There are many different platforms available to do live streaming. Each one is good at different things. In this blog, we will dive into the strengths of the most common ones, and bring a few real-life scenarios. Important to note: you CAN broadcast everything with each platform.

Facebook Live – Facebook live is great for general live streams, from personal life clips to weddings and bigger events. It enables every person to be a broadcaster, and share what is going on now in his life with his entire network. The quality depends on the internet and equipment, but it has the potential to be great. The way the viewers interact with the people on camera is with the comments section on the live video. The other advantage is that people are often on Facebook.

YouTube Live – YouTube Live is similar to Facebook Live, but with one caveat. Unless you have 1000 subscribers to your channel, YouTube will not allow you to broadcast. Only once you create a name for yourself can you broadcast on YouTube. It is great for broadcasting corporate events. YouTube quality, again, depends on equipment.

Zoom – Zoom, at the end of the day, is meant for meetings and webinars. It is the most interactive platform, as it is literally a video call platform for businesses, but it does not have the highest quality of a Livestream. It also can be a platform to chat with friends and family, and have fun with virtual backgrounds.  The video quality is reduced on Zoom, but pro equipment and stable lines will ensure a good experience.

Skype – Skype is intended for one on one video calls. It is an option for live stream or multi participant video conferencing, but not its main intention.

Whatsapp Video – Just don’t do it. Not for anything important. Great as an easy option to chat with friends and family quickly from your phone, but quality is quite poor.

Vimeo – Similar to YouTube live and Facebook live.  However, this is a paid platform for livestreaming and is used mainly by professionals.  Quality is even better than on YouTube live, video streams are available at any time and to any platform, reliability is great and various advanced options like polls, Q&A are available for corporate events.

Now that we’ve gone through the different platforms, let’s bring up a couple of real-life scenarios.

Scenario 1: Wedding: For a normal wedding, the people not able to attend want to watch in high quality as if they were there. Our recommendation would be Vimeo.  Using Facebook or Youtube Live is also possible, but there is one major drawback – copyright issues.  Many events have a DJ or orchestra that perform copyrighted music which can be cut off or muted in the middle of the streaming.

Scenario 2: “Corona” Wedding – For this one, we would recommend a combination of Vimeo and Zoom, simultaneously in certain parts of the wedding. With Coronavirus here, there are many loved ones who can not attend. For the Chuppa, we would recommend the Vimeo option, as the guests can see in much high quality, but for the interactive part where the bride and groom wish to interact with their virtual guests, we recommend using Zoom.

An example from recent events – parents of the Bride live in South Africa and couldn’t attend the wedding!  In order to maximize their participation and to have them be a part of their daughter’s wedding, they wanted to be under the Chupah for the ceremony.  They also wanted to give their blessings and make a speech. We set up a 65-inch screen right next to the bride, connected it to the loudspeaker system, and using Zoom, the father gave a speech to his beloved daughter!

All the other participants watched the livestream in HD quality (over Vimeo) and felt like they were right there with the couple, and even with their parents!

Scenario 3: Corporate product launch and event – We would recommend using YouTube Live and Facebook for this.  With the right equipment, this can be an extremely effective way to increase customer engagement.  You can reach an infinite number of existing and potential clients around the globe.  All your social media followers can be alerted and join in!

For internal events, we recommend using Vimeo with its advanced capabilities like polls, password protection, and more.

Scenario 4: Informative webinar – For a webinar, we would definitely recommend Zoom. Zoom has a built in webinar feature, which allows you to control everything from registration to participant access permissions.  It also allows panel participation from anywhere on the globe.

If done right, it can be in high enough quality for a large corporation and institutions.

To summarize, there are great uses for all platforms. The main thing to think about when deciding which one to use, is the level of quality vs. interaction that you want for the particular event.

In any case please remember – do it right! Professional videographers and equipment are critical for ensuring high quality.

Multiple line bonding livestreaming equipment, mirrorless and DSLR cameras, pro audio systems, backup equipment, and connectivity with built in redundancy – are all essential for producing a professional livestream.

There is a saying that “What you wear is who you are”.  I think that in these days the saying can be modified to: “How you look online is who you are”!