Livestreaming can be a little nerve-wracking at the best of times, due to parameters that are completely out of your control. However, I recently took on a live streaming job, which brought whole new levels of connection anxiety. In the end, however, my worst fears weren’t realised and, with a little ingenuity and some Heath Robinson thinking, all ended well.
- Are you’re thinking of livestreaming in tricky conditions?
- Are you wondering if a livestream is even possible in a particular venue?
- Do you require a livestreaming service for your event in the Black Country or wider West Midlands region?
Read on for some insights into how to get over some major livestreaming hurdles.
Mission Impossible livestreaming gig.
When I got a phone call earlier in the summer, asking me if I could live stream a wedding ceremony from a remote church in Staffordshire, I was more than a little doubtful. The client explained that the church had no internet and that mobile service in the area was as good as non-existent.
After a brief silence I explained that without either internet or a decent 4G connection, livestreaming was as good as impossible. I realise this isn’t strictly true as streaming is possible via a satellite service. However, I was pretty confident that this would be well beyond budget.
At this point, the client sounded pretty desperate. She explained that the videographer she had hired to film the wedding had already ruled out a live stream. The church had also advised that streaming, though often requested, wasn’t possible because of the remote location. However, she was investigating all avenues because of a pressing need for remote viewing by a close relative.
My scepticism was in overdrive, but out of sympathy, I agreed to investigate.
Livestreaming over 4G
My first port of call was the coverage maps of all four UK mobile carriers: Vodaphone, Three, O2, and EE. These revealed that the best I could hope for was limited ‘outdoor’ coverage from Three and EE. This was far from encouraging for conducting a livestream, which, even at 720p requires a stable 2Mb/s pipe.
I decided to do a site visit as I was working fairly close by the following week. While liaising with the church in advance of my visit, I was assured that I was wasting my time. However, with little to lose, I decided it was worth a shot.
My mobile livestreaming kit
For single-camera livestreaming I normally broadcast via a Teradek Vidiu Pro RTMP encoder, which is a nice compact camera-top unit. This gives me the option of using either Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or plugging in a 4G USB modem. I have a Huawei USB modem, which works well in normal circumstances, i.e., with good 4G service. However, I was pretty confident that it wouldn’t be a lot of use for this particular gig. Enter my trusty Teltonika RUT950.
The Teradek Vidiu Pro, a compact camera-top hardware RTMP encoder.
Teltonika is a Lithuanian company providing networking equipment, primarily for commercial situations. Teltonika’s 4G routers are often used in more remote locations for internet access. They’re also popular with pleasure craft owners for connecting to onshore cell towers. I happen to own one of their 4G LTE routers that I use on family camping holidays, as most campsites have pretty flaky Wi-Fi.
The RUT950 isn’t the prettiest thing in the world, but, unlike most domestic equipment, it has good external antenna. This ups the gain of a 4G signal considerably. It also has dual SIM card slots with a clever failover system for redundancy. O.K., it’s not as smart as some of the cellular bonding equipment that’s available, but it’s a fraction of the price. In addition, it doesn’t require the use of a costly bonding server to work.
I can run the RUT950 either from a 12volt DC power supply or via PoE (Power over Ethernet). With a little jiggery-pokery, I can also rig it to run quite happily from a 5v USB power bank. Useful when I’m nowhere near a mains socket.
The Teltonika RUT950 4G LTE router’s external antenna make it ideal for livestreaming in more challenging conditions.
So, I would connect my camcorder to my Vidiu Pro via HDMI, connect that to the RUT950 over Wi-Fi and connect the RUT950 to the web via 4G…….in theory at least.
So, will it all work?
I was confident about everything but the 4G connection. This meant that all I needed for my site visit was the RUT950 and an iPad to test the viability of running a live stream.
On arrival, I decided to check out cell coverage on my iPhone to see just how bad it was. The news wasn’t good, and I was still outside! Undeterred, I continued into the church itself.
In my opinion, Gothic stone structures are about as beautiful as buildings get. However, in my experience, walls approaching a meter thick don’t play nicely with electromagnetic waves. Once inside the church, I had no signal whatsoever on my phone. Still, I’d dragged my 4G router this far, so I may as well give it a go.
I was quite surprised to find that, although weak, I got a signal, even inside the church. After experimenting, I found that by placing the router on a couple of hymn books, on the sill of a stained-glass window on one side of the Nave, that signal was more respectable. The hymnbooks made all the difference as they allowed the 4G antenna to clear the stone window frames.
I connected my iPad and streamed to YouTube for about half an hour. The stream held and I was able to text my client a link so that she could see that I’d achieved what was deemed impossible. What a hero!
On the day.
Suffice it to say that I was able to run a 720p livestream of the wedding successfully some weeks later. I ran the live stream to YouTube for around 75 minutes in total. Although there were a couple of glitches and a little pixilation at times, these were rare. The picture and audio quality were generally good, and the client was more than happy with the result.
Not a perfect picture, but more than acceptable for the intended purpose.
The wedding videographer was duly impressed, having been convinced that livestreaming from inside the church was out of the question. The vicar was also extremely surprised that I was able to live stream where others had failed.
Conclusion.
I guess it just goes to show that, with a little determination and the right bits of kit, anything’s possible. Alternatively, I suppose believers might be of the opinion that divine intervention played a part.
Learn more about my live streaming services.
Stourbridge-based Mooma Media offers event audio-visual support, event filming, live-streaming, video production, and still photography services to businesses, the public sector, and other non-commercial organisations throughout the Black Country and the wider West Midlands region. To discuss your project, or for a competitive quote click the button below.
Livestreaming services in and near:
West Midlands county: Birmingham, Solihull, Sutton Coldfield, West Bromwich, Dudley, Walsall, Wolverhampton.
Staffordshire: Lichfield, Tamworth, Stafford, Cannock,Burton upon Trent.
Shropshire: Telford, Shrewsbury, Bridgnorth, Kidderminster, Ludlow.
Worcestershire: Bromsgrove, Reditch, Droitwich, Worcester,
Warwickshire: Warwick, Stratford upon Avon, Leamington Spa, Coventry, Nuneaton,
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