April 2022 - XSplit Blog

Reasons Why Streamers Are Using TikTok

As a streamer, you’re probably using multiple social media platforms to get your schedule and clips out to the world at large. And there are so many platforms out there that deciding which ones to use can feel overwhelming. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram… Even as you opened this article, you might have been thinking to yourself, “I’m already posting all over social media. Why should I use TikTok, too?” We encourage you to read on as the answer to why streamers are using TikTok may surprise you.

User engagement is higher on TikTok

The key to getting the word out about your great content to more people on social media is engagement. Likes, favs, retweets – they all mean more people will see your post. TikTok is seeing explosive growth right now: at least a 75% increase in total users in 2020 alone in most of the UK, Europe, and the United States. Those figures alone mean you should be paying attention to this platform.

But more importantly, TikTok’s average engagement numbers are much higher than Twitter or Instagram, especially for smaller accounts. The average account with 5,000 or fewer followers gets an engagement rate of 8.6% on TikTok, 5.3% on Instagram, and a minuscule 1.2% on Twitter. More engagement means more users seeing your posts, which in turn means more people watching your streams.

Photo by Solen Feyissa on Unsplash

It’s got some secret sauce for your YouTube channel

Whether you go live directly to YouTube or use it to post your greatest hits when you’re offline, you’re going to want to start getting in the game with TikTok for one simple reason: the app lets you add a tappable link to your account inside your bio. No copy and paste are necessary for fans who are discovering you on the platform. If they like what they see, they can be getting even more of your content with a single click. This is a big reason why streamers are using TikTok!

This adds even more power to go-live posts on the platform if you’re streaming to YouTube since that one click will take them right to be able to view your stream. You grab their attention with a snippet of quality content from your channel, then direct them straight to the action. What could be better than that? The smoothness of the process shouldn’t be underestimated and is just one more reason to make TikTok a staple of your social media content plan.

Creating content for TikTok is actually fun

TikTok creators have embraced the portrait format of the app, and some of the most visually interesting content on the web is coming out of the platform right now. Live streamers most familiar with creating within a landscape format might be put off at first by having to figure out how to squeeze their clips and cams into a new configuration.

Rather than seeing it as an obstacle, take it as an opportunity to experiment with shaking up your content. Stack full-frame widescreen gameplay videos right on top of your uncropped face cam to capture bigger reactions to big moments. Or try cutting full-screen reaction shots into your game footage for dramatic effect. Just be sure to pick bitesize, dynamic clips that show the very best of what your stream has to offer. If you need help getting started, check out XSplit’s detailed guide to recording gameplay for TikTok, featured above, for more tips and tricks.

Even huge streamers like Ninja, TommyInnit, and AdinRoss have seen the value of TikTok and are producing content there. Now that you’ve added TikTok to your social media toolkit, check out XSplit’s guide to what you’re forgetting to do as a streamer to keep your channel moving in the right direction.

The Best Video Backgrounds for your Next Call

Since more and more meetings have been remote and online, we’ve become familiar with Zoom backgrounds. For those who don’t know, many people opt to remove and replace their zoom background. This means you’re now using a virtual background for your webcam shot rather than whatever happens to be behind you. This can be useful for a number of reasons. Maybe you are sharing the space you’re in with others? Perhaps you just don’t fancy cleaning up your spare room before the weekly check-in?

Best video Zoom Backgrounds for calls

We’ve got a nice list detailing some great still image backgrounds you can use for your next call, but what about video? Well, it just so happens that you can use YouTube videos in XSplit VCam as your background. XSplit VCam uses AI to remove and replace your background, keeping things consistent across all call platforms beyond just Zoom. It will, in fact, work with anything that accepts a camera feed!

All you have to do to use these videos is once you’ve downloaded VCam, click “Add Background” and select YouTube Video. From there, you can just paste the link in! You can also use videos from your computer if you have some you’ve made yourself!

The videos we’ve selected here are mostly animated soundscapes but don’t worry. The sounds won’t come through in VCam, just the video! The advantage we found was that these videos are pretty long, so whatever length of call you are in, these should do the job! Also, as a bonus, these videos are pretty great for relaxing or studying, so they work outside of being a video background for Zoom! Be sure to give these videos a like if you end up using them as Zoom backgrounds!

Video Backgrounds for Meetings

https://youtu.be/sZdgGAlp_A0

Sci-Fi and Fantasy Backgrounds for Zoom Calls

These backgrounds may not be perfect for every meeting, but they are still pretty fun nonetheless as virtual backgrounds for a zoom call.

Hopefully, these add a bit more to your calls without being too distracting as Zoom backgrounds! Using them with XSplit VCam, as we noted, is easy! You can check out XSplit VCam for free by heading over here and downloading the app today!

Five Common Ways to Fix Your Gaming Stream

We’ve been working in the streaming industry for over ten years now here at XSplit. Consequently, we’ve seen and helped solve a lot of problems over the years. Here, we run down common issues streamers run into and the solutions for them to help you fix your gaming stream!

How to fix your gaming stream with laggy video

If you or your viewers are seeing a choppy or laggy stream, check your encoding stats. If you see dropped frames, it means you may have set your bitrate too high for your internet connection. You can adjust your bitrate while you are live, but it’s good to do an internet bandwidth test beforehand, especially if your connection is throttled from time to time. This is always a sure-fire way to fix your gaming stream.

Now if your stream is pixelated, this means the bitrate is too low. If you have the bandwidth you can increase the bitrate, but if you don’t you will have to reduce your streaming resolution and frame rate. Changing your bitrate in XSplit Broadcaster is simple, just click the gear next to your output in the Broadcast menu and move the bitrate higher. There are limits, for example, you can’t go higher than 6000 kbps on Twitch so it’s best to check with wherever you’re streaming.

A person sat at a PC with a light on them wearing a gaming headset looking for ways to fix your gaming stream. — Photo by Tarikul Raana on Unsplash

Gameplay feeling sluggish?

When many start streaming, their gameplay can begin to feel sluggish or laggy. Streaming in full HD/60fps does require a fair bit of resources. This can affect the performance of your games if you’re playing them on the same PC you’re streaming from. There’s a variety of solutions to this depending on your priorities that can help fix your gaming stream.

If you don’t want to sacrifice your gaming experience, you will need to reduce the resources required for encoding. One way is to lower the resolution and frame rate of your stream. 1280×720 30fps is generally a safe setting for most modern systems. In XSplit Broadcaster you can do this but clicking the resolution drop-down menu in the top right-hand corner. Remember, however, that you’ll need to do this offline.

Next is using hardware encoders like AMD VCE, NVIDIA NVENC, or Intel Quicksync. These are generally present on all the latest devices, but NVIDIA NVENC will give you good stream quality if you have an NVIDIA graphics card that supports it. Intel also recently introduced Intel Arc AV1 encoding which shows some very exciting results! If you don’t want to sacrifice stream quality or gameplay quality, you’ll likely need to get an additional PC that is dedicated to streaming.

Noisy Microphone?

The first thing to check on your microphone is if you’ve set the gain too high. I know we all want to tune it to 11, but setting the gain higher raises the noise floor. Basically, it makes the mic more sensitive to sounds besides your voice. Changing this can really help fix your gaming stream. Target around -18 to -12 DB for your voice when setting your microphone input level. You’ll be able to use plugins to raise this level, which we’ve covered in the video below.

If you’re still getting noise it could be environmental noises like from an air conditioner, or your PC. You can remove this noise with noise removal and/or a noise gate. These are both available in XSplit Broadcaster‘s DSP settings. You can use Broadcaster’s built-in noise removal, or NVIDIA’s if you have an RTX GPU.

A noise gate lets you set the threshold that needs to be passed to activate your microphone. This is useful for consistent low noises like keyboard clicks, but once the gate is open, these noises will come through. Finally, if you’re still having issues, I highly recommend getting a dynamic microphone, we have a guide on picking the right microphone for streaming here.

How to fix your gaming stream alert sounds

We all like our donation, follower, subscriber alerts right? Nothing like the sound of progress, until you’ve heard it a million times. Sending your alert sounds to only your viewers is easy in XSplit Broadcaster! Right-click on the browser source and set the audio to stream only. You can adjust the level as well and see it in the audio mixer. Now you’re all set, you’ll still see the on-screen graphics you just won’t hear the sound yourself!

A person is sat in a gaming chair with a headset on playing a game and streaming while trying to find out how to fix your gaming stream — Photo by ELLA DON on Unsplash

My camera looks grainy

So you’ve just picked up a Facecam, but oh no, it’s super grainy! Cranking up the ISO or gain just makes it worse! What your camera needs is light! Any lighting will help, even a room light, but it’s best to get a dedicated light for your streaming area.

Now if you can try to diffuse the light a bit, this will help with harsh shadows. Many lights come with their own modifiers for diffusion, but if you’re going with the DIY method, you can use things like wax paper. Though make sure it isn’t a bulb that produces heat if you’re going to put something over it because fire is a real factor!

These are some common things we’ve found that can help fix your gaming stream. We hope you’ve found these useful! What common issues have your encountered? Or maybe just something you hear a lot from your streaming friends? Let us know in the comments!

The Best Webcams for Streaming in 2022

For a lot of people, a webcam is second only to a microphone when it comes to streaming gear upgrades. While the built-in camera on your laptop might work for a while, when you start getting more viewers you might want to level up. So, let’s discuss the best webcam for streaming that you can buy right now!

What makes the best webcam for streaming?

So what are the things we’re looking for in the best webcam for streaming? Ideally, we’re looking for a 1080p image, a microphone built-in, and a fairly wide angle on the lens. Why do we want these things? Well, while we’re going to see some cameras that can go above 1080p that’s about the minimum you want to go if you’re looking for an upgrade. This will give you a relatively sharp image that you can go full screen with for a just chatting screen.

Having a half-decent microphone isn’t a bad thing to have as that can be useful if you’ve yet to upgrade your audio. It’s also useful if you’re running a virtual talk show, something we discussed before, or just having guests. This is now a second mic source you can use in sources like Discord or Zoom that doesn’t have to go out to the stream but can communicate to guests with. Not essential, but useful to have.

Finally, a fairly wide lens will let you zoom in on shots as you like with a bit more ease. It can also be great to just get that nice wide-looking shot some streamers have showing off more of their background. With all that said, let’s take a look at some of the best webcams for streaming!

A person sat in front of a monitor with a microphone on a boom arm as they stream using the best webcam for streaming. — Photo by ConvertKit on Unsplash

Logitech C922

You won’t be surprised to see the Logitech C922 here, it’s become one of the streaming go to’s, and for good reason! With a 1080p 30fps camera (which can go to 60fps if you drop down to 720p) this tends to be the shot you see a lot of streamers with. Not only that, but it has a 78-degree viewing angle and a pretty decent built-in mic. This webcam ticks a lot of boxes and the C922 even comes with a three-month XSplit Premium license included giving you access to XSplit Broadcaster and VCams’ full suite of features!

Elgato Facecam

Elgato is fairly new to the world of webcams but they’ve come out the gate with a solid camera in the Facecam. Coming in with 1080p and 60fps it presents a crisp image out of the box which can then be tweaked and adjusted with their software. It also has a neat feature where you can save these settings directly to the camera, meaning you can move between machines and have the exact same look. One downside is the lack of a built-in microphone, but as Elgato points out, they’re aiming to make the best camera for the price point. Consequently, they chose to remove that feature, so it’s worth keeping in mind.

Logitech Brio

The Logitech Brio is on the expensive end of our list of the best webcam for streaming but it does make a pretty solid case for its inclusion. Featuring a bunch of resolution options, 4K at 30fps, 1080p at 60fps all the way down to 720p at 90fps! On top of that, it features a very wide lens up to 90 degrees and a dual microphone system. Now, this mic isn’t as good as a standalone microphone but it does do a pretty solid job!

Your Smartphone could be the best webcam for streaming!

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but smartphones have some pretty amazing cameras in them! Using XSplit Connect: Webcam you can wirelessly connect your Android or iOS smartphone to your PC easily! From there, it can be added to software like XSplit Broadcaster and streamed! All you have to do is download the Connect: Webcam app then download XSplit VCam, connect to your camera either wired or wirelessly, and add XSplit VCam to your streaming software!

So we’ve listed some pretty solid webcams and one you might already own, your smartphone! What camera do you use? What do you think is the best webcam for streaming? Be sure to let us know in the comments!

How to Live Stream to TikTok from your PC

TikTok, the social media giant, is no doubt interested in live streaming. In fact, some accounts are able already able to go live but it’s still a limited feature. While the content is currently still mostly focused on the short form TikTok is known for you will find more and more live streams among it. So, let’s discuss how and why you should be streaming to TikTok.

Why would you want to stream there?

TikTok is one of the fastest-growing social media sites around at the moment. The growth TikTok has seen has been huge! As noted by Hootsuite, “Eight new users join TikTok every second, with an average of 650,000 new users joining daily.” They also noted that user retention is far higher than many of its competitors, meaning people are using the app for longer.

It has also been noted that organic audience growth is currently much more open than on many other platforms. Some have likened it to the early days of YouTube when there was a much higher chance your content would get served to people. This could be down to a huge demand with fewer content creators out there to serve these needs. So, at the time of writing, it really would be a great time to get on board and start not only creating content but streaming!

Two phones sit next to a potted plant, both showing TikTok, you can stream to TikTok from your desktop PC with XSplit Broadcaster. — Photo by Collabstr on Unsplash

How can you stream to TikTok?

While going live from the app can be easy, going live from your desktop requires a few more steps. Firstly, you’ll need your custom RTMP info. There are no clear guidelines yet on how TikTok distributes access, but hopefully, it opens up to more users in the future.

If you have access, go into the TikTok app, either on your phone or the desktop app. Click go live and enter details like Title, Topic, Cover Image/Thumbnail. If you want to enable sub-only mode and if you want your video to end when the stream stops. If you have a shaky internet connection I wouldn’t enable the last item. You’ll then be taken to a screen where you can see your server URL and stream key.

Next, you’ll need some live stream software for your PC, like XSplit Broadcaster. In Broadcaster, open up the Custom RTMP broadcast plugin. Title your output, then put in your RTMP URL and stream key.

In terms of stream settings, I’d recommend going with 1280×720 resolution, 30 fps, and a bitrate of 3000 to start. TikTok live streams are in landscape mode, so you don’t have to orient your content vertically like you would with pre-recorded content.

From there, you’re ready to stream to TikTok from your PC! This platform is only going to continue to grow and we will be sure to keep an eye on it here on our blog!

The How and Why of Hybrid Events

We’ve discussed all-digital events before but one of the big trends we’re seeing lately is the hybrid event. A hybrid conference is something that combines the advantages of an in-person event with the accessibility of an online event. For example, a big gaming convention like PAX will have all its vendors and exhibitors in a physical hall while panels and tournaments can also be watched online. So, how do you conduct hybrid events and why would you want to? Let’s discuss!

What is a hybrid conference?

So as we touched on above, a hybrid event is a combination of both physical and online events. We have some experience with those here at XSplit having run some gaming stages from conventions in the past. These catered not only to the people on the show floor but were also streamed online for people to watch on Twitch.

These indie[dot]XSplit stages were a big collaborative effort to pull off but ultimately a great tool to connect with people at the event and online. Now, this was just one part of the larger show as a whole, as we mentioned above PAX itself is very much a hybrid conference.

On an even larger scale, keynotes like Apple Events are traditionally hybrid of both physical and online. The press is bought in to be in the room for the stage presentation and to get a hands-on look at the products. This is also streamed online giving the viewing public the chance to see Apple’s message while also opening it up to the press to give their own impressions.

Why run a hybrid conference?

There are a number of good reasons, as we mentioned above it gives everyone a chance to be involved. Inclusivity is important, and not everyone can attend an in-person event due to a multitude of reasons. By running some, or all, of your pillar content online you’re allowing a much wider audience to experience it.

Not only that, but a hybrid conference can showcase a wider variety of guests for panels that wouldn’t be possible in an offline-only event. Your panel could not only include guests in the room, and guests calling in over Zoom. All of this can in turn be broadcast online easily using software like XSplit Broadcaster.

There are also examples, like New York Comic Con, where you can purchase a digital ticket. This enables guests from across the globe to watch all the panels live as they happen. Also, it means you can open a new revenue stream for your event for everyone who would love to watch but can’t make it to the venue in New York.

A person stood on the stage of a hybrid conference presenting a slide to a large watching audience on a big screen while also broadcasting to viewers watching at home online. — Photo by Teemu Paananen on Unsplash

Including online elements at your hybrid event

So, the most obvious online element that we have mentioned already is streaming panels and keynote speakers. We’ve actually put together a thorough course online! The video below shows you exactly how you can produce an event that can be done in person and online.

Beyond that though, there are ways you can have an online and an offline audience interacting! You can incorporate live chat for questions for panelists and speakers. Or, you could really go next level and play games together! WiFi Wars is a show that uses proprietary tech to beam games through your browser. Allowing people in the room to compete as one team against people online. This is some creative thinking and it could only be the start of a melding of online and offline hybrid conferences!

We really see the future belonging to hybrid conferences and events and we can’t wait to see what people come up with! As technology intersects with in-person gatherings more and more, the future is bright! More people get to see the shows and presentations you’re putting together with hybrid conferences!

Top Tools for your Remote Staff

Some of us are slowly, perhaps begrudgingly, coming back from WFH. The remote work industry, however, has been growing for years and will continue to grow. In this age, if you’re a business owner, you may have to look towards being WFH first and therefore you need to offer the proper tools for your remote staff.

Webcams

It’s really easy for your staff to feel isolated in a remote work environment, so it’s good for team building and overall morale for people to see the face behind the Slack messages and ClickUp tasks.

Webcams are fairly cheap these days, and we would recommend something like the Logitech C922. You may not have considered that your staff may have great webcams already on devices they own! Try using XSplit Connect: Webcam and XSplit VCam to turn their phones into webcams. If you’d like more details on how this works you can check the video below, but generally, all you need to do is have the devices on the same wifi network.

Unified Calendar Tools for Remote Staff

Having staff in different parts of the world can make things tricky when trying to coordinate a meeting. That’s why it’s good to have a unified calendar for your organization as a tool for your remote staff. GSuite from Google offers these tools, basically, it gives everyone in the team a personal calendar they can opt to share. You can also set up a company-wide calendar for important events like team meetings or for people to post their vacation schedules.

A person sat on a sofa talking to someone on a call using a laptop computer which would contain tools for remote work. — Photo by Surface on Unsplash

Team Building

It’s good to find time for the team to bond and unwind together, while it would be nice for everyone to go out to eat, in the meantime, you can play games together online. Some great games are Jackbox Games, which you can play in a browser or on your phone with other people. You can also play games like Pictionary or host a trivia night using something like XSplit Broadcaster.

Task Management Tools For Your Remote Staff

Now if you’re a small business, it might not seem like you need task management software, but without people interacting in a single space, it can be easy to lose track and progress of what’s going on in each project.

Something as simple as notion, monday.com, or ClickUp, whatever let’s you assign tasks and keep track of what is going on will really help your team stay organized and help you track how your projects are going. This blog is organized via ClickUp as you can not only schedule your events in a list but export a viewable calendar that can be seen by the wider company.

A person using a smartphone next to their laptop which is on the table in front of them next to a cup of coffee they could be using tools for remote workers on both! — Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

Headsets or Microphones

Circling back to start of this blog post, as nice as it is to see your staff, it’s probably even more important to hear them. Your remote staff could be working anywhere, from home, from a cafe, maybe even on the beach. So it’s important that external noise doesn’t interfere during meetings, which is why you should look to give your staff a decent headset for calls.

If you’re in an indoor, home office environment and they have headphones they like, a simple USB microphone like the Blue Snowball or one built into their webcam would work fine.

Headsets do, however, have the versatility we mentioned of being able to plug into a laptop and be taken anywhere. They will also offer that noise isolation. They don’t have to be expensive fancy ones, just something with a mic built-in.

Communication Tools For Your Remote Staff

So having a messaging app is a given, but keep your sanity and keep all communication to one app. It can be a nightmare to sort through PMs from various apps. Now you don’t need a paid service like Slack, but it can be extremely useful to have any app with a solid search function, the ability to make channels and threads.

Discord does most of this for free, but it is tailored to gamers rather than the working crowd, so it does have a bit of a learning curve.

What tools for remote staff have you found useful for getting your staff collaborating from different parts of the world? Let us know in the comments below!

How to Stream Games on Facebook

Facebook has become one of the bigger destinations for streaming games. It’s no surprise that the big Meta company would be able to find a foothold with such a large userbase. The company hasn’t relied on this alone, however, they’ve been putting in the time to make Facebook Gaming an attractive site for streamers. So let’s take a look at how to stream games on Facebook!

Getting Started

So the very first thing you’ll want to do is make a profile page on Facebook Gaming. This is pretty simple to do but it’s an important step as this will be the place your live stream is going to go through too!

Next up you’ll want to download some software to stream with. XSplit Broadcaster will not only allow you to easily stream to Facebook but will make your stream run smoother and look better!

Once you’ve downloaded XSplit Broadcaster you’ll be prompted to make an account and sign in. From there, you’re ready to create your scenes by adding sources to them. XSplit Broadcaster comes with a number of templates to make this process easier for you! The source you add can be anything from your webcam, graphics, alerts, and gameplay from a capture card or direct from your PC.

How to Stream Games on Facebook

Next up you’ll want to set up your Facebook output. This is a straightforward process, head to the Broadcast menu and select Facebook Live! From here, you will be prompted to log in and now you’ll be asked where you want to stream. There will be some options, the first is Timeline. This will stream your video directly to your personal timeline. In this instance, we’re looking to go to Facebook Gaming and the page you just created so you’ll want to select the public page.

You’ll also see some encoding settings which should be automatically selected for you based on the best settings for your computer but you can change these later if you need to. It’s worth keeping in mind that unless you’re part of the Facebook Level Up program you’ll only be able to stream as high as 720p and 30FPS.

From here, you’re basically ready to go live once you click Continue! Select the output you just made again from the Broadcast menu to go live. Next, you will be asked to input your stream details. From here you can either select a pre-made post you’ve already created on Facebook or create a new one directly in Broadcaster.

You can also use a similar method to stream to scheduled streams that you may have set up for your page, which you can find more information about here!

Photo by Pete Pedroza on Unsplash

Adding some personality

So now you know how to stream games to Facebook, how about we look at leveling up your content a little? With XSplit Broadcaster it’s easy with some of our downloadable widgets! Want your comments to appear live on screen? Some new alerts? Want to see the reactions from viewers come up live on the screen? We’ve got you covered!

All you have to do is head to the Plugin Store which is available by going to the Extensions menu, selecting Add Extention, and selecting Find More Extensions. From here just search Facebook and you’ll find all of the things mentioned above and more!

Once they are installed you can find them in the Sources menu under Facebook widgets. You can find out more about our Facebook widgets here!