Interested in live streaming IRL on Facebook Live without using a Raspberry Pi? Check out this article.
Use a Raspberry Pi as a Bonded LTE Wi-Fi Hotspot for Your IRL Streaming Camera on Facebook Live with Speedify
Facebook Live cuts off mid-walk for a dull reason: the single internet connection feeding your camera lost signal for a few seconds. Facebook is fine – the upload from your bag is not.
Sharing internet to the camera from a Raspberry Pi lets you attach two or more internet connections instead of one, and Speedify is the software that uses them together, splitting the upload across Wi-Fi and 4G/5G cellular data so a dropout on one is covered by the others. Inside, the five steps show what to buy and how to assemble the hotspot, so your Facebook Live IRL stream stops cutting out.
Facebook Live Streaming Issues
Many will argue that Facebook Live IRL streaming can be done with just your smartphone. You could use cellular data or your smartphone as a Wi-Fi hotspot for your Go-Pro or video camera. This is true in some cases, but not in all of them.
Cellular coverage is not homogenous or ubiquitous, especially when you’re at the outskirts of a city, or in an area that’s prone to poor mobile signal, like an underground passage or inside a building. That’s why it’s important to get your Internet from at least 2 different cellular carriers. This way, if one’s network fails, you can use the other.
But there’s one more thing: suppose you have 2 Internet sources with you. What will you do when one of them fails? Stop the Facebook Live IRL stream, setup the other connection and then resume it? That’s a big no! You need a channel bonding service that can combine BOTH sources into one solid and stable connection. You need Speedify bonding VPN to create a Facebook Live IRL streaming hotspot by bonding connections from 2 smartphones!
What You Need for Your Raspberry Pi Powered Bonded LTE Wi-Fi Hotspot
To get uninterrupted IRL streaming on Facebook Live, we used the following parts:
- Raspberry Pi 4
- Smartphones that you will tether to the Pi via USB
- Portable USB-C battery pack – to power the Raspberry Pi and, if needed, the smartphones you’ll use for connection bonding
- Smartphone or other WiFi-enabled camera to record – Go-Pro, etc.
- Backpack to carry the devices
5 Steps to Get Stable Internet for Your Facebook Live IRL Stream
We will turn the Raspberry Pi into a bonding Wi-Fi router. Here’s what you have to do:
- Setup the Raspberry Pi by installing Speedify.
- Ready to IRL stream on Facebook Live? Plug the Raspberry Pi into the battery pack.
- Connect as many smartphones or cellular adapters as you can to the Pi and enable tethering. Make sure you leave the Pi’s internal Wi-Fi card not connected so you can use it as a connection sharing interface.
- Start the Wi-Fi hotspot – turn on Speedify and enable sharing.
To share over a Wi-Fi hotspot, select wlan0 as the sharing interface. Set a custom SSID and password for your hotspot and restart Speedify to apply the changes. If you’re using Speedify on the Pi graphically, you should see the connections show up as connection bubbles on the Speedify dashboard. - Connect your Facebook Live video streaming device to the Wi-Fi hotspot.
If you’re using a smartphone as your Facebook Live streaming device, you can also run Speedify on it. This way, you’ll combine the bonded connection from the Raspberry Pi via Wi-Fi with your cellular connection!
Use the Facebook app to customize your live streaming settings. While connected to the hotspot, you should be able to IRL stream in HD on the go, without worrying about weak signal.
Speedify
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