On October 28th, 2021, we visited Bran Castle and went on a private tour through the history of this medieval fortress, searching for Dracula. Having 3.5 meters thick walls, neither Wi-Fi nor cellular work all that well inside. But that didn’t stop us from broadcasting live from there successfully.

We used a typical IRL setup around a smartphone that was used for streaming. Two cellular data connections were used simultaneously with Speedify, to broadcast live video. We used Larix Broadcaster on Android to feed the RTMP stream into our Restream studio. As accessories, we had an external battery that powered all devices, as well as a selfie stick.

Guided by our own private tour guide, we walk these ancient halls, learning about the castle, its history, Romanian mythology, and how the story of Dracula was born.

Here are our 5 takeaways from our visit to Dracula’s Castle:

1. For our IRL livestreaming setup we’re using a Samsung Galaxy S9, combining two cellular connections from two different providers in Speedify; streaming through Larix Broadcaster to Restream studio which sends the stream to a number of different platforms via RTMP link.
2. Bran Castle was built about 650 years ago by the city of Brasov, but over the centuries the castle has served as many things: from a military fortress to Queen Marie’s royal summer residence, today it serves as a museum.
3. The castle consists of five floors total, including the ground floor, has 57 rooms, about 30 of which are currently open to the public. When touring the castle you can see all sorts of exhibits from the preserved bedrooms to torture rooms and armory, to exhibits about Dracula and all the mythological creatures of Romania
4. As one would expect, Dracula’s Castle is quite the busy place! With over 1 million visitors registered in 2019. According to our guide, the best time to visit would be during the day, in Spring or Autumn so you could experience the beautiful views as well as the castle, without a huge crowd.  
5. Having streamed from between 3.5m thick stone walls, one would think we would have a Streamergency, but thanks to Speedify combining our two connections we managed to do a full livestream without any real connection issues even when walking through the tightest hallways.

If you want to have the best livestream experience, make sure to use Speedify and avoid Streamergencies, like we did!