How To Go LIVE Without The Pitfalls — My Tell-All Guide

Written by Ramsey Pietro Nasser, in London.

Updated on the 14th of February 2021.

Image by Wirestock

Going LIVE is easier than ever before, but the skills remain the same.

The options to going LIVE are several, and most people with a smartphone can now do it. Long gone are the days of going LIVE restricted to elitist institutions with all their ideological underpinnings.

I’m here to explain what the issues are when going LIVE and also the differences between LIVE streams.

The Home Or Office Setup.

The easiest and most available way to go LIVE is with your smartphone and with a 4G and or a WiFi connection. You can LIVE stream anywhere with a device in hand or on a gorilla pod either with one or both of these two signal types and onto either one of pier-to-pier video conferencing platforms like Cisco Webex, Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams, Zoom; or audience-oriented social media platforms like YouTube Live, Facebook Live, or Twitch. You can, of course, also stream to your own website with FTP.

The second most available way to LIVE stream is with your computer. Most laptop computers come with in-built webcams and microphones as part of their DNA, and social media platforms allow LIVE streams with a couple of clicks of the mouse.

Nevertheless, both smartphones and computer LIVE streams have the same issues with sound and image quality and both have third-party solutions to improving both.

For desktop and laptop computers, as well as some tablets, there are microphones that consumers can purchase that work straight out of the box — these are USB microphones with pre-amps built in their bodies. I own a Blue Yeti Pro, and it’s been giving me extremely good audio for many years. There are other brands available that have received comparable reviews, for example, the sexy Shure MV7.

Whilst these handy USB mics solve a big problem, you still have to know how to use them. The essential accessory one must get is an arm to screw the microphone on, to which the arm-and-microphone compound can then be clamped and tightened onto a tabletop.

Whilst it looks adventurous, a microphone on an arm isn’t for aesthetic reasons, but instead is there to protect LIVE streams and recordings from noises made by you typing, for example: since any contact, including a light touch of the microphone-surface-compound will conduct very noisily into your pier-to-pier conversation or production.

Some arms suspend microphones with taut elastic rubber bands, but since these plug-and-play USB microphones have in-built amps, they’re heavier, and therefore: more engineering design is needed in the arms, making them more expensive. I don’t have elastic suspension around my Blue Yeti Pro and my recordings are fine — so long as I’m a little careful.

There’s a nice fix that a luthier and great friend, Joseph O’Kelly of Hygra fame, taught me. If you don’t have the de rigueur microphone arm, you can disrupt the conduction of noise waves by placing the microphone on a mini stand and then on top of layers made of different materials. For example, a layer of cork and a layer of rubber start to make a noise-disruptive composite sandwich. Soft, fluffy, materials in the centre and elastic materials at both ends to insulate work best.

There’s also the issue of understanding how to position yourself in relation to the mic. After thinking about it for a long while, I saw an interview with legendary Director David Lynch and he was very clear about microphone positioning. As a general rule, your mouth should be close by and at a 90° angle to the capsule. This should give you the best sound without undesired plosives. You can also clamp on a pop shield but the alternate types available: both nylon and metal, give a false sense of security and aren’t 100% effective. Each microphone has a sweet spot. The more you monitor your voice LIVE with closed headphones, the more you’ll learn, and the better skilled you’ll be at microphone placement.

Finally, cheap and noisy three-pin desktop computer fans are an issue. There are three ways to remove the noise. The cost-free and easiest way is to turn down the gain nob on the microphone if there is one, or the digital slider on a livestream web platform or a software intermediary like OBS Studio if there isn’t, whilst being silent and looking at the audio level. If you’re using the nob, make sure the digital slider is at maximum volume but take off your headphones and manually turn down the speakers to naught. If the green bar is dancing whilst you’re silent, turn down the gain nob gently until you screen out all ambient room hiss and fan noise. If you speak into the microphone and you see the green bar dancing again, you’re almost good to go. Make sure, though, the green bar stays green by adjusting the slider and whilst you’re there, stick on a ‘Limiter’ Filter and a ‘Compressor’ Filter to avoid clipping your waveforms with your voice. You can do this in OBS Studio by clicking on the gear icon, selecting Filters, and pressing Add (labeled +).

Another way is to Add (labeled +) a ‘Noise Suppression’ Filter to tune out the continuous hum with OBS Studio or equivalent software. This also does the job, and the advantage here is you can enjoy the full range of your pre-amplified microphone with a good healthy gain level; this solution, however, can also remove the liveliness of a good-sounding room which otherwise adds to a desirable natural sound. This is why, in any production, it is best to remove problems at source, so as to not have the problem caked in in your LIVE streams or in your recorded media assets in the first place. To remedy the issue of cheap two-pin fan noise, getting three-pin PWM fans is worth the silence. Last year, I spent half an hour installing Be Quiet! Silent Wings 3 fans and my recordings have benefited greatly. It doesn’t cost very much to upgrade.

You can continue to improve your audio with extra gear, but I don’t think it’s appropriate for pier-to-pier and conferencing calls. I discuss extra hardware below, under the subheading The Limitations Of Home And Office Setup.

In terms of improving video quality with a computer cheaply, you can buy a good webcam or you can extend and connect a USB cable plug from your DSLR and mirrorless USB receptacle. The difference between a webcam versus a DSLR and mirrorless is frankly quite massive. So, I’d recommend you use a DSLR or mirrorless whenever possible, certainly if you have the DSLR or mirrorless camera hardware and you’d like to create an impression on the other end. In fact, so long as your camera has a video function and a USB port, there’s a good chance it’ll work with this setup.◇ Just to make sure the results are good, though: if replaceable, always use a lens with a low f stop, no greater than f2.8; with prime lenses always better in quality than zooms. A 50mm is a classic but ~5ft of throw space is needed in front of the camera. The 24mm is good, too, but this adds distortions to the image if you get within only a few feet. Unlike webcams, you have to set-up the shot by making sure you’re in focus and you have the correct exposure and white balance. It’s worth the effort, though, and once you’ve worked out how to do it, it’s easy to do. Click here to read my article, How To Get Better Video In Ten Minutes.

Hooking up a DLSR as if it were a webcam used to be a lot trickier before, with enthusiast-published improvised workarounds; but, thankfully, the big camera companies have been listening and have recently released utility drivers to facilitate this trend. I have a Canon 7D, and, ever since I downloaded Canon’s Webcam Utility, I could go LIVE with quasi-cinematic aesthetics. Canon Inc has listed all its cameras compatible with this software here. Likewise, Sony Inc has released software to the same effect for its cameras with a list found here; Panasonic here, and Fujitsu here.

All these utility drivers allow third-party LIVE streaming intermediaries, pier-to-pier software and applications, and websites to recognise the video signal from your camera. Each camera has its own utility driver expressly written for this purpose by its proprietor to enable the webcamisation of mirrorless cameras and DSLRs, and the drivers work from your desktop or laptop — so all you have to do is download from your web browser and install. In other words, there’s no fiddling with SD cards.

One of the programs that these drivers talk to is OBS Studio. This is invaluable freeware that’s used as an intermediary suite to LIVE stream to platform websites and to mix in LIVE feeds with recorded audio and visual sources.

For instance, whilst OBS Studio runs, you can use the USB mic and mix it out LIVE with a USB DSLR or mirrorless video feed; thanks to the proprietary utility drivers. That’s what I do with my setup at home. This way, there’s great sound and image quality going out LIVE — something that would have been difficult and expensive to get without Canon’s Webcam Utility et al working in tandem with OBS Studio.

The Limitations Of Home And Office Setup.

The home and office setup has its limitations. With non-DSLR and mirrorless run-and-gun cameras, I believe one has to still purchase hardware to go LIVE from a computer, specifically, a capture card; but the advantage here is you don’t have to worry about replacing batteries every hour because these cameras have a DC power option. Before you make a decision, though, check with the published list of compatible cameras for updates. As I understand it, capture cards the utility drivers, but hardware is involved.

So, the solutions provided by Canon’s Webcam Utility project, unfortunately, doesn’t yet include the ability to go LIVE with my Canon C300 television camera or the like, so LIVE stream imagery in this setup is restricted to the problems associated with DSLRs and mirrorless; and LIVE streams are restricted to WiFi signals only.

If you’re hosting a show and you wish to monitor your voice together with another audio source, you can’t do that in this setup LIVE because of the delay in mixing and streaming; instead, the only option in this setup is to listen to the show on the other end as it goes out. This, unfortunately, creates an echo which is very distracting and has no benefit. In fact, the out end of the stream should be kept on silent, unless you’re on the other side of the studio glass. To solve this problem with hardware, a near-zero latency XLR-USB with Simultaneous I/O interface with Direct Monitoring and loopback would need to be added to your setup. This way you can do a mix-minus of your show just for your closed headphones.

There are numerous experts online who test audio equipment, but a particular gründlichkeit is Julian Krause who has a YouTube channel. After testing thoroughly, he determined the 3rd generation Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 to be one of the best choices for low-noise level threshold and pricing. A 4i4 and not a 2i2 is necessary here due to the latter’s lack of loopback circuitry.

If you do get a near-zero latency USB-XLR audio interface, you don’t need to get a USB mic, since high-quality pre-amps will be in the interface itself. This way, if you like, you can go the full-hog pop star route with the Shure SM7B, a popular choice with podcasters. Make sure to switch off the 48V phantom power in this case as dynamic microphones are activated by the intimation of your voice, and select mic level on the interface. If you have a USB-powered condenser mic, like my Blue Yeti Pro, make sure it also has an XLR out, and do the same with switching off phantom power — this was why I opted for the Blue Yeti Pro and not the standard USB-only version, to have the option of a mix-minus. I do like Shure’s new release, the USB-powered MV7. If I had the option to buy now, I’d probably select the MV7 as it circumvents the need for an audio interface, creating a mix-minus without DSP processing — thanks to the bundled-in ShurePlus MOTIV app.

If you have a good powerful computer, you can avoid using an audio interface altogether and use a USB mic with a digital audio workstation software in tandem with OBS Studio. Together with the webcam driver utility, LIVE streaming, and recording, this all might be a little too much for a struggling computer, that’s why I wouldn’t recommend it.

Needless to say, you can continue to invest in your audio workflow with mixer and processor stacks to enhance your voice and to keep your audience listening. I’ve not gone down this route yet.

Arguably, the best option for non-DSLRs and non-mirrorless, i.e. dedicated video cameras, that’s well worth examining but will cost extra, is bussing everything through a video switcher and on to a USB with webcam handshake with your PC or Mac. The Atem Mini is the least expensive option and has great reviews. It would also solve the XLR-USB mic problem since non-DSLRs have these ports and a cable could be extended, although an audio interface would still be needed if you have multiple LIVE audio sources. This solution includes multi-camera setups if desired, as well as LIVE screen sharing, all with genlock low latency. The Atem Mini and similar could easily be routed through to OBS Studio. I’m grateful to an audio software engineer, Mr Jeffrey Lomicka, who made the suggestion in a private group. His comment is published here with his kind permission:

Comment published with kind permission: “A Blackmagic Design ATEM MINI would work well for this. It is a video switch and capture card that has four HDMI inputs and an audio mixer, and the output goes to a USB port and appears as a webcam and sound device to your computer. It also has an HDMI out for monitoring. You would use one HDMI input to feed it a screen mirror off an HDMI monitor output from your computer. A second (or even third) would be used as inputs from live cameras. It can pull audio off the HDMI (good for computer audio output) and mix it with audio from the cameras (over HDMI) and/or analog audio from two stereo mic/line jacks (1/8” TRS) You can even do picture-in-picture, so you could have the main screen be your computer screen, and stick live video in a corner. For just simple switching, it is four big buttons, easy enough to use while in a live broadcast without a helper. It’s a very good value for what it does, but might be overkill. It also depends on what streaming service you use. For something like YouTube or Facebook, you need something like the ATEM so everything goes down one video stream. However, a lot of people do what you describe with Zoom’s built-in ability to screen share and show the webcam simultaneously. That’s a little different from a video stream, because it’s really two streams, one from the webcam and one from the screen capture. However, no video switcher would be needed in that case. I’ve also heard good things about OBS, which is worth investigation, but haven’t used it myself. You’d still need an HDMI capture card.”

As a side note: there are SDI video switchers, but for Home & Office setups, this seems convenient, given the lower price points — and especially with the new generation of fiber optic HDMI cables, which can run for 100 meters or over 300 feet. My gear is SDI — but I do this professionally and on location.

Understanding OBS Studio.

As a composer and mixer of your LIVE webcam or DSLR, your LIVE USB microphone with in-built pre-amp, and your pre-recorded assets on one end, and the web-publishing platforms on the other, OBS Studio can LIVE stream and record your single creative feed to a global audience.

This is why it’s worth learning how to use. Let me explain the basics. Once you have OBS Studio launched and running, you’ll see a big Preview of your livestream and docked-in browsers underneath. The docked-in browser to the left is for Scenes creation. This is what your stream will look like to your viewers. You can build and compose a Scene by adding audio and visual sources in the docked-in browser next door. For example, if you want to speak to camera Picture-in-Picture style with a small box of you on top of a recorded video, go to the docked-in browser called Sources, press the Add button (labeled +) and select Video Capture Device. A Properties dialog box will appear: — from there, you can select a webcam or the discussed propriety utility driver that allows a USB video channel from your DSLR. Once you press OK, a ‘Video Capture Device’ should be listed in your docked-in Sources browser, and a LIVE video should appear in your Preview canvas. You can resize this LIVE Source in WYSIWYG fashion by clicking and dragging and resizing by mouse. To create precise dimensions and positioning, though, you can right-click on ‘Video Capture Device’ in the docked-in Sources browser; you can then select Transform in the pop-up menu, and then select Edit Transform (shortcut Ctrl E). If, for example, you’d like to further stylise the resized LIVE video source, you can Add (labeled +) a white JPEG or PNG file in the docked-in Sources browser as ‘Image’, and then resize it so that it’s slightly larger than your LIVE video. You can then use Edit Transform (shortcut Ctrl E) on the imported ‘Image’ Source to resize it precisely so that it looks like a neat white border decorating your LIVE Source. If you right-click on ‘Image’ Source, then click ‘Order’ in the pop-up menu, from there: you can control if ‘Image’ goes on top or below other Sources. In this instance, you would want to select ‘Move Down’. You can then reposition as you please. To make these two sources act as one, a small LIVE video with a neat white border both on top of another video covering the entire canvas, you can select both ‘Live Capture Device’ and ‘Image’ in the docked-in Sources browser by clicking on them sequentially and holding down the Ctrl key; and then, once selected, right-clicking on either of the two and then selecting ‘Group Selected Items’ from the pop-up menu. This is a popular look in television.

You can edit and change a Scene as it goes out LIVE, but to avoid this fiddle, you can switch between prepared Scenes in the docked-in browser to the left. You can do this by clicking on Scenes or using the ↓↑ keys. Similarly, you can re-’Order’ of your Sources by using the Ctrl ↓↑, but this sort of thing is done before you go LIVE.

The point of Scenes is that each one can be composed, saved, and Imported for later use and reference. There’s a good trick you can do that excludes the OBS Studio suite from ever showing up in your ‘Scenes’, and therefore, streams. By not selecting ‘Display Capture’ in your docked-in Sources Browser and instead by being specific with your Sources, you can control the show with the suite on and nobody would know you’re using it. For example, you can stream a particular application only or a specified browser, all the while controlling a suite visible to you but invisible to your viewers. It’s a good idea, though, to keep OBS Studio running on a second screen to keep things tidy and to avoid on-air hesitations. Ideally, someone else should be controlling OBS Studio from a second Ethernet connected PC or laptop, allowing you to focus your attention on the show and on your viewers.

Finally, you’re not LIVE unless you press ‘Start Streaming’ in the docked-in Control panel to the right and have correctly copied and pasted the streaming key in the Settings menu. Unique streaming keys are given by publishing platforms and should be copied and pasted into OBS Studio Settings menu. To do this, select File, select Settings, select Service (for example, YouTube Live, Facebook Live, etc.), and then paste the Livestream Key the platform gives you. For example, in Facebook, you can get this by clicking on Live Video and then clicking on Stream Key. Once you press Start Streaming in your control panel in OBS Studio, you can then go to your publishing platform and press ‘Go Live’ to be in business. It’s common practice to create two Scenes in OBS Studio, and to start streaming with a T minus countdown motion graphic to the beginning of the show. This way, your viewers will have time to assemble and not miss the beginning of your show. Simply press ↓ to switch between countdown and your show.

I should include here an important point to think about. Some platforms take down LIVE streams without warning if they automatically detect copyrighted music. It’s a good idea to use another online intermediary like restream.io to simultaneously stream to different platforms, in case any get attacked.

The Event And Venue And Podcast Show Setup.

The setup I described above is highly useful, but it has its limitations. If you have an important event or show you wish to LIVE stream to hundreds or thousands or indeed millions of people, you wouldn’t want to rely on a WiFi connection, especially if there’s competition for bandwidth.

This is why I have a dedicated box I take with me for LIVE streaming — it can stream simultaneously via multiple 4G, Wi-Fi and ethernet channels. The idea is that if one stream is interrupted, the other can take over. Together with a subscription-based cloud bonding service, LIVE streams become more reliable and more difficult to take down. If the stream is aimed at millions of people, two boxes could even be used in case one becomes faulty.

In the next article, I will discuss how to go LIVE with a multiple-camera setup, and I’ll go more in-depth with OBS Studio, green screen and motion graphics.

Takeaways

• The release of utility driver software by the big camera companies now allow most DSLRs and other stills camera types with video function to be connected as webcams. This is a pole vault in quality in pier-to-pier communication.
• If you need to be on camera LIVE for hours without interruption, then a dedicated video camera with AC power needed. No utility drivers have been written for those yet, so a capture card or a video switcher with a capture card is the answer here — thanks to its low latency.
• Using a microphone arm is essential for good sound.
• The newly released Shure MV7 is cutting-edge tech made specifically for all the setups described above, thanks to its in-built pre-amps with USB, XLR and an innovative mix-minus headphone amp.
• More hardware is available for more complicated LIVE streams.
• OBS Studio is invaluable freeware if you want to host a live show.

Do you enjoy reading my articles? Great! Sign Up to my Newsletter and be sure to be the first to read them.