How You Can Improve Your Live Streaming Internet

Reliable Internet connectivity is essential to broadcasting high quality videos over the Internet. Live media producers are constantly looking for solutions to get the job done without issues such as low quality video, stuttering, buffering and even dropouts.

Here's a fact: you simply cannot trust a single Internet connection when live streaming, because something can go wrong at any time due to temporary infrastructure problems, wireless signal coverage, etc. That's why it's best to use two or more Internet connections.

Now you have an answer to the question of "how can I improve my live streaming Internet?" - connection bonding is the norm for live streaming nowadays. It means using multiple connections simultaneously (Wi-Fi, cellular, Ethernet) through dedicated bonding hardware. Using a bonded network connection to live stream provides the reliability you need to avoid any type of broadcast issues.

But what is the best Internet bonding solution to improve your live streaming? Check out our comparison sheet below that includes both hardware  bonding and software bonding solutions such as LiveU, Peplink, Teradek, Mushroom Networks, Streambox, TVU Networks, Dejero and Speedify.

We looked at the most popular solutions for bonded Internet when live streaming. We took into account a few criteria, including equipment, maximum bitrate supported and cost. Here is the data.

	Dejero	LiveU	Mushroom Networks	Peplink	Speedify	Streambox	Teradek	TVU Networks
Typical equipment	Dedicated hardware bonding device	Dedicated hardware bonding device + streaming service subscription	Dedicated hardware bonding device	Dedicated hardware bonding device	Software subscription to run directly on supported devices	Dedicated hardware bonding device + streaming service subscription	Dedicated hardware streaming / bonding device + streaming / bonding service subscription	Dedicated hardware bonding device
Portability	No	Some solutions only - e.g. LiveU Solo	Some solutions only - e.g. Streamer, Streamer Pro	Some solutions only - e.g. SpeedFusion Engine Series	Yes, depending on the device it’s running on: laptop, mobile device	Some solutios only - e.g. AVENIR Mini 5	Some solutions only - e.g. Teradek Bond, Teradek LinkPro	Some solutions only - e.g. TVU One / Nano
Supported connection types	Ethernet (Gateway 211 only), Wi-Fi, cellular	Ethernet, Wi-Fi, cellular	Ethernet, Wi-Fi, cellular	Ethernet, Wi-Fi, cellular	Ethernet, Wi-Fi, cellular	Ethernet, Wi-Fi, cellular	Ethernet, Wi-Fi, cellular	Ethernet, Wi-Fi, cellular
Maximum bonding speed	1 Gbps	20 Mbps for streaming / 60 Mbps for file transfer (LU600 HEVC)	Streamer Pro: 30 Mbps max. throughput Streamer: 1 Gbps (standalone), 30 Mbps (RTMP) max. throughput	200 Mbps with SpeedFusion Cloud	300 Mbps - Speedify public servers 1 Gbps - Speedify with dedicated server	1 Gbps	According to streaming settings - limited by ingest servers	1 Gbps for the 5G TVU One Router (portable)
Technology	Smart Blending Technology	LiveU Reliable Transport (LRT)	Broadband bonding	SpeedFusion and other business-oriented ones	Channel bonding, Speedify protocol	Network bonding	Sharelink, Core	IS+ cellular bonding
Cost	Approx. $4000 for the Gateway 211	Starting at $995 for the LiveU solo + $450 / year for the LRT service	Starting at $10,000	Starting at $499 for the Peplink UBR LTE + SpeedFusion Cloud subscription starting at $20 / 6 months / 500 GB	$90 / year Optional: additional cost for the dedicated server(s)	Starting at $495 for the Streambox Cloud Event Package + the cost of the Avenir Mini 5	Starting at $4,990 for the Teradek LinkPro Backpack + $25 / month for the Sharelink service + additional cost per GB over 50 GB	Upon request - should be at least a few hundred dollars for the TVU Router Nano

All solutions work very well to improve live streaming internet for:

• IRL live streaming
• remote learning
• online and hybrid events - including wedding videography, concerts, etc.
• reporting from the field
• entertainment
• houses of worship

There are three main differentiators when it comes to Speedify vs. any of the other bonded connectivity solutions to improve your live streaming Internet:

• Hardware vs. software-only - Speedify's internet bonding solution prioritizes live streaming while running on any computer or mobile device. Being a software-only service, Speedify is much more versatile and portable. It's not limited to specific bandwidths and you don't need additional space, power sources or equipment to  set it up in order to get great results when live streaming or transferring files.
• Cost - all hardware-based internet bonding solutions (Dejero, LiveU, Mushroom Networks, Peplink, Streambox, Teradek and TVU Networks) have an initial investment of at least $495 plus the subscription to cloud bonding services. With Speedify, you only pay for the monthly or yearly subscription.
• Flexibility - instead of being committed to dedicated bonding hardware with Speedify you can turn any supported device into an internet bonding machine for live streaming. If you want, you can even create your own bonded Internet router and use it in a similar way to a hardware bonding device.

Looking for a real world use case? Read about Doug Piper's decision to live stream beer tasting using Speedify after considering a LiveU setup.

Speedify is the only app that can combine multiple internet sources into one bonded super-connection for more stable and secure live streaming, video calling, and web browsing. Its channel bonding technology uses all available connections at the same time instead of switching between them.

The main benefit of this is getting a stable connection, with failover protection, which is very important when live streaming anything. If one of your connections fails or becomes unusable, Speedify will route all the data through the other working connection(s) until performance is on par with the initial connection. Speedify automates all of this activity. You don’t have to do anything, and you most likely won’t even notice anything different is happening.

As a VPN, Speedify provides advanced encryption, without forcing you to sacrifice speed or reliability. Speedify is compatible with all recent computers and mobile devices. Please check the updated system requirements on the download page.