Speedify LIVE: How to Run a Live Beer Podcast, With Doug Piper

Doug Piper is an airspace engineer by profession, but has been a beer aficionado for some time, which led him to become a certified beer Cicerone. He enjoys learning about beverages, their perception and how to enjoy them best.

In this 17th episode of Speedify Live, Doug shares about his gourmet brewing experiences, live streaming event best practices as well as his live streaming setup and learnings.

Here are our 5 takeaways from our talk with Doug Piper:

1. Doug says that in today’s world, you need to be creative when you’re doing things virtually. You need to find a way to establish a specific connection with the viewers by “jumping through the screen”, in his case, by sharing the same beer with his audience. 
2. You won’t believe this elaborate studio setup: two 43” monitors, a camera in front of, behind and next to him to show all angles of him and the beers. The stream runs off a main laptop, Companion is used to switch cameras, cue videos and transitions, while a home Ethernet and a Mobile Hotspot are combined in Speedify for a stable connection. Doug also has a GoXLR mixer, a Chromebook and an ATEM switcher, and uses lights to set up a green screen background.   
3. Crowdcast is Doug’s streaming platform of choice, as it only allows access if you submit your email address, which helps Doug build a mailing list and grow his audience, while also having all the features he needs for a successful stream.  
4. Doug’s advice for anyone starting their streaming career: just get out and stream. You will make mistakes, you will have equipment fail, but you will learn as you go, as did Doug. What you need to focus on is continuous improvement.
5. Naturally, Doug has experienced a number of Streamergencies since he started livestreaming. One such case was when he moved some equipment around and unknowingly didn’t hook up the main router to the internet. He went live, without the Ethernet connection, but thankfully his Hotspot was there in Speedify to carry the load and save his stream!