Hi Guys

We have been streaming to the Livestream CDN for a year now but not using their software as it's a little pricey at US$799.00

If you have any paid account with LiveStream you can get the Studio Software (full version) for free. All you need to do is update to the new 4.6 version and as soon as you sign into your LS account it unlocks the full version for you!!

how does the software compare to wirecast?

Hi Charlie

Very nice interface and really easy to use. It has very nice built in and innovative lower thirds too and a nice system to be able to crop a camera shot and save it as a take so one can get 4 preset camera angles

It does however need a whopper of a computer to run it so I used to struggle with an i7 2600 3.4gb machine ...Live stream suggest a minimum of a 6 core processor.

I do quite a few outdoor streams so power isn't available and Studio simply will not run on my laptop so I use OBS for those shoots. If you are doing mainly indoor events Studio is a good option but you do need a paid account with them to qualify for the free software.

What does Wirecast offer in terms of price and options??

Wirecast is $450ish for the studio version
or $995ish for the pro version. I have not used
anything else, but I really like Wirecast a lot
(plus I hate subscriptions with a passion!)
Great program and pretty much has everything
you need. I just did a live game last night from
the Little League West Regionals. 2013 MacBook
Pro, streaming live to Facebook and recording
a copy on my local hard drive. Didn't even reach
20% CPU use most of the time. Multicam switched
feed with lower thirds and scoreboard....with just me
doing everything. Pretty amazing what you can do
these days.

Hi Gabe

Excuse the ignorance but I assume Wirecast is priced just for the software and not also a CDN?

With Livestream we pay $499 a year which is not for the software (that's free now) but gives you unlimited storage and views and the ability to create a unique event page for each client and they also do a DVR copy for you. We use a Broadcaster Pro encoder (Livestream restricted Teradek) so it makes sense to use their CDN since the encoder goes there. Two of us also share the sub so it's only $250 per year each!

If you are only streaming to places like Facebook or YouTube, you might as well go the whole 9 yards and use OBS which is also free. We like Livestream because it's fairly secure for more discrete events like weddings and funerals. You can also do an one off outright purchase of LS Studio for $799 and then stream to whichever CDN suits your needs

Yeah, Wirecast is the software, not a CDN. I'm on
a Mac, not a PC so Livestream isn't much help for me.
I've tried OBS and it can't touch Wirecast with a 10 foot pole.
Wirecast is much quicker and easier to do almost anything.
Certain events I do (like sports) are what Wirecast was
made to do. OBS is much harder to figure out how to
livestream to a client's social media accounts.
I'm also do a lot of live streaming of client events, where the event
being on the client's social media accounts is a big draw. They
don't want a 'nice discrete' stream. They want all the views, comments,
and engagement to be pointed at their social media accounts. For this,
it's actually a big plus to be on Facebook or YouTube instead of a private
CDN. But if needed, Wirecast will stream anywhere.

Hi Gabe

Hmmm I must give it a try ...with OBS I have no issue at all with social media ..select Facebook ..paste in the stream key and hit "start streaming" ..easy as that!

Does Wirecast have a trial version. I also have looked at VidBlaster and like the way you can pull in just the modules you need.

Weddings do require a discrete site to send to just family and friends so LS is great for those but if you need lots of exposure social media is great!

a great feature of Livestream is the ability to simultaneously stream to facebook live. we have both an embed of the livestream on our website and also facebook live. could of course do the same with 2 encoders but this makes everything easy. set it up ahead of time and when you press "stream" both of them start.

Hi Gabe

Hmmm I must give it a try ...with OBS I have no issue at all with social media ..select Facebook ..paste in the stream key and hit "start streaming" ..easy as that!

Does Wirecast have a trial version. I also have looked at VidBlaster and like the way you can pull in just the modules you need.

Weddings do require a discrete site to send to just family and friends so LS is great for those but if you need lots of exposure social media is great!

Charlie,
With Wirecast there is no 'paste in the stream key'. Just choose Facebook,
click 'create' and 'stream' and it shows up on your Facebook page that you
select. This is because Wirecast has worked with Facebook and their API.
Same thing for YouTube, Periscope/Twitter. And yes, with Wirecast you
can simultaneously stream to a bunch of these at once, plus record a version
to a local hard drive. Creating 'shots' is also much easier in Wirecast.
Biggest for me, is that there is a Mac version. PC's have Vmix, Vidblaster,
Livestream, and others but I don't use a PC, so.....

Yes, Wirecast has a fully functioning demo, which overlays an audio and
video 'watermark' every few seconds.

Hi Gabe

Hmmm I must give it a try ...with OBS I have no issue at all with social media ..select Facebook ..paste in the stream key and hit "start streaming" ..easy as that!

Does Wirecast have a trial version. I also have looked at VidBlaster and like the way you can pull in just the modules you need.

Weddings do require a discrete site to send to just family and friends so LS is great for those but if you need lots of exposure social media is great!


Wirecast Overview. You'll see a Download Free Trial in the top graphic
https://www.telestream.net/wirecast/overview.htm

Just did a first test using Livestream Studio - on a 15" Asus Laptop, and it's pretty cool. Has just about everything that Tricaster has, except color correction for cameras. Using Epiphan USB for camera input. Have our logo permanently as a lower right bug, and a changing lower third on the left. Switched between cameras and a prerecorded video, and all worked. Streamed to Livestream and FB Live, while recording the program to an SD card on the computer. Very encouraging.

Glad it's working for you Charlie ...I love the interface but on my Duo core i7 it uses just too much CPU to be practical ..with two cameras it often goes over 90% CPU and then shuts down the stream ... With OBS is rarely goes over 35% CPU on the same machine so I'm using that for now ...OBS also does way better Chromakey for some reason! Each to their own but I still love the pro interface of Studio and especially the fact you can do create professional lower thirds within the software !!

Was playing with my X70 stream settings last night. Firmware 3.0 for it has a Ustream menu setting, but with some final weddings the rest of this year still to come I don't wanna brick the camera, so I'll hold off.

I did manage to get it onto YT Live using VLC & OBS. It was a very convoluted setup, but when I first saw my video stream on Youtube it was like magic happened. It was an achievement, although the lack of graphics & lower thirds sorta re-professionalizes it, plus its a very patchwork scheme. Began looking into some affordable all inclusive setups. It seems Livestream software ($800) and Wirecast ($500-$900/Pro) are the 2 which stand out.

Some Livestream review said the requirements are a bit higher than most laptops specs? Any insights on this. Any experience with remote shoots, easy to setup tapping into their wifi?

Hi David

To be honest I still find that OBS is the easiest when it comes to CPU load ...Livestream Studio has nicer interfaces (especially lower third creation) but is much heavier on your CPU.

I'm using a Dell laptop which is only a DuoCore i7 2.7GB but OBS allows you to use QuickSync which takes a big load off the CPU ... the other "trick" is to use a hardware encoder from the laptop output instead of streaming direct from the laptop. My laptop HDMI out goes into a Vidiu Pro ....

If you are doing paid events like weddings, wifi is a dirty word ...the bands get congested at a wedding pretty fast so any wifi connection is bad news! We connect by ethernet from the encoder direct ti the 4G router and have no issues. If you HAVE to use wifi at least make sure your gear can use the 5GHz wifi band rather than the 2.4Ghz one which every cell phone in the room is trying to connect to!!

If you are using your own WiFi to make a link between devices, you can set the network parameters so that only the device on each and has a valid IP address for the subnet. This is called a /30 subnet (pronounced slash thirty). Therefore no other device and connect, even with the right password.

But as Chris says, wired is the way to go.

Good idea Tim as long as the device can do a manual connect.

Livestream brought out their MEVO cameras that work with an iPhone ....the wifi has let them down badly and people are selling units left right and centre ...it's a clever system actually but the connections cause havoc.

To give you an idea about how a wifi band can go from almost clear to congested...I did a wedding reception where I had 5 bar signal on the 4G router and a connection speed of 22mbps ... I was streaming inside the venue at a comfortable 3mbps with a great picture until the guests came in ...my encoder suddenly gave me a warning and dropped to 750kbps and shortly afterwards the stream dropped out . That was all because I had the router ( a few feet away) connected to the encoder with wifi .... I plugged in a cable reconnected with ethernet and the stream was perfect again at over 3mbps. I guess every Tom Dick and Harry had their mobile on and congesting the band?

Hi David

To be honest I still find that OBS is the easiest when it comes to CPU load ...Livestream Studio has nicer interfaces (especially lower third creation) but is much heavier on your CPU.

I'm using a Dell laptop which is only a DuoCore i7 2.7GB but OBS allows you to use QuickSync which takes a big load off the CPU ... the other "trick" is to use a hardware encoder from the laptop output instead of streaming direct from the laptop. My laptop HDMI out goes into a Vidiu Pro ....


Thanks Chris, admittedly weddings aren't a huge market I'm going for with it, due to the lack of prep I can do, and control over connectivity. I also wouldn't want it to be a liability if the connection never goes thru (Grandma in Italy was waiting for it to start).

With OBS, can much graphics & lower thirds be done? I found it more video feed only, which is fine. I saw a plugin someone made to add scores.

Hi David .. OBS needs a little more work than Studio ....With Studio you can download third backgrounds and add the text in live if need be. I tend to be very lazy with OBS and use free stock thirds (the need to be MOV files) https://www.videvo.net/

The switchers work slightly differently. In Studio you bring in cameras as remote cameras and can then assign 4 "takes" to each camera being a different pan or crop, zoom or all 3

In OBS you set a scene so you can have one camera with a bunch of different crops and be able to switch between them ... If you go to the OBS website they have a resources page with plenty of stuff including scoreboards. OBS can also have a browser plug in so you can design your own scoreboard.

You can also add stills, titles, videos and even scroll titles in OBS ...it honestly has the best Chromakey I have ever used. I can stick a green backdrop behind me, roughly light it and it keys every time ..Studio has a much more complex keyer and it does a poorer job.

AS you can see ..plusses and minuses ...I mainly started using OBS cos it supports Quiksync and NVENC systems and got to love it ,,big community ..lots of YouTube "how to" videos and regular updates!

Thanks, sounds like I need to dive deeper into it. I saw some plugins for it, but the stock version of it seemed a bit rudimentary. I did get the feed going, but pure video only. Wasn't aware it did green screen.

One question, are you going from your camera straight into OBS? I seemed to have to go into (free) software called VLC, then that fed into OBS.

Hi David

I have both HDMI cameras and USB cameras ..my Logitech Conference Cams just plug directly into a USB and OBS sees them as an input. My Panasonic AC-8 and FZ 1000 cameras are HDMI only so those need a capture card ..I use an Elgato HD60 capture module but any HDMI to USB capture dongle will work with OBS .. LS Studio is a LOT fussier and prefers Black Magic capture cards

If you are just using the X70 as a camera input it has stream modules in it but I'm not too clued up on that protocol but this tutorial looks good

How to livestream with Sony PXW X70 or FS5 using OBS and YouTube (for free!) - YouTube

Thanks. I actually did get it streaming thru OBS. Followed that & another tutorial.

Hi David

To be honest I still find that OBS is the easiest when it comes to CPU load

I'm also a Wirecast user. It also supports Quicksync (and Apple H.264 on Mac) and NVENC. It also supports streaming to multiple destinations, something I almost always do, that OBS (unless something has changed) can't do natively. I usually stream to both Facebook and Periscope/Twitter. On some events YouTube as well.

While not quite as good as wire, the new Wirecast Go 2 is nifty since you can now stream LTE from iOS to Wirecast. Granted LTE can have issues as well but it's nice not having to depend on wifi. It's two way communication too. So the camera operator holds the phone but the Wirecast user can actually interview remotely. This is good if the person holding the phone isn't particularly good at asking questions.