[VIDEO] Essential Equipment for Live Streaming Events Businesses

Live streaming events are here to stay. They will not disappear if and after things get back to the 2019 normal. They are an effective way to get things done from the comfort of each one's home.

And even those events that require in-person attendance - weddings, proms, etc. - can have the live streaming element in them. The main reason for that is that by doing so, more people get to watch and share your happy moments.

We all know how the pandemic impacted the events industry. But we don't hear so much of success stories in this field. Well - we have one for you. We sat down with Martin Burden from AudioHire UK, who told us the story of going from a corporate AV company to a live streaming events business. Here's his story:

As a company, AudioHire started in one form or another in about 1992. They were originally a rock and roll type hire company, where they did microphones for recording studios, recording equipment and instruments. 

In 2014, Martin Burden took it over and turned it into more of a corporate AV company - doing more events. When the pandemic hit, AudioHire had a really busy period coming up; March, April, May 2020 were supposed to be busy. Martin had to think pretty quickly because the company was gonna face liquidation otherwise.

"So I've been working with other people doing video streaming and I saw lots of people kept talking about virtual events. The way out I saw was to invest whatever I had, any personal money and any money I could get out of the company.", says Martin Burden. He bought camera equipment, extra computers, streaming gear and then spent a few months testing and learning the new live streaming skills.

Reliable Internet is what makes or breaks a successful live stream. That said, a lot of the corporate places have got really good internet connections. That's because they've got massive IT teams that have spent years creating their dream networks, so those are quite solid.

But when it comes to remote places , things dramatically change. In the middle of nowhere there's no electricity and there's no Internet. 

Martin had been trying out different 4G routers, which had been okay if you were able to find a good place in the middle of London. That's because you usually don't have a problem with 4G cellular signal there. But, as he mentions, it's trial and error - sometimes one router will work on different accounts.

Next thing he considered were bonding routers. "But I've sort of seen limitations in those. And not only that with the limitations, but paying a thousand quid for this box that you could only put two dongles in…"

Speedify was suggested to him in a group on Facebook.  So he gave it a go. He hooked up all his available connections to his MacBook Pro and...

Martin uses a MacBook Pro with a few connections, depending on the location:

• wired Ethernet
• USB 4G cellular dongle
• Wi-Fi router connected via USB-to-Ethernet
• tethered smartphone

The first impression was very exciting: the Internet was faster than the home broadband.

"The failover I found on the Speedify is great. I tried when I was experimenting with it. I tried all sorts of different things -  I would do a test stream and I'd do things like pulling plugs out just to see if it would fail. Just trying to make it fail. I've never got total failure from it, I've managed to get it to sort of slow down a little bit so that it sort of buffered once, but that was literally like a second. And I've tried my hardest to break it, I’ve really tried to make it not work because you want to be prepared for anything that could fail. And I can't make it not work!", says Martin Burden of AudioHire.

He also added: "You've got something as powerful as any of those gadgets that cost like thousands of pounds. At the moment Audiohire skinned - we're trying to make some money trying to survive and Speedify has just made that possible. It's given that peace of mind to be able to handle things like remote celebrations, remote speeches, anything where there's no Internet."

When you’re having issues with your Internet connection, try using all your available connections simultaneously. At the very least, along with the home or event location Internet, you certainly have a smartphone with a cellular data plan. You’ll get more reliable and faster Internet. That's one of the essential ingredients for a successful live streaming events business. 

Even if you don’t have two connections available, Speedify can still help. Its powerful error correction algorithms minimize packet loss on wireless networks. So even if you only have one connection available, Speedify will still be able to help you with more reliable Internet.