi-thousand-person conference, the venue internet connection failed completely for the remainder of the day. The production team switched to streaming from an iPhone, combining available connections in Speedify, and completed the conference without further interruption.
Ecamm Live community manager Doc Rock has described Speedify as having saved a live stream multiple times from excessive packet loss during a single broadcast session.
Speedify works with the full range of live streaming software used in professional event production: Ecamm Live, OBS, Streamlabs, Wirecast, Streamyard, vMix, and Restream. Speedify also works with all major streaming destinations: YouTube Live, Twitch, Facebook Live, LinkedIn Live, and custom RTMP endpoints. No changes to streaming software settings are required.
Read more about how to use Ecamm Live with Speedify for reliable live streaming.
Speedify and Dedicated Bonding Hardware, Compared for Live Event Production
| Feature | Dedicated bonding hardware (LiveU, Dejero, Teradek, TVU Networks, Streambox) | Speedify |
|---|---|---|
| What you buy | A proprietary bonding device, often paired with its own streaming encoder | A software subscription that runs on hardware you already own |
| Typical entry cost | Roughly $1,000 for an entry-level encoder, rising to about $5,000-$10,000 for a broadcast unit, plus an annual service subscription (LiveU’s LRT service is $450 a year) | $89.99 a year per user, billed yearly |
| Internet connections bonded | Ethernet, Wi-Fi and cellular | Ethernet, Wi-Fi, 4G/5G cellular and Starlink, up to 31 connections |
| Maximum bonded throughput | 20 Mbps to 1 Gbps depending on the model | 300 Mbps on shared servers, up to 1 Gbps on a Dedicated Server |
| Failover method | Automatic failover between connections | Packet-level automatic failover |
| Platforms supported | Proprietary hardware only | Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, OpenWrt and embedded Linux |
| Getting started | Specify, buy, ship and configure a unit for every crew | Install the app, sign in, and start bonding |
| If you do want hardware | Required | Optional: the Miri X510 router powered by Speedify |
Internet Connection Setups for Live Event Production
- Venue Ethernet plus 4G/5G cellular. Where the venue provides a wired Ethernet drop to the production area, bond it with one or more 4G/5G cellular connections from different carriers. The venue Ethernet carries the primary upload load. If the venue connection becomes congested or drops, 4G/5G cellular takes over instantly. When both are active and healthy, Speedify uses both for higher combined upload throughput.
- Venue Wi-Fi plus 4G/5G cellular. Where only venue Wi-Fi is available, bond it with 4G/5G cellular via a tethered smartphone or USB cellular adapter. Speedify uses both connections simultaneously and protects the stream if venue Wi-Fi degrades as the event fills up.
- Multiple 4G/5G cellular connections from different carriers. For events at venues with no fixed internet infrastructure, bond two or more 4G/5G cellular connections from different carriers. Use Speedify’s cellular sharing feature to wirelessly pull additional cellular connections from other production team members’ devices without cables or hotspot hardware.
- Starlink plus 4G/5G cellular for outdoor events. For outdoor events where fixed internet infrastructure is unavailable, a Starlink dish bonded with 4G/5G cellular provides both the throughput and redundancy an event production stream requires. The Miri X510 router powered by Speedify can be deployed at the production table to bond all of these connections at the network level, covering multiple production devices from a single bonding point.
How to Set Up Speedify for Live Event Production
- Connect all available internet connections to your production device before the event: venue Ethernet via a USB Ethernet adapter if needed, venue Wi-Fi, and one or more 4G/5G cellular connections via tethered phones or USB cellular adapters.
- Install the Speedify app on your production device. Speedify runs on macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android.
- Sign in to your Speedify account. Speedify automatically detects and begins bonding all active internet connections. Enhance Streaming mode is enabled by default.
- Test your bonded upload speed before the event begins using Speedify’s built-in speed test. Verify that your combined upload throughput meets your streaming bitrate target.
- Open Ecamm Live, OBS, Streamlabs, Wirecast, or your preferred streaming software and go live. Speedify manages connection bonding in the background throughout the event.
- For events with multiple streaming devices or a production team, set up a Speedify Teams account to manage all devices centrally and monitor internet connection performance across the team during the event.
Who Uses Speedify for Live Event Internet
- Event production companies. Production teams managing live streams for conferences, concerts, product launches, and corporate events at venues with unpredictable internet infrastructure. Speedify provides a software-based bonding layer on production hardware the team already owns.
- Conference organizers. Organizations streaming speaker sessions, panel discussions, and workshops to remote audiences need a reliable upload connection that stays online even when the venue network gets congested as attendees arrive.
- Concert and entertainment venues. Music venues, theaters, and entertainment spaces streaming performances to online audiences depend on stable upload throughput throughout the duration of the show. Speedify bonds venue internet with 4G/5G cellular backup to keep streams running through any single connection failure.
- Corporate event teams. In-house AV and production teams at companies streaming town halls, product announcements, and training sessions from office locations or off-site venues where IT does not control the internet infrastructure.
- Non-profit and community organizations. Organizations with limited budgets that need reliable live event streaming without investing in dedicated bonding hardware. Speedify provides software-based bonding on devices the organization already owns.
Speedify Is Used on Millions of Devices Worldwide
Speedify has powered stronger Internet for millions of consumers since 2014
15M
Millions of Speedify downloads worldwide, and growing every day5⭐️
More than 75,000 5-star reviews for Speedify in the iOS and Android app stores82
Points of Speedify presence in datacenters around the globe500TB
Hundreds of terabytes of fast, secure data streamed every week via SpeedifySpeedify Partners
Speedify partners with these amazing organizations to deliver better internet and next-generation networking technology to their customers and employees.
Speedify Plans for Live Event Production
For individual event producers, a Speedify individual plan provides full channel bonding, Enhance Streaming mode, and the global Speed Server network on up to 5 devices.
For production companies and organizations managing multiple streaming operators and devices, Speedify Teams provides centralized management, per-device analytics, MDM support for iOS devices, and a REST API for automated account and device management. Speedify Teams includes a 100% uptime SLA and scales to any number of users.
For events with high-bitrate production streams that require dedicated bandwidth and a static IP address, Speedify Dedicated Servers provide a private server with up to 1 Gbps throughput as a Teams add-on.
The Miri X510 router powered by Speedify is available as a dedicated bonding device for event production teams that want network-wide coverage from a single hardware unit at the production table.
Speedify Business Solutions
Speedify Teams
Speedify for Routers
Speedify Embedded Solutions and Integrations
Embed Speedify software into your app or hardware products and leverage the core channel bonding technology of Speedify in new and interesting ways.