Live Streaming Weddings

[Katie Fasel]

Do any of you offer live streaming and how do you do it? We have a couple that has family unable to attend so they asked if we could live stream for them. I didn't make any promises but told her we would explore options. Turning out to be much more complex than we thought, without spending big money for software or hardware.

They could just do Facebook live but I think they were looking for something a little more private and better quality. Would love to hear ideas or experience! Thanks!

[Chris Harding]

Hi Katie

That's all we do for weddings now ..all our weddings are live broadcast and it's really easy too. We dropped doing conventional video on DVD or creating stunning wedding films cos it simply started to become over the top to compete with sliders, drones, gimbals and multiple shooters. Before offering any advice I think some quick feedback might be a good idea?

(1) Are you doing the whole wedding or just the ceremony?
(2) Indoors or Outdoors?
(3) Are you going to consider this as a future option?

[Chris Harding]

Just a few options now :

Simple Option : We started with a Livestream Broadcaster which sits on the camera hotshoe and simply sends your video to their CDN (content delivery network) ...You can get a free account with them BUT the viewers will need to create a free account to be able to watch. You can also create an "event page" for the client too. It's does have a disadvantage that the Broadcaster Pro encoder costs just over $700 at B&H but it is really simple to use and needs nothing else except the encoder. You are of course restricted to just one camera (we still do weddings live with a single camera with no issues)

Cheapest Option : Assuming you have a laptop that's fairly fast and can handle a video stream you can use a software switcher and OBS Studio is a free one. However to get the video from the camera into the laptop you will need a HDMI>USB dongle which costs under $400 .... with this setup you can now stream to free CDN's like Facebook LIve (fairly private if you create a "business page") and stream to that) It does need however a small amount of data entry before you start broadcasting ... you have to create a new live video on your FB page (or YouTube too) and then transfer the data to OBS and start the broadcast. If you buy more than one dongle you can switch multiple cameras too. Your only free CDN options are FaceBook and YouTube as the normal CDN's make you pay to use them!

If this is likely to be a one off situation them you probably better off using a tablet with the FB Live app but you will need someone to hold it or mount on a tripod somehow or maybe just use Skpe ???

[Donald McPherson]

Cheapest Xsplit Broadcaster free does only 720p. (I found it easier than OBS ) Android phone with mobile hotpot sharing, games hdmi / usb capture box. I use Elegato. If two camera setup buy another but different make Avermedia so you don't have a conflict. And of course a laptop and long hdmi cables. If going to YouTube watch out for music copyright.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Donald

I still feel that if this is a one off shoot it can be pricey even looking at the cheapest option! If one is going to delve into live streaming, weddings or other events, then get something that you will use over and over again to justify the cost ...one would probably need to charge a bride at least $1000 just to cover gear cost which would be fine for a high end wedding but a tad expensive to get get a stream for those that cannot come.

If Katie is not going to offer the facility as part of a wedding package to offset capital costs then it's probably better to tell a bride "sorry we cannot do it at a reasonable cost"

[Katie Fasel]

Yeah, I'm thinking we may just have to tell her sorry at this point. It's not really something we are interested in doing long term, otherwise I would be OK spending the money to get what we need.

It's going to be just the ceremony they want, and it's outdoors. I have seen people can do a live stream from their DJI Drones, and was hoping the Osmo had some similar capabilities, but can't find any info on it,and we can't seem to get the software to connect. It wasn't the greatest option, but something I felt they would be a little happier with than a phone or tablet.

Thanks for the input!

[Chris Harding]

Probably a wise move Katie!!

Even with FB Live you get a warning saying you must use professional video streaming software etc etc so for a one-off shoot it's simply not worth the hassle.

We stream ALL our weddings and the brides love it ..nothing better than seeing a bride directly after her ceremony sitting on the lawn waiting for the photographer with her phone watching her own wedding with squeals of delight because we do every wedding live the cost of encoders, computers and software are justified and it's so nice to be able to edit live so when you get back home, exhausted you know that at least you don't have 3 days of furious editing ahead of you so that's very cost effective too!

Hope the wedding shoot goes well!

[Aindreas Lynch]

This is simple to do with Youtube Live. All you need is a webcam, laptop and broadband/wifi. Obviously it's not going to be a multicam production with this but I seriously doubt the bride is expecting this in the first place.

I've it done a few times and embed the stream into my website, you can see a sample stream setup here - Jill & Ben – Wedding Video Live Stream | ATL Videography ? Wedding Video Clane Dublin Kildare Ireland Wedding - that I use. The stream quality obviously isnt HD as Youtube decides the bitrate depending on internet speed. It's less than 1Mbs on the ones I did but as most people will be watching it on a phone/tablet or PC then it doesnt really matter. Make sure you frame the shot correctly and leave it alone.

The only major problem is weather if it's outside and lack of wifi/broadband. Other than that it's really easy to do and because its streaming through your website it looks a little more professional also.

[Giroud Francois]

with vmix, you can build a multicamera streaming system for almost nothing.
you can put 2 webcams with usb extension cable and a use an iphone/ipad as roaming camera with NDI (this will require to add an access point).
the smartphone can be mounted on your camera.
if you are a one man team, you can connect another smartphone as remote control (strapped to your wrist) to switch camera.(through the access point)
since webcams are very small you can hide the laptop and wecams in place where a big camera and cameraman would'nt allowed.

vmix is almost free for the light version with 3 cameras input and 60$ for the basic HD version.
a really standard PC (i use a DELL E6430 i5 with intel graphic and with 3 webcams CPU is still less than 40%)
if you use SD resolution (854x480) as output a good mobile connection should fit.
youtube is free as well as Facebook or Twitter (Periscope)

[Chris Harding]

Hi Guys

The biggest issue with events like weddings is that the bride walks down the aisle to a commercial song and by streaming to free sites like YouTube or FaceBook they will ping you pretty quickly for using copyright music!! The free CDN's are fine for events that don't have blantant use of copyright music but sadly even wedding ceremonies only will have a walk in song, a walk out song and a signing song and all are highly likely to be current commercial songs and you will be pinged for copyright and either have your video removed or have ads placed on it. Youtube will often lock out videos for mobile access too if they have commercial music on them.

Rather pay for a commercial private server and charge the bride to avoid hassles!!

[Bob Drummond]

Out of curiosity, who is typically watching these live streamed weddings? Aren't most of the interested viewers already in attendance?

[Noa Put]

In my country (Belgium) live streaming weddings is something I have seen no videographer offering on their website as a service but I do know of Turkish weddings where this is done for the family in Turkey that is not able to attend, I think it is either the Turkish videographers who deal with that or the guests by using a mobilephone, the only thing they stream live is the dancing part which is actually the most important part of the evening.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Bob

For us it's mainly people firstly unable to attend due to distance ...we have couples here that have family in either the UK, South Africa and New Zealand who simply don't have the money to fly to a wedding. Obviously other countries don't have a lot of immigrants so their family would attend. Australia had a huge influx of people from the UK at one stage which tended to leave grandparents back in England no prepared to attempt the 20 hour flight to the colonies just for a wedding!

Perth is very isolated from the rest of the world so maybe that is also a factor but we also have couples that actually come here purely to get married on the beach!!

Even air travel here is costly ..it's much cheaper to go on holiday overseas to SE Asia than holiday in our own country ..I have a son in Canada to does frequent trips to the USA and the fares he has to pay are a tiny fraction of what we would pay here to fly local!!

Live weddings here are pretty popular with guests .. we often have 600 to 1000 viewers online for just a single wedding!

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

Perth is very isolated from the rest of the world...

What are you saying, Chris? If I'm on the Gold Coast, I can't just hop in the Ute for that short drive across the Outback and expect to arrive in Perth the same day?

:-)

[Chris Harding]

What can I say!! Even I was amazed at distances people travel without batting an eyelid.

Yeah Chris jump into a Ute on the East Coast and you should be on my doorstep in 48 hours IF you could drive non stop for that long. It's close to 2730 miles by road and most people do it as a 4 day road trip with 3 x overnight stays

It a LONG way and not for the feint hearted ....there is one scary desert to cross considered to be the largest desert crossing in the world.

Just to get things into perspective your trip is significantly longer than New York to LA and a lot less pleasant ..it's 300 miles further and even an hour more in flying time!!

When are you visiting??