I'm glad I came across your in-depth article on these streaming tools!
Thankfully it has been quite reassuring to me (a livestreaming beginner) that I have familiarised myself with the majority of these streaming tools but I'm still rather stuck on choosing one that best suits my needs!
I am looking to run a virtual event that will include a number of talks and guests throughout the course of the day at set times, but my experience so far with tools like OBS and ecamm has shown me that my 2015 macbook pro isn't up to the task when it comes to being to livestream.
I've decided that web-based tools such as lightstream, stage10, streamyard may be the way to go, but I have run into seperate issues and limitations when using these.
Ideally, I wish for the event to be comprised of live and pre-recorded talks that I can easily switch between guests, use overlays + transitions and simulcast on Facebook and YouTube.
Socialive seems to a potential option but I haven't taken up their trial yet...
Is there anything you would be able to recommend?
Thanks!
Ian Anderson GrayAuthor
Hi Oomar, Thanks for your comment. And I'm glad you enjoyed my in-depth article. That's great that you have familiarised yourself with most of the tools in this list. It is no surprise that you're getting a little bit stuck with choosing the best tool for you because there are so many. And unfortunately, there is no such thing as the perfect tool. OBS studio is a great tool, But unfortunately in my experience, it's not fully optimised for Mac computers. Whenever I run at the OBS on my Mac, My computer's fan starts whirring into action and it almost feels like my computer is about to lift off into space! The same is not the case when running at the studio on a PC. However when you say you are using a 2015 MacBook Pro, you should have no problem in using Ecamm Live. In fact I know some people that use you can live without any problems on their MacBook air. I highly recommend getting involved in the Ecamm Live Facebook communities. You'll find a lot of helpful people there who have similar setups to what you have. And Ecamm Live will give you all that you want in terms of being able to play pre-recorded videos, switching between guests, adding overlays and that kind of thing. Multicasting isn't available yet but they are working on that.
However, for simple live streams, I highly recommend StreamYard. It allows multicasting and pre-recorded video of up to 5 minutes. I've not played around with Stage10 much. But I do hear it is a very good tool. SocialLive is also excellent, but since it's an Enterprise tool, it does have a hefty price tag from what I gather. I hope that helps. All the best. Ian
OOomar
Hi Ian,
Thanks for your prompt reply!
I was really excited about StreamYard but the fact that I can not add in pre-recorded videos longer than 5mins is unfortunately a limitation for my event.
EVERYTHING you said about OBS rang true :lol: I tried both that and SLOBS and while it looks good, it doesn't work for me and the ability to add in guests to livestreams is a huge pain so it's not a huge loss.
I've taken another quick look at ECAMM and my only gripe would be that I could not invite guests via an Invite link, as it only accepts Skype guests which is a small barrier, but one I'm sure can be overcome in between now and the event. I've played around with the scenes and managed mute my cam and mic through each particular scene so there isn't any interruptions to these from my side and they were all pretty easy to do!
So I think we have a winner! The event isn't till the end of May so I that's plenty of time to get this up and running by then and the monthly cost is no where as high as Socialive, which is a huge bonus!
Thanks again Ian, will let you know how it goes!
Ian Anderson GrayAuthor
My pleasure, Oomar. OBS Studio is an excellent app, and I love what you can do with it. However, for Macs, it's not that optimised and can really overcome your Mac's processor.
StreamYard is a great app - I love the simplicity and the way you can bring in guests easily, multicast and manage comments. But it's not as flexible or powerful as a desktop app. That is why Ecamm Live is amazing. You mention the event is at the end of May. I'm not sure when they are going to be releasing this, but I do know they are working on a new feature to replace the Skype integration that will allow you to bring in your guests via the web.
OOomar
That's great to hear! I hope that will be made available soon as that would be so much easier to invite people and transition to!
StreamYard, again, was a really good option as it was very simple to add in guests and I liked how there was a 'green room' with a private chat that could come in handy!
But having a new integration for guests would just what I'm after!
I think restream are also looking to introduce a guests feature to their service but as a lone livestreaming solution it is pretty limited in what it can do.
Ian Anderson GrayAuthor
Yes, Restream is adding a guests feature to their new studio soon. Can't wait to play with it soon! Ian
Ian, thanks for all the research and insight. I, like many professionals in this time of Covid-19, have been using Zoom intensively and it definitely serves its purpose for switching in-person networking groups and one-on-one meetings to the web. But, yesterday I was the guest speaker on a daily video show which used Streamyard. I was very impressed with the ease of use, split screen options, multicasting to various platforms, the titling and how comments are handled. Your review supports my impression. I am thinking about launching a weekly video show on strategy and implementation (my thing) and I believe that Streamyard will meet my needs very well.
Ian Anderson GrayAuthor
Hi Lee! Thanks so much for your comment. It's a difficult time for so many people at the moment, but the wonders of my video and videoconferencing do make things a little bit easier. I'm glad my article helped. I use Zoom a lot for virtual meetings. However, for live streaming, my go-to choices at the moment are Ecamm Live and StreamYard. StreamYard is particularly good if you want a quick and easy solution that allows up to 6 people to be on the live stream at the same time. Also, the ability to share your screen, Multicast and the handling of social comments are pretty impressive. I'm glad you have found extremely hard and wish you all the best for the future. Let me know how you get on. Ian
JJimmy
Great comprehensive article! I work for a nonprofit. We want a platform that will do a number of things. First, we plan to start offering webinars. We also have a virtual concert planned. We want to stream to Facebook Live, while also have the ability for one of our staff to introduce the band and provide some closing remarks from a different location. It seems like Zoom might be the best option for us, but not sure. What do you think? I also thought you had to purchase both Pro ($14.99) and Webinar ($40/mo.) Thanks for any advice you might have to offer.
Ian Anderson GrayAuthor
Hi Jimmy. Thanks to your comments. You can go for all in one solution that does both webinars And live streaming. Zoom is one choice. Crowdcast asked is another. However, there are pros and cons of this solution. Zoom and crowd cast make webinars and very easy and are very good for virtual meetings. However, the live streaming elements to these platforms is reasonably basic and you can't do more advanced things like changing scenes and add branding. However, this may not be an issue for you. As well as considering going for an all in one solution you could consider purchasing a stand-alone webinar platform and then looking at a separate live streaming solution as well. However, if you're not bothered about the lack of branding features and simplicity of zoom then you really can't go wrong with it as the webinar features of Zoom are really robust. Ian
JJason
You can multistream to two destinations using OBS. You use the recording function and set it to record to URL as your second output.
Ian Anderson GrayAuthor
Thanks, Jason. That is really interesting! I assume you put the full URL and stream key in the URL. It's a bit of s hack, but if it works, that is great!
LGLA Goodings
Hi Ian. This was a great mega-article thank you! I'm still struggling with making a decision on if I should choose a different program or if my issues are something else. I'm currently running Zoom for my live stream fitness classes and I find the lag between video and audio is so poor at least 50% of the time, it's causing me to lose some participants. I like the features of Zoom because i can live stream, interact with audio and video with my participants and also stream the audio directly from my laptop to their bluetooth speakers so sound quality is great. Those are the main reason's for choosing Zoom over Twitch which doesn't appear to have those features but some of my friend are teaching with Twitch and are not experiencing the terrible lag that I am. I'm using iVCam to connect the camera on my iphone to my PC because my MC camera quality is less than stellar so I'm not sure if that is the problem or if it's the Zoom App. I'm on the Pro version. I would really appreciate your opinion on what you think would be the best solution given my needs: *Superior quality live stream video *Live streaming audio directly from my device synced with video *Interactive audio/video with participants *Live chat window *Ability to mute participants *Schedule in advance with recurrences *Ability to present to up to 100+ people if possible
Those are the main/most important features for me at this time. I'm fairly new to this so I don't need to to be too fancy otherwise.
I've been doing research and can't seem to find the best solution to either fix my issue with the Zoom App or try another one.
Ian Anderson GrayAuthor
Hi. Thanks for your comment. For your situation, it totally makes sense for you to use Zoom. Although Zoom doesn't give you any branding options and is a little clunky when it comes to its live streaming feature, it does allow you to have up to 100 participants in your meeting. Your issue is highlight likely due to using the iVCam app. That will cause some kind of delay between audio and video. It will be much better to use an external webcam such as the Logitech C920 or C930, or even better the Logitech Brio. There are more fancy things you can do with using a DSLR or mirrorless camera as your PC, but that's more expensive and requires extra software or hardware.
There are other solutions, but very few will allow you to have lots of people in your meetings. StreamYard allows you to have up to 6 people on the stream (including you). Ecamm Live has very good audio quality, but it's Mac only and currently only integrates with Skype. A similar option to Zoom is Crowdcast. But the livestreaming features are only available in the much more expensive plans and it's not doing to give you much more than Zoom.
So, basically, I don't think the issue is Zoom. It's using your phone as a
LGLA Goodings
Thank you very much for your helpful insight, Ian. That helps a lot.
After attaching my iPhone to my laptop via hardwire and switching to hardwired internet, I think the issue has been mostly fixed. Once webcams are back in stock online, I’ll order one, right now they’re scarce! Thanks again!
Ian Anderson GrayAuthor
That's great to hear! Thanks for the update. It's a shame that most webcams are out of stock. But glad you managed to sort out your issue by hardworking. All the best!
Ian Anderson Gray
Hi Ian,
I'm glad I came across your in-depth article on these streaming tools!
Thankfully it has been quite reassuring to me (a livestreaming beginner) that I have familiarised myself with the majority of these streaming tools but I'm still rather stuck on choosing one that best suits my needs!
I am looking to run a virtual event that will include a number of talks and guests throughout the course of the day at set times, but my experience so far with tools like OBS and ecamm has shown me that my 2015 macbook pro isn't up to the task when it comes to being to livestream.
I've decided that web-based tools such as lightstream, stage10, streamyard may be the way to go, but I have run into seperate issues and limitations when using these.
Ideally, I wish for the event to be comprised of live and pre-recorded talks that I can easily switch between guests, use overlays + transitions and simulcast on Facebook and YouTube.
Socialive seems to a potential option but I haven't taken up their trial yet...
Is there anything you would be able to recommend?
Thanks!
Hi Oomar, Thanks for your comment. And I'm glad you enjoyed my in-depth article.
That's great that you have familiarised yourself with most of the tools in this list. It is no surprise that you're getting a little bit stuck with choosing the best tool for you because there are so many. And unfortunately, there is no such thing as the perfect tool. OBS studio is a great tool, But unfortunately in my experience, it's not fully optimised for Mac computers. Whenever I run at the OBS on my Mac, My computer's fan starts whirring into action and it almost feels like my computer is about to lift off into space! The same is not the case when running at the studio on a PC. However when you say you are using a 2015 MacBook Pro, you should have no problem in using Ecamm Live. In fact I know some people that use you can live without any problems on their MacBook air. I highly recommend getting involved in the Ecamm Live Facebook communities. You'll find a lot of helpful people there who have similar setups to what you have. And Ecamm Live will give you all that you want in terms of being able to play pre-recorded videos, switching between guests, adding overlays and that kind of thing. Multicasting isn't available yet but they are working on that.
However, for simple live streams, I highly recommend StreamYard. It allows multicasting and pre-recorded video of up to 5 minutes. I've not played around with Stage10 much. But I do hear it is a very good tool. SocialLive is also excellent, but since it's an Enterprise tool, it does have a hefty price tag from what I gather. I hope that helps. All the best. Ian
Hi Ian,
Thanks for your prompt reply!
I was really excited about StreamYard but the fact that I can not add in pre-recorded videos longer than 5mins is unfortunately a limitation for my event.
EVERYTHING you said about OBS rang true :lol: I tried both that and SLOBS and while it looks good, it doesn't work for me and the ability to add in guests to livestreams is a huge pain so it's not a huge loss.
I've taken another quick look at ECAMM and my only gripe would be that I could not invite guests via an Invite link, as it only accepts Skype guests which is a small barrier, but one I'm sure can be overcome in between now and the event. I've played around with the scenes and managed mute my cam and mic through each particular scene so there isn't any interruptions to these from my side and they were all pretty easy to do!
So I think we have a winner! The event isn't till the end of May so I that's plenty of time to get this up and running by then and the monthly cost is no where as high as Socialive, which is a huge bonus!
Thanks again Ian, will let you know how it goes!
My pleasure, Oomar. OBS Studio is an excellent app, and I love what you can do with it. However, for Macs, it's not that optimised and can really overcome your Mac's processor.
StreamYard is a great app - I love the simplicity and the way you can bring in guests easily, multicast and manage comments. But it's not as flexible or powerful as a desktop app. That is why Ecamm Live is amazing.
You mention the event is at the end of May. I'm not sure when they are going to be releasing this, but I do know they are working on a new feature to replace the Skype integration that will allow you to bring in your guests via the web.
That's great to hear! I hope that will be made available soon as that would be so much easier to invite people and transition to!
StreamYard, again, was a really good option as it was very simple to add in guests and I liked how there was a 'green room' with a private chat that could come in handy!
But having a new integration for guests would just what I'm after!
I think restream are also looking to introduce a guests feature to their service but as a lone livestreaming solution it is pretty limited in what it can do.
Yes, Restream is adding a guests feature to their new studio soon. Can't wait to play with it soon! Ian
Ian, thanks for all the research and insight. I, like many professionals in this time of Covid-19, have been using Zoom intensively and it definitely serves its purpose for switching in-person networking groups and one-on-one meetings to the web. But, yesterday I was the guest speaker on a daily video show which used Streamyard. I was very impressed with the ease of use, split screen options, multicasting to various platforms, the titling and how comments are handled. Your review supports my impression. I am thinking about launching a weekly video show on strategy and implementation (my thing) and I believe that Streamyard will meet my needs very well.
Hi Lee! Thanks so much for your comment. It's a difficult time for so many people at the moment, but the wonders of my video and videoconferencing do make things a little bit easier. I'm glad my article helped. I use Zoom a lot for virtual meetings. However, for live streaming, my go-to choices at the moment are Ecamm Live and StreamYard. StreamYard is particularly good if you want a quick and easy solution that allows up to 6 people to be on the live stream at the same time. Also, the ability to share your screen, Multicast and the handling of social comments are pretty impressive. I'm glad you have found extremely hard and wish you all the best for the future. Let me know how you get on. Ian
Great comprehensive article! I work for a nonprofit. We want a platform that will do a number of things. First, we plan to start offering webinars. We also have a virtual concert planned. We want to stream to Facebook Live, while also have the ability for one of our staff to introduce the band and provide some closing remarks from a different location. It seems like Zoom might be the best option for us, but not sure. What do you think? I also thought you had to purchase both Pro ($14.99) and Webinar ($40/mo.) Thanks for any advice you might have to offer.
Hi Jimmy. Thanks to your comments. You can go for all in one solution that does both webinars And live streaming. Zoom is one choice. Crowdcast asked is another. However, there are pros and cons of this solution. Zoom and crowd cast make webinars and very easy and are very good for virtual meetings. However, the live streaming elements to these platforms is reasonably basic and you can't do more advanced things like changing scenes and add branding. However, this may not be an issue for you. As well as considering going for an all in one solution you could consider purchasing a stand-alone webinar platform and then looking at a separate live streaming solution as well. However, if you're not bothered about the lack of branding features and simplicity of zoom then you really can't go wrong with it as the webinar features of Zoom are really robust. Ian
You can multistream to two destinations using OBS. You use the recording function and set it to record to URL as your second output.
Thanks, Jason. That is really interesting! I assume you put the full URL and stream key in the URL. It's a bit of s hack, but if it works, that is great!
Hi Ian. This was a great mega-article thank you! I'm still struggling with making a decision on if I should choose a different program or if my issues are something else. I'm currently running Zoom for my live stream fitness classes and I find the lag between video and audio is so poor at least 50% of the time, it's causing me to lose some participants. I like the features of Zoom because i can live stream, interact with audio and video with my participants and also stream the audio directly from my laptop to their bluetooth speakers so sound quality is great. Those are the main reason's for choosing Zoom over Twitch which doesn't appear to have those features but some of my friend are teaching with Twitch and are not experiencing the terrible lag that I am. I'm using iVCam to connect the camera on my iphone to my PC because my MC camera quality is less than stellar so I'm not sure if that is the problem or if it's the Zoom App. I'm on the Pro version.
I would really appreciate your opinion on what you think would be the best solution given my needs:
*Superior quality live stream video
*Live streaming audio directly from my device synced with video
*Interactive audio/video with participants
*Live chat window
*Ability to mute participants
*Schedule in advance with recurrences
*Ability to present to up to 100+ people if possible
Those are the main/most important features for me at this time. I'm fairly new to this so I don't need to to be too fancy otherwise.
I've been doing research and can't seem to find the best solution to either fix my issue with the Zoom App or try another one.
Hi. Thanks for your comment. For your situation, it totally makes sense for you to use Zoom. Although Zoom doesn't give you any branding options and is a little clunky when it comes to its live streaming feature, it does allow you to have up to 100 participants in your meeting. Your issue is highlight likely due to using the iVCam app. That will cause some kind of delay between audio and video. It will be much better to use an external webcam such as the Logitech C920 or C930, or even better the Logitech Brio.
There are more fancy things you can do with using a DSLR or mirrorless camera as your PC, but that's more expensive and requires extra software or hardware.
There are other solutions, but very few will allow you to have lots of people in your meetings. StreamYard allows you to have up to 6 people on the stream (including you). Ecamm Live has very good audio quality, but it's Mac only and currently only integrates with Skype. A similar option to Zoom is Crowdcast. But the livestreaming features are only available in the much more expensive plans and it's not doing to give you much more than Zoom.
So, basically, I don't think the issue is Zoom. It's using your phone as a
Thank you very much for your helpful insight, Ian. That helps a lot.
After attaching my iPhone to my laptop via hardwire and switching to hardwired internet, I think the issue has been mostly fixed. Once webcams are back in stock online, I’ll order one, right now they’re scarce! Thanks again!
That's great to hear! Thanks for the update. It's a shame that most webcams are out of stock. But glad you managed to sort out your issue by hardworking. All the best!
This was an amazingly thorough and informative article. Thank you so much for posting!
My pleasure, Mark! Glad you liked the article. I really did try and make it as thorough and informative as possible. Thanks for your comment. Ian
thank so much for share this amazing blog with us. great work.