Tips and Tricks for Streaming Video Live from Your Office

Every company is streaming live video and now your boss has the bug. You need to stream an executive talk live to your customers, but where do you start? What needs to be done and what are the pitfalls to avoid?

Helping companies of all sizes succeed in live video, Eric Hards, manager of digital media and streaming for Lockheed Martin, offered ten live video tips at the recent Enterprise Video Conference in Los Angeles. First up, he said, is to manage expectations.

"The number one thing I can tell you is setting these expectations with your customers or the people that you're doing the live events for, even the on-demand for, because they're coming in with these expectations of YouTube video, of HD quality, of the thousands, tens of thousands, millions of viewers that you hear about for things like rock concerts or Victoria's Secret rollouts, things like that," Hards said. "So, that's their thought process when they come and say 'I want to do a webcast for my organization.' You have to kind of set their expectations and say, 'We're going to have one camera and it's going to be in a conference room, and it's going to be you talking. It's not going to be a lavish production.' Or, it could be a lavish production if they want to bring the funds that go along with that."

When the boss is expecting broadcast quality, managing expectations means the difference between being judged a success or a failure.

"Helping to set that expectation has helped tremendously," Hards noted. Watch the video below for more tips from Lockheed Martin, including the importance of planning ahead, how to mitigate risk, and why performing a dry run is crucial.

Troy Dreier's article first appeared on OnlineVideo.net