The Streaming Media East conference in New York City was excellent, as usual. Over the course of 3 days, there were many great presentations, conversations and thoughts. Overall (and not surprisingly), live streaming to social media platforms was the hot topic. I'm including some of the key points, takeaways and pieces of advice that I took away from the conference below.
1. Start your live stream 30 minutes early and show bonus content during countdown to live. This was a small side comment, but there are so many possibilities in my mind here. It's like finding untapped real estate for all sorts of content: behind the scenes, interviews, promotions for other events and content, background information on the subject matter, etc..
2. Do unadvertised smaller scale live streams, such as interviews or behind the scenes tours, before your main event/stream. This allows you to test out your stream with no pressure, even if its prerecorded content you're just putting through your stream. This isn't as necessary in studio facilities, of course, but a helpful idea when you're out in the field.
3. HDR, not 4K, is the real step forward for video. For most people, 4k video is only appreciated on large screens, whereas the added depth of colors in HDR video can be appreciated across all screen sizes. In other words, better pixels (HDR) > more pixels (4K).
4. Deliver your streams with the majority of your viewers & their viewing experience in mind. Don’t compromise your bandwidth / stability streaming 4k video when most of your users are watching on lower resolution devices (i.e. mobile devices).
5. Know what platform your audience is on, but make sure you’re able to pivot and take your content elsewhere if/when necessary.
6. NDI (Network Device Interface) is the future of connecting and mixing various video sources…all via your local network! By connecting your NDI / video compatible products to the network, you can pull in and manage your various video sources easier than ever. From a video perspective, this sounds great, though I.T. departments in corporate/educational industries might feel differently about using the network in this way, particularly with pre-existing network protocols and security in mind.
7. Augmented reality will be accepted and adopted sooner than virtual reality. In some ways, reality is already being augmented, e.g. using Soundhound to find out what song is playing near you.