September 2021 - XSplit Blog

Is Multistreaming Worth It? Why You Should Multistream Your Content!

The definition of multistreaming has become a little bit elastic over the last couple of years. Traditionally, restreaming was a synonym for multistreaming to different platforms simultaneously but it has also come to mean a variation on rebroadcasting. Here, we will discuss the different types of restreaming, how to do it, and why you should multistream your content.

Multistreaming your content

You may or may not have heard of sites like restream.io, a service we have seamlessly integrated into XSplit Broadcaster, which will take in a single stream feed and then multistream it to multiple sites. This is handy if you’re working for a client or brand that wants to get their live stream to as many platforms as possible. Or, if you’re a new streamer looking to multistream your content by trying to figure out what platform works best for your audience or even where you can find an audience.

This also helps with encoding and bandwidth resources as it’s a single feed instead of requiring your encoding PC to do multiple encoding processes and the bitrate required for each encoding. XSplit Broadcaster can actually do multistreaming as well, but each channel you go live to will require an additional encoding process which is great if you have a more recent PC as it saves paying extra for another service.

A person sat in front of their mic with headphones on wondering if you should multistream your content. — Photo by Higor Hanschen on Unsplash

Rebroadcasting other content

The next type of multistreaming of your content has risen in popularity over the last couple of years which is rebroadcasting of content. Basically, special events like E3 or press conferences give broadcasters permission to rebroadcast their content on their channel as long as they add their own commentary on top of the rebroadcast and usually follow some guidelines.

Many esports events will even offer clean feeds without original commentary for broadcasters to commentate over. Usually, there are two ways to add these feeds to your broadcast. The first method is the easiest and most straightforward, you just screen capture the original stream or you add the streaming site as a web source URL. This web source method is usually pretty useful if you have limited screen real estate.

Now for taking in special feeds without the original commentary, usually you will be given an RTMP URL. This will have the RTMP stream source and a stream name or key. You can use the RTMP stream source in XSplit Broadcaster to receive this feed. Usually, this is a private URL, but sometimes you’ll be given an unlisted youtube stream that you can screen capture as well.

Why should you multistream?

So why should you multistream your content? Or why should you allow restreams of your content? If you’re going to rebroadcast, be sure you have approval, copyright strikes are something you don’t want to get on your channel. Now if you have permission, rebroadcasting is just good, easy content.

If your channel is focused on a certain industry, like gaming, or camera hardware, it’s highly likely that people follow your content for your opinions and thoughts on big industry events, and most platform’s algorithms reward posting videos with the latest stories and trending topics.

Now for those producing the content, especially esports events, it’s a great practice to allow people to multistream your content. It’s a great way to open up access to new audiences if people restream your event in different languages since localization can become quite expensive. Just try to get the streamers to share their analytics after the broadcast to help with your post-event report.

A streaming PC setup with speakers, a monitor, and moody lighting setup. Should you multistream your content? — Photo by Omar Prestwich on Unsplash

When it comes to multistreaming, as we mentioned it is a great way to find out where your content is going to get the most traction. It is worth mentioning, however, that a lot of sites like Twitch will have in any affiliate level contract that you are sometimes not allowed to do this. So, be sure to check before you sign up for anything. However, as we mentioned, if you’re just starting out, multistreaming your content is a great idea.

But to summarize, multi-streaming is great for client work and to find your audience as a streamer, and rebroadcasting is a great tool for growing the audience for your content or having a good source for your own content. Have you tried multistreaming? Did you get good results? Be sure to let us know in the comments section below!

Want to Save Time at Work? Pre-record Your Presentations

Meetings, someone once said, are where minutes are kept but hours are lost. We’ve got a suggestion that can streamline your meetings and save time at work: pre-record your presentation.

The latest presentation software can help you keep meetings on track, helping to save time at work for everyone involved. XSplit suite of apps lets you pre-record a pro-quality presentation, which can be sent out to the right people at a time that best suits everyone. You can even replace longer emails and memos with snappily short films. Here’s how pre-recording your presentation makes meetings more efficient.

More effective meetings

Meetings aren’t always the most efficient of events, something Linkedin agrees with. The good news is that you can make them more streamlined by pre-recording your presentation. While pre-recording might seem like a bigger effort, to begin with, it gives you a lot of flexibility and lets you have more control over your content. Pre-recording means your presentation can be exactly as you want it to be: polished, confident, and with zero technical hitches (giving you peace of mind and really helping you save time at work!). With XSplit Presenter, you can easily record your presentations for later use. Also, all of this ease of use applies when you use Presenter to give a live presentation!

Secondly, there are no interruptions. Discussion is always great; however, if that takes the topic off-track, it can be hard for the presenter to steer the meeting back. Introduce a pre-recorded section, and the Q&A time will have to be at the end of the session. You can even be in the live chat with participants while the recording is playing, engaging with them and encouraging discussion.

Thirdly, if you really want to save time at work, email out a link to your presentation with the joining instructions, asking all attendees to watch the film before the meeting. This means that when you do get together, everyone already has the information they need for a useful discussion.

A person sat outside a cafe using a laptop to watch a pre recorded meeting to save time at work. — Photo by Kaleidico on Unsplash

Save time at work with no diarising

One of the most time-consuming things about organizing a meeting is getting it into everyone’s diary. Finding a mutually suitable time can be a huge task, whether you’re arranging a Zoom or room-based meeting. It’s especially hard work if you’re organizing a large meeting across multiple departments or even organizations, where everyone’s scheduled day looks different. This inability to bring everyone together can put real pressure on deadlines and decision-making.

Pre-recording a meeting and emailing out a link saves you all that diarising time and makes life far easier for all involved. The team can watch the meeting in their own time and don’t have to find a specific window. It also enables you to deliver the information in a far more timely manner than if you’d had to organize a live event. This in turn will help save time at work!

Top tip: set a viewing deadline, and keep on top of who has and who hasn’t engaged with the presentation. Make sure that the viewers can reach out after they’ve watched it: finish with an email address for follow-up questions, for example.

Pre-recording a presentation using XSplit Presenter can really help make meetings more effective. Once you get into the habit of pre-recording messages as short films, you could even use this technique for the monthly de-brief or to replace extra-long emails. Find out more about online presentations in our blog.

Online Meetings: How You Can Help Them Run Smoothly

With online meetings being so easy to organize and add people to, there’s a risk of them being called unnecessarily and wasting time. However, not everything can be conveyed in an email, so meetings are often essential. With that being said, they need to be an effective use of everyone’s time. In this blog, we’ll show you how to have better meetings.

Plan in advance

If you’re organizing an online meeting, it’s useful to know in advance what it’s going to be about, and producing and distributing an agenda listing the topics to be discussed is a good way of making sure everyone is on track. This tells your invitees what to expect and allows them to do research beforehand so they can participate more effectively and give better answers to any questions you have. In some cases, they may even be able to solve the problem in advance, meaning that part of the meeting can be removed. More streamlined meetings are better meetings!

If the meeting involves you sharing information with others, make sure you know not only what you want to pass on, but details around the topic as well so you can be sure to answer any questions. If you’re asking other people to teach you about the topic, have a list of questions you want answers to, and again, good background knowledge of the topic is ideal as well.

Someone on an online call to someone on their laptop which is on their desk with a small printer and other items looking to have better online meetings. — Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash

Include media in your online meetings

Since you’re likely to know your agenda in advance, you can put together some slides with a summary of the points that need to be discussed. If you’re presenting, these should include pictures to add some visuals to your discussion and to keep your audience engaged by giving them something to look at while you’re talking.

Using slides will help to keep the meeting on topic and reduce the risk of attendees discussing something that only really affects them, while everyone else waits for them to finish. If this does happen, however, politely encourage them to make a note and discuss it after the call, or to call an additional online meeting with only the people the topic is relevant to.

XSplit Presenter is an excellent way to organize the media for your presentation. It allows you to put slides from places like Google and Microsoft Powerpoint, images, videos, websites, and other content together into a single place, making it easy to use during the presentation. You can also use it to manage your webcam, placing you on the screen as a part of your slide content.

A person sat in a large office area on a zoom call with a whiteboard in the background behind the large desk they are sat at looking to have better online meetings. — Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash

Set the schedule

When you send out your meeting invitations, your calendar software will ask for a meeting duration. This isn’t just a formality – it’s important to choose an accurate time slot so that people can schedule their other meetings appropriately around yours. By extension, you also need to make sure that your meeting sticks to its schedule. If you realize partway through the meeting that you are falling behind, you can try to speed up a little bit, perhaps by discouraging discussion or by summarising some of the less important points in your notes.

Getting derailed is a common cause of an online meeting over-running, perhaps due to idle chat between attendees, unrelated discussion, or even too much relevant discussion. Don’t worry – as you get more experience running meetings, you’ll start to get a better feel for how much time to allow, and how much material you can get through in a given time.

The main takeaway from this is that running better meetings shouldn’t be too difficult. They just require some pre-planning and time management. As long as you have an agenda and stick to it, the meeting should run smoothly and on time.

How To Secure Your Privacy While Streaming to Twitch

Streaming is a fun way to meet new people and put yourself out there in the world, both literally and figuratively. But as you know, the internet isn’t always the safest place to be so it’s important to secure your privacy while streaming to sites like Twitch. As we’ve seen recently, especially with IRL streamers, they are subject to stream snipers and dangerous SWAT raids. So, we’re going to give some tips on maintaining your privacy online while you’re streaming.

So what things do you want to keep secure? Well, the most important thing is your location. Next are vital details, like your full name, birthday, email address, and phone number. People can use these details to hack into your various online accounts. Finally, you may want to keep certain accounts private, like your steam accounts, discord accounts, basically anything where someone could report your account and get it banned for illegitimate reasons.

Secure your Web Browser while Streaming to Twitch

If you’re doing a just chatting stream or watching some youtube videos, anything where you’d be showing a web browser on screen, be very careful. Many times, when you’ve signed in to your browser it will track your location data and show nearby restaurants when you search different terms, this is an easy way for people to find out your location.

Your address may also be auto-saved so it may pop up when you input some numbers your browser thinks is a text field. The best solution is to use private or incognito browsing on a separate browser. So if you’re always using Chrome, jump over to Edge or Firefox and don’t save any passwords there when you’re streaming. Also, be sure to turn off any location tracking or auto-fill to avoid revealing your location. Doing simple things like this can be key to securing your privacy while streaming to sites like Twitch.

A smartphone in a selfie stick pointing downwards it's important to secure your online privacy when IRL streaming to Twitch. — Photo by Steve Gale on Unsplash

IRL Stream Safety

If you think you’ll be IRL streaming, make sure to start your stream far away from where you live or are staying and end your stream before you are close to home. Also if you’re using a streaming backpack, add a stream delay to the cloud PC that’s running your streaming relay.

Make sure to stream in public places if you anticipate that you might encounter stream snipers (people trying to find where you are can then track you down while you’re live). If you will be IRL streaming with others, be sure to let them know not to reveal any information about you or themselves, such as phone numbers, location, etc while you’re live or on social media.

Keeping Yourself Secure While Streaming Audio and Video

Always be aware when your webcam and microphone are on. If you’re ordering a pizza and leave your mic on, there’s your address given out on a stream. Fortunately, there are some handy tools in XSplit Broadcaster to help with this. For your microphone, you can enable a hotkey to toggle your microphone on and off.

For your webcam, use it with XSplit VCam. In XSplit VCam you can pause your camera feed and if you use the background replacement feature, once you’re out of frame, whatever you do in the background will be hidden, helping you secure your privacy while streaming to sites like Twitch.

Hide your screen to secure your privacy on Twitch!

Ideally, you never want to show your desktop on stream, and with XSplit Broadcaster just grabbing your gameplay source or Capture card alone is easy. If you’re using an intermission just chatting kind of scene, make sure it’s only your facecam with some graphics rather than just capturing your desktop so people see it when you quit out of a game

If you don’t like to switch scenes, set up a source you can toggle on and off with a macro that will cover your scene. This is mostly an issue for dual PC setups, but it’s good to take heed of this as well if you have to use desktop capture for a certain program or beta of a game that Broadcaster can’t capture yet but this is a rare instance.

A dual PC streaming setup with a microphone on a desk next to the monitor which can help you secure your privacy while streaming to Twitch. — Photo by Andre Tan on Unsplash

Disable Notifications While Streaming

Turning off as many notifications as possible is pretty important if you don’t want to have the first few lines of an email or text come up on screen while you’re streaming. This can also apply to other people’s privacy, for example, Steam will let you know when someone has come online and what they’re playing. This also applies to consoles where you may not want everyone watching to know the usernames of all of your friends that you’re playing with. This can honestly be a big part of the day-to-day when it comes to securing your privacy for streaming to sites like Twitch.

Most instances of this can be combated by going into the Steam or console settings but there are a lot of games that have a streamer mode now which can remove a lot of these issues. Speaking of streamer mode, Apps like Discord are great for having one of these where they can detect if a streaming app is open and hide personal or sensitive information in the app.

Finally, make sure to check what your streaming account is connected to. If you’ve been using your Twitch account to login into various websites, it’s good to double-check those sites and revoke access from time to time, as sometimes they lapse in security and your data can be exposed.

As always, it’s not fun to read the fine print, but it’s important if you value your privacy and want to maintain an online presence. Secure your online privacy on sites like Twitch and it will be one less thing you need to think about when you next go live! We hope you found this article helpful and if there is anything else you would like us to discuss, the comments section below is the place to let us know!

유튜브 실시간 방송과 활용할 수 있는 기능

인터넷 방송 기술과 문화는 그 어느때보다 더 발전되었습니다. 방송 화면에서는 팔로워 알림등을 실시간으로 표기하거나 실내가 아닌 야외에서도 스마트폰만 있으면 어디서나 인터넷 방송이 가능한 시대에 살고 있습니다. 이러한 현대인들의 요구에 해소를 해주는것 마냥, 다양한 온라인 서비스들이 동영상을 업로드 하거나 실시간으로 송출해주는 플랫폼으로 생겨나고 있습니다. 가장 대표적인 플랫폼은 유튜브이자 세계에서 가장 큰 동영상 플랫폼입니다. 유튜브로 실시간 방송을 선택하시길 원하신다면 유튜브의 경쟁사와의 비교 및 유튜브 자체 기능들에 대해서 알아보도록 하겠습니다.

유튜브에서의 수익 실현

유튜브에서 지속적인 활동을 하면 동영상들로 수익을 벌 수 있는 시스템이 존재합니다. 유튜브 파트너십에 승인을 받아야 하는데 여기서 유튜브 파트너가 되는 조건을 먼저 확인 해보세요. 간단하게 풀어보자면 12개월 안에 1,000명의 구독자와 4,000시간의 동영상 시청 시간이 필요로합니다. 파트너십을 달성하게 되었다면 다양한 기능을 활용하여 수익 실현에 도움을 줄 수 있습니다.

일단 광고를 영상에 삽입할 수 있습니다. 광고의 종류는 동영상 재생 전, 그리고 동영상 재생 중간을 선택하여 삽입할 수 있습니다. 더 나아가서는 채널에 멤버십을 활성화 할 수 있는데, 이 기능은 트위치의 구독 시스템과 비슷한 유료 회원 서비스 같은 개념입니다. 유료 멤버십을 활용하면 멤버 전용 영상을 만들거나 멤버들만이 참여할 수 있는 실시간 방송을 송출할 수도 있습니다. 다만 이를 통하여 불법적인 활동을 하면 제재를 당하게 되니 주의하셔야 합니다.

마지막으로 슈퍼챗, 슈퍼 스티커 기능이 있는데, 슈퍼챗은 자신들의 글귀가 잘 보이도록 눈에 띄는 색상으로 채팅창에 표기되는 것이고 후원한 금액에 따라 다른 효과들이 표기됩니다. 슈퍼 스티커도 비슷한 형식이지만 글귀가 아닌 이모티콘 같은 이미지가 표기 됩니다. 이러한 슈퍼챗, 슈퍼 스티커, 멤버십과 팔로워 알림 등은 모두 게임캐스터 방송 프로그램을 통해 커스터마이징 및 관리가 가능합니다.

한가지 중요한 요점이라하면 시청자들이 애드블락 같은 광고 차단 플러그인을 쓴다면 광고가 표기되지 않아 수익에 영향을 줄 수 있으니 애드블락에 확고한 분들이 따로 멤버십 가입을 하도록 하면 시청자들과의 타협을 볼 수도 있습니다. 슈퍼챗이나 슈퍼 스티커를 후원할 때의 특정 금액에 따라 다른 보상을 적용하는것도 바람직합니다. 일정 금액에는 특별한 인사나 춤을 보이거나 또는 공약을 내세워서 봉사활동이나 야외 방송을 하는 콘텐츠로도 뻗어나갈 수 있습니다. 이러한 기능들을 활용하여 콘텐츠의 범위도 늘리고 시청자와의 소통도 활발하게 진행할 수 있습니다.

A streaming setup, PC multiple monitors, lights on a desk with a keyboard and mouse which could be used to stream to find out the best features of YouTube Live — Photo by Roberto Nickson on Unsplash

방송 장비 준비 및 점검

유튜브에서 방송 기술이 굉장히 유연하고 커스터마이징 면에서 최고인 부분은 바로 현재 가지고 있는 컴퓨터로도 얼마든지 인터넷 방송이 가능하다는 것 입니다. 제한된 콘텐츠의 범위가 없으며 원하는 콘텐츠를 원하는 시간과 장소에서 할 수 있다는 것이 가장 큰 장점입니다. 하나의 채널에서 꾸준히 방송을 하려면 동영상의 제목이자 대문과 같은 눈에 띄는 썸네일 제작을 하는 것으로 시청자들의 눈길을 사로잡을 수 있습니다.

이제 방송을 일정하게 하려고 마음 먹게된다면 시간표를 정하여 방송 활동을 정교하게 진행할 수 있습니다. 캘린더 기능이 있는 서비스를 활용하여 특정 날짜에만 방송을 하거나 방송을 쉬는 날짜를 정하면 시청자들도 미리 알아볼 수 있고 기대감을 높일 수 있습니다. 유튜브 방송을 비밀로 지정하여 특정 회원들에게만 보여지려면 이메일로 방송 주소를 통보할 수도 있습니다.

유튜브 라이브 스트리밍 기술

일단 가장 처음 확인해볼 기능은 레이턴시 (딜레이) 설정입니다. 최대 고품질의 영상을 원한다면 ‘보통’ 으로 설정하시면 됩니다. 만약 화질을 조금 감안하더라도 시청자들과 신속한 소통을 원한다면 ‘낮은’ 혹은 아주 낮음’으로 설정하면 됩니다.

다음은 자동 시작 및 종료 설정입니다. 각자의 유튜브 실시간 방송은 서로 다른 방송 주소 URL을 지니게 됩니다. 이제 방송 프로그램으로 송출을 시작하여도 유튜브 설정에서도 송출 시작을 선택해줘야 합니다. 자동 시작 및 종료 설정을 하면 해당 부분을 자동으로 실행시켜줍니다. 자동 종료는 조심하여야 할 것이, 원하지 않을때 갑작스럽게 방송이 종료될 수 있으니 주의해야 합니다.

다음은 DVR 설정입니다. DVR 설정을 하면 실시간 방송의 지난 4시간 가량은 자동 녹화되어 유튜브 채널에 기록으로 남게 됩니다. 다만 방송 지연을 ‘가장 낮게’로 설정했다면 이 설정을 활성화 할 수 없습니다. 360도 동영상 촬영을 방송으로도 설정 가능하며 이 설정 역시 엑스플릿 브로드캐스터에서 활성화 할 수 있습니다. 만약 실시간으로 경쟁하는 이스포츠 대회같은 방송을 할 땐, 상대방의 부정 행위를 방지하기 위해 일부러 방송 지연 (딜레이)를 설정하는 것도 하나의 방법입니다. 참고로 ‘가장 낮게’ 설정된 방송 딜레이에서는 1080p 해상도룰 지원하지 않습니다.

유튜브 방송에서만 가능한 실시간 자막 기능도 추가할 수 있습니다. 이것은 일부 사용자들에게만 주어진 특권이지만, 미리 대본이 있는 방송일 경우, 대본을 영상에 표기되도록 추가하거나 대본이 있는 다른 웹페이지로 링크를 입력하면 됩니다.

A minimal streaming setup using a gaming laptop on a desk connected to a monitor looking for the best YouTube live features. — Photo by Ahmed Sekmani on Unsplash

XSplit Broadcaster & 유튜브

유튜브 설정에서 방송에 필요한 기능들을 모두 확인하셨다면 XSplit Broadcaster (엑스플릿 브로드캐스터)를 설치하여 방송을 직접 제어하고 송출의 시작과 종료를 할 수 있습니다. 유튜브 스튜디오 대시보드에서 라이브 관련 메뉴를 확인하면 RTMP 연결 관련 자료들을 복사 후 붙여넣기 하여 채널을 연결하거나 유튜브 아이디와 비밀번호를 사용해서 로그인 하는 방식으로 연결해도 됩니다.

그 후 브로드캐스터에서 자동 설정 설치 마법사를 통해 해상도, 프레임율을 본인의 컴퓨터 사양과 인터넷 속도에 따라 알맞게 맞춰줍니다. 방송을 시작하는 버튼을 누르면 새로운 창이 생성되어 유튜브에서 새로운 이벤트 (전 과는 다른 URL로 방송) 또는 저번에 했던 URL을 유지하여 방송할지 선택해줘야 합니다. 이제 엑스플릿 브로드캐스터에서 다양한 소스와 위젯을 활용해 채팅창이나 구독자, 팔로워 알림을 실시간으로 확인할 수 있습니다.

유튜브 라이브의 시청자 관리

유튜브 라이브 자체 플랫폼에서 시청자들을 관리하고 내 콘텐츠를 보호하는 기능에 대해서 살펴보겠습니다. 유튜브 라이브의 미리보기 화면 및 제어판에서는 채팅을 활성화 하거나 아예 비활성화 할 수도 있으며 이를 통해 시청자들이 콘텐츠에만 집중할 것인지 아니면 서로 소통하거나 심지어 관리자와도 소통할 수 있을지 결정할 수 있습니다.

슬로우 모드를 하면 일정 기간 안에 한 번의 채팅만 가능하도록 할 수 있으며 다른 사용자들을 관리자로 설정하여 여러명이서 채팅창을 관리할 수도 있습니다.

유튜브에서의 방송은 트위치보다는 약간 더 손이 가고 까다로울 수 있습니다. 하지만 동영상 노출의 알고리즘이 워낙 여러가지 조건이 들어가므로 다양한 시청자층에게 소개될 가능성이 더 높습니다. 트위치처럼 다른 시청자들에게 구독권을 선물할 수 있는 여유로움은 없지만 방송 후 녹화된 영상들을 모두 같이 관리할 수 있다는 장점이 있어서 추후에도 영상을 관리하고 검토할 수 있습니다. 물론 직접 다양한 SNS 플랫폼으로 공유하는 것 역시 더 쉽게 관리할 수 있습니다.

게다가 유튜브에서는 방송을 비밀로 진행할 수도 있어서 특정 모임, 회의, 발표회 같은 행사에서는 모두 공개된 것이 아닌 특정 인사들에게만 초대장을 URL 형식으로 보내어 진행할 수도 있습니다. 즉, 유튜브 라이브를 사용할 수 있는 범위가 일상과 취미 그 이상인 개인 프로젝트 및 상업적 목적으로도 충분이 활용할 수 있습니다.

유튜브에서도 라이브 방송을 시작해보시려면 여러번 시행착오를 거쳐서 경험을 쌓는것이 중요합니다. 친구와 가족들에게도 확인해볼 수 있고 여러가지 장비와 도구를 활용하여 유튜브 라이브를 실험 삼아 연습해보면 나중엔 대중을 위한 행사를 본인 유튜브 채널에서도 선사할 수 있을것입니다.

Remote Meetings: How To Be Effective and Get The Most Out Of Them!

The last couple of years have seen a huge rise in remote meetings and so a lot of us have been trying to learn how to best contribute to them. Fortunately, modern technology has lots of ways to help and can in some ways even beat a traditional meeting – it just needs approaching from a slightly different angle.

Microphone etiquette in remote meetings

Microphones come in many shapes, sizes, costs, and qualities, so it’s important to find the right one for you. First things first – the most important thing is to make sure you can be clearly heard and that you’re not transmitting unwanted noise. Make sure that you’re not picking up any interference from other electronics by making a test recording and playing it back, listening for the hum of static. Sometimes this can be fixed by moving cables around, but sometimes it might just be a bad microphone! Typically, microphones built into webcams are low-quality, but this isn’t always the case (the Logitech C922 has a very solid microphone, for example) and most office laptops are designed with online meetings in mind and so have perfectly acceptable built-in microphones.

If your workspace is noisy, try closing doors or using a headset microphone – if the microphone is closer to your face, it will be less sensitive to background noise. If you still can’t eliminate noise, consider muting your microphone when you’re not talking. This will spare your colleagues from any unexpected interruptions, however, there’s not much you can do about background noise when you’re actually talking. Just don’t forget to unmute.

A person laying on a bed taking part in a remote meeting. — Photo by Surface on Unsplash

Make your presentations pop

Give your audience something to look at during your presentation – don’t just leave them looking at your webcam feed, especially as you’ll be concentrating on what you’re saying. XSplit Presenter allows you to easily put together slides, videos, or window sharing, and camera feeds on top of your slides, as well as letting you organize all of these in advance, so you won’t be left scrambling to find that video clip you wanted to share.

By sharing specific windows, you can ensure that you don’t accidentally show sensitive data in a different application or on your desktop, helping with security as well. You can make annotations on your slides in real-time, which means you can highlight the specific areas you’re talking about, or add notes as you go. It’s even possible to bring in video or audio feeds from other presenters, right to your broadcast, putting you both on-screen at once.

A person sat at a desk using a laptop to take part in a remote meeting. — Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash

Make everyone feel included in remote meetings

With online meetings, it’s important to be aware of the limitations of the technology. There’s a slight delay between you speaking and everyone else hearing it, which means that our instincts around interrupting feel slightly off, so try to be sensitive to when other people start talking. Additionally, you can’t have a side conversation or comment with another person as you could in real life – all conversations have to involve everyone because there’s only one audio channel. This can be especially awkward before or after the main part of the meeting, where people would naturally split off and chat amongst themselves.

It’s also worth trying to make sure your microphone volume is set to a reasonable level; if you’re significantly louder or quieter than everyone else it can feel awkward. You can ask a colleague if your volume level sounds right to them or with XSplit Presenter you can do a quick test recording before you go live to check everything is set up correctly! (It’s also not a terrible idea to practice your presentation beforehand, pre-recording it in XSplit Presenter and watching it back to see where you could improve before the big day!)

Remote meetings don’t have to be a worry – there are many ways to ensure you can still give effective presentations and everyone feels like they are contributing. We’ve touched on using XSplit Presenter and other meeting tips several times before, but there are always new things to try. Let us know what you’re using in the comments below!

The Best Features of YouTube Live Streaming: Should You Stream There?

As live streaming has gotten more sophisticated, from sub alerts to IRL backpacks to surreal visual experiences, so have the platforms that host the content. YouTube, despite being the biggest video platform in the world, has still been playing catchup with its live streaming features. It does however still offer some key advantages and features over its rivals. So we’re going to talk about the important features YouTube Live Streaming has, and how and when you should use them.

Monetization features on YouTube Live

First things first let’s get to the part everyone cares about, making money! In order to monetize your content on YouTube, you need to be a part of the YouTube partner program. You can find out what is required to join the YouTube partner program right here, but basically, you’ll need at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the last 12 months. Once you’ve gotten your partnership, then you have access to all sorts of monetization tools for your stream.

First is the standard pre-roll and mid-roll ads, all you need to do to make use of these is enable monetization for your stream. Next is memberships which are similar to Twitch subscriptions where members unlock special badges and emotes. You can also add perks like member-only videos and live streams. Just make sure you don’t offer things like raffles or other services that would violate their policies or you will get your membership access removed.

Finally, there are super chats and super stickers. Super chats allow people to have their messages pinned to the top of the chat, the length they stay there will be determined by the amount they’ve contributed. Super stickers work in a similar fashion but are an animated image instead. Super chats, stickers, and memberships all work with web-based alert services like those built into Gamecaster so you can display customized alerts whenever your viewers activate these.

To summarize, make sure your viewers don’t have ad-block on and give incentives for them to join as members and send in super chats or stickers. Maybe make goals like X super chat amount will unlock a special cosplay or a big enough super sticker and you’ll do a backflip, whatever you think will entertain your audience! We don’t advise doing a backflip unless you’re a trained backflip pro – Ed

Customizing your Streaming Setup

One of the best aspects of YouTube is the amount of customization you can do with your streaming setup. You can set up a static stream key and just go live with whatever content you wish to. This is great if you’ll be streaming consistently on your channel. One recommendation is to add a thumbnail that stands out, so people will click on your live stream from the YouTube home page.

Now you can also schedule your live streams. This is handy if you’re an event organizer as people can see the scheduled stream on their YouYube feeds and enable reminders. You also can set your YouTube streams to private and give people access via email. They will, however, need to have YouTube accounts for the emails you send them to but these are pretty easy to set up. Next, let’s take a look at some of the features YouTube has for its live streams.

YouTube Live Streaming Tech Features

First is the stream latency setting. This will affect the latency from when you encode the stream to when the viewer sees it. It also affects some of the settings we’ll cover in a bit. For the highest video quality and stream stability, set it to normal, but if your stream requires more viewer interaction, set it to low or ultra-low.

Next is the auto start and stop feature. Now each YouTube live stream is its own distinct event or URL. Generally, when you start streaming with your live streaming software, you also have to start the stream on YouTube. Auto starts and stops mean this is done automatically, but you may not want to enable this because if you don’t end your YouTube live steam, you can still keep streaming to it! Yes, if for some reason your encoding has stopped, you can still stream to that same stream key, and as long as the event hasn’t ended, the stream will continue where it left off.

Next is DVR, and it’s pretty much in the name, you can scrub between the last four hours of a stream. You can’t enable DVR for ultra-low latency streaming. You can enable 360 videos, just make sure this is enabled for your source as well in XSplit Broadcaster. You can also add additional delay to your stream which can be useful if you’re taking part in a tournament.

You can also add captions to your stream, this can either be the embedded captions in your stream, or you can send them to a specific URL. Some YouTube accounts will have access to automatic captions as well, but this will require normal latency streaming. Finally, ultra-low latency does not allow for streams above 1080p.

XSplit Broadcaster & YouTube

After you’ve configured your live stream, broadcasting is easy with XSplit Broadcaster. You could simply copy the stream key and RTMP URL to a custom RTMP output, however, XSplit has a more streamlined integration. Add a YouTube live output and then log in to your YouTube account, make sure to select the right channel if you have access to multiple YouTube pages.

Broadcaster will automatically configure your streaming settings depending on your resolution and frame rate. Once you go live a window will pop up, here you have the choice to go live to a new event or select the event you have already set up. Then just hit start! XSplit Broadcaster also has sources for alerts built-in for new members, super chats, subscribers, and a live chat display so it’s all there in one package!

Moderation features of YouTube Live

One thing that is important to know is the moderation tools you have available to you on YouTube Live. First, in the live control room, click edit and go to the customization tab. Here you can enable/disable chat and if you want the chat replay to appear on the archive. This basically means that you can decide if you want people to see a replay, as if it were live, of the chat window when people watch you VOD or not.

You can also limit messages to channel subscribers, you can enable a slow mode and set the interval in which people can send messages. Much like other streaming sites, you can add moderators for your chat, hide/ban users, blacklist words, and block links from appearing.

Streaming to YouTube can be a bit more involved than something like Twitch, but the algorithm is more advanced which means getting people to see your content can be easier, even if the monetization options don’t have something as enticing as free subscriptions with Twitch Prime. It could more valuable for your brand to centralize your VOD and live streaming audiences into one channel, just as long as you don’t forget to spread your content to other social media platforms.

YouTube’s event-focused tools for scheduling and private access make it a very useful platform for event broadcasters for things like corporate events, webinars, product launches, and sporting events. This means that you could hold your all-hands meeting and host a private link, that is scheduled, that only people within your company can see!

Have you tried streaming on YouTube? What do you think of the experience? Let me know in the comments and let me know if this guide is helpful and you’d like similar guides for other platforms, the comment section below is the best place to do that!

The Best Games To Stream on Twitch Right Now

Figuring out what to stream can be one of the hardest parts of planning your content as a creator. It’s not always easy to determine what the best games to stream are. Once you start thinking about what you like, what’s coming out soon, what’s popular right now, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by choice. So let’s take a look at some of the top games on Twitch right now and consider if they’re right for you and your audience!

The golden rule of content creation

Perhaps it’s not officially the golden rule of live-streaming, but we must stress that the best game for you to stream is one you love to play. It doesn’t matter if you’re streaming one of the top games on Twitch if you don’t actually enjoy it. Audiences respond to authenticity and will notice if it’s not there. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try new games or formats as you develop your channel, but you’re going to be spending a lot of time on your games as a live-streamer so make sure they’re ones you like. And of course, if you’re not into video games, check out our fantastic guide to streaming things that aren’t games!

A persons sitting in a gaming chair playing on the PC looking to find the best games to stream. — Photo by Florian Olivo on Unsplash

The heavyweights in the best games to stream category

It’s hard to ignore what Grand Theft Auto V has achieved on Twitch. This is a relatively old game that has grabbed interest from streamers over the last year thanks to the explosive popularity of its role-playing (RP) servers. Though the game is still very popular, it is important to note that its viewership is now on a downward trend (at the time of writing) according to places like sullygnome. That said, GTA V remains one of the biggest games on the platform in terms of viewership by a wide margin, so it’s not too late to try and get into the world yourself, especially if you have a passion for online role-playing. We also saw a similar trend at the beginning of the year with Among Us, a game that completely blew up, and has now fallen off the charts.

If you are looking to jump in and stream some of the most popular games, here’s a list of just a few to try.

The Top Games to stream on Twitch Currently (by Viewership):

Updated 10/29/2021

League of Legends
Grand Theft Auto 5
New World
DOTA 2
Minecraft
CS:GO

A Nintendo Switch on a desk playing Animal Crossing with plushies around which could be one of the best games to stream. — Photo by Branden Skeli on Unsplash

Don’t overlook the draw of alphas and betas

You love new games, right? Then it will not come as a surprise to you that other gamers really like new games as well. A quick ticket to getting views on Twitch is streaming a game that’s in alpha or beta, as it’s one of the first places for people to see the game in action. There is also the added bonus that the game’s community is in its infancy at this point, so it can be easier to connect with others who are interested and make a name for yourself while the pool of creators is still relatively small. So if you grab an alpha or beta key, get online and don’t keep it to yourself.

One title that’s in exactly this phase is New World, a brand new Massively Multiplayer Online game (MMO) published by Amazon Game Studios. Currently, in beta, it racked up nearly 5.2 million hours viewed in its first few days on Twitch. Another one to watch out for is Back 4 Blood with the chance to earn a beta key actually available by watching other streamers play the game.

Once you’ve picked your game, remember that you’re not locked into it for life. Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins started as a Halo player but became famous for Fortnite. Balancing meeting your audience’s needs while still playing games you love is ultimately the key to success.

Five Times a using a Smarphone Camera as a Webcam Saves the Day!

Getting a new webcam, or hooking up a mirrorless camera to your streaming setup is always exciting! But you know, you might already have the best camera upgrade you’ll need in your pocket already! Let’s discuss five times using your smartphone as your webcam can be more useful than a normal camera.

If you’re wondering how you can use your smartphone as your webcam, this is all powered by XSplit Connect: Webcam. It’s a free app on iOS or Android in the App Store, just install, open, and use XSplit VCam to connect to your cellphone’s camera. Just make sure you’re either connected to the same wifi network or via a USB cable.

Use Your Smartphone as a Webcam when you’re out of the office.

Let’s be honest, most laptops come with a pretty bad webcam. Even a Macbook Pro is still using a 720p camera, (ever wonder why so many celebrities calling in to talk shows look like they’re using an ancient camera? Now you know.). You can add a bit more of a pro look by using the far superior camera built into your phone.

Oh and, if you’re supposed to be in the office? We’re using XSplit VCam anyway so let’s just change that background, nobody will be any the wiser! Unless you forget to mute and they call out your coffee order!

Someone taking a picture of their child at the beach using a smartphone as a webcam — Photo by Derek Thomson on Unsplash

When you need to make sure you’re in-frame.

Most mirrorless cameras, the choice for a lot of big camera upgrades from a webcam, don’t have a built-in, flip-around monitor, and those that do tend to have very small, low-resolution ones. Also, if you’re checking that screen all the time, you’re going to be looking off-camera and not at the audience of people you’re talking to.

This is why using the selfie camera on your smartphone is perfect as not only do you get a bigger, higher resolution image you are always looking right back at your camera!

When you need to go underwater without wires.

Most flagship smartphones are IPX Water rated meaning that, if you wanted to you could use your phone underwater for certain shots. Or, you could just take a call poolside knowing that you don’t have to worry about wires or the camera getting destroyed the second a splash of water hits it. Do check what your IPX water rating is, though, not all ratings mean they can go underwater! – Ed

Going wireless is also honestly a big win for when you’re using a smartphone camera, using XSplit Connect: Webcam now means as long as you’re in Wi-Fi range your camera can connect to your computer!

An iPhone 12 Pro with multiple cameras would make a great smartphone as a webcam. — Photo by TheRegisti on Unsplash

You get multiple lenses in one.

Many modern cellphones have 3, 4, even 5 different cameras you can switch between. For normal videos you have your main camera, if you have a guest you can use your ultra-wide and for product videos, you can use the telephoto lens. You can switch between these lenses on the fly in the app, something that’s either impossible or not easy to do with a webcam!

Multiple Cameras with a smartphone webcam!

Are you going to be leading this month’s all-hands meeting? Are you a content creator who needs a second camera for your streams or videos? Use your smartphone! You can add your facecam and your smartphone via XSplit VCam into programs like XSplit Broadcaster with ease saving you buying a whole new camera to get that second shot. Really, just use your smartphone as a webcam!

Basically, with a smartphone, you’re always ready to work, whether it’s to create content or do a presentation. But we want to hear from you, how do you use your smartphone for productivity? Let us know in the comments and if there is anything else you’d like us to discuss, that’s the place to do it!

How to Give a Great Presentation: Follow These Best Practices!

Working from home has changed how meetings work and presentations are given. Instead of just having a quick discussion around a table, you may be expected to run a demonstration or slideshow online for your colleagues. This article will run through how to give a presentation and how to make it as slick as possible by following best practices for presentations.

Include media in your presentation to keep interest up

One of the biggest advantages of online presentations is that it’s very easy to add slideshows, videos, and pictures, and be sure that everyone can see them. Make sure that the text on your slides is nice and big – you can’t be sure what resolution your colleagues’ computers are using and this should help discourage you from putting too much text on the slides. Remember, the slide should give you bullet points to work from, rather than being a teleprompter! You should also avoid reading from an off-screen script too – show that you know your topic inside out by talking off the cuff, whilst using your notes to ensure you don’t forget any points.

XSplit Presenter allows you to add slides, videos, and even a feed from your webcam to your presentations and lets you annotate in real-time when you need to highlight parts of your slides for a question. If you’re demonstrating a piece of software, you can also share part of your screen, without risking showing your desktop.

Someone with lots of notes, an iPhone, pens and pencils everywhere as the prepare how to give a presentation. — Photo by Firmbee.com on Unsplash

Make sure you’re organized

Few things are worse when giving a presentation than being part-way through an important pitch and realizing there’s a piece of information that you need to access or show that you don’t have ready and available. Trying to stall while you search for that important document can throw off a well-timed presentation, ruining your concentration and flow as a presenter. This is why XSplit Presenter allows you to add all your media as slides, whether that’s pictures, videos, screen shares – it’s all in one place so you can run through without needing to find the next file.

Of course, the software isn’t everything – while it definitely helps, it’s no substitute for running through the presentation first out loud and by yourself. This is something you can record in XSplit Presenter and watch back so you can see where any problems show up and make edits beforehand! This means you can make sure everything is in the right place, you’re not overshooting your time budget and you know what you’re going to say.

An audience watching a presentation being given in a gallery setting, you'll want to know how to give a presentation in any setting! — Photo by Antenna on Unsplash

How to give a presentation? Keep it fun and engaging!

This advice does depend somewhat on the topic you’re discussing, however, in the modern workplace, a casual and friendly tone is more appropriate than lecturing your audience. It’s absolutely fine to use a light-hearted tone and have some cartoonish art on your slides as long as it doesn’t take away from the information they show.

Making your audience laugh will get their attention and improve their feeling towards you and your presentation, both making them pay more attention to what you’re saying and to be more likely to come to any future presentations you give. Remember to smile – this will subconsciously lighten your tone and make your audience feel more welcome. Try to involve the audience as well instead of just talking to them by including questions or opportunities for feedback, such as raised hands or polls. It’s also important you engage with and respond to the feedback!

Giving a presentation online shouldn’t be frightening – remember your audience is there because they want to hear what you have to say. That said, being well prepared will make for a more comfortable experience for everyone. We’ve given advice on this before, but there’s always more to learn!