May 05, 2021

Live Streaming Music Performances for a Virtual Concert

Adam Noyes hosted this week's Videoguys Live Webinar going over live performances for virtual concerts.

New Jersey Performance Arts Center (NJPAC) has been hosting a series of live events and live concerts propping up up and coming artists and bands. Recently, they invited Collideoscope to perform one of their song from their debut album. Having shot music videos for them, and working in the live streaming industry, they approached Adam to help stream their event.

A great video switcher for XLR workflows would be the Roland VR-1HD which has 1 XLR input. This will let you easily connect the band's sound mixer into the video switcher. And it has built in audio mixers to help improve audio without needing to necessarily intervene with the band.

Why Go with an External Video Switcher

Chances are you will only have a laptop or small PC which truly can't handle bringing in multiple HD video feeds plus switching, plus streaming! The computer will choke and the stream will suffer. Adding a video switcher will take a major load off of the computer freeing it up to handle the encoding or adding l3rds or recording. Adding a video switcher will just mean you can do more with the computer you have.

Plan A

Practice makes perfect. The more time you set aside for practice sessions and live stream's the more seamless and better the live production will be when its actually time to go live.

Adam learned this the hard way. Originally they were to plug into Collideoscope's mixer via XLR via the Panasonic AG-CX10 Camcorder. But soon they discovered the sound system's jack was broken, so they had to find another solution. Aly they discovered the computer they were using for a streaming software wouldn't let them use audio via their Virtual Output. On top of that, NJPAC was using a CDN called Streamyard, something no one in the band nor Adam had a clue what it was.

Always have a Plan B

They went hard wired. They added a video switcher. Specifically they added the RGBlink mini video switcher which allowed them to plug directly into their MacBook Pro to use the video feed as a webcam. They then took a stereo 1/4" jack and plugged it into the CX10's Line In port, and set the CX10's audio mix to be stereo.

Next, Adam made a Streamyard account to learn the ins and outs of that program. They even streamed to his personal Facebook.

Here's the workflow for Plan B

4th Time's The Charm

Gary has said it, and Adam agrees. You WILL mess up, and that's okay. You learn by doing. Play with the equipment. Learn it. The more you stream, the better your streams become, and the better your message or the band will come across. Practice, practice, practice!

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Why Go with an External Video Switcher

Plan A

Always have a Plan B

4th Time's The Charm