NOTICE: Next Live Broadcast – Thursday @ 8.00AM EST/1.00pm GMT.
Ever since we started using our iPhones to broadcast live streaming on Periscope and Facebook Live, we faced many challenges. Including network speeds, audio quality and the correct positioning of the devices (this matters greatly).
Networks speeds can be resolved easily, that’s not a problem. As for audio quality, you just need to make sure you’re in a room with a quiet (or quieter) environment. However, for setting your mobile devices … now that’s the main headache. Take for example, if you only have one tripod, then you can only setup one device … in our case, we want to setup two devices. One streaming via Periscope and the other streaming on Facebook Live.
In this article we’ll be showing you how to setup your very own Live Streaming/Broadcast studio at home using 2 iPhones or other recording devices such as action camera. It’ll cost you $50 USD or less in total !!!
What you need
Here’s a list of items you’ll need to get started.
A cold shoe plate with at least two standard tripod screw thread mount (male type) – Approx USD $10-15
1 x Ball head mount for stability – Approx USD $5-10
2 x Smartphone clamps (with standard tripod screw thread – female type) – Approx USD $5
Tripod (full size or mini size with adjustable legs) – Approx USD $10-15
A powebank will help with providing the devices with enough power to last 1-2 hours of recording. While the bluetooth remote control would be handy to start/stop the recording, if you’re at a distance away from the devices.
How it looks finally
Once the cold shoe plate, ball head mount, smartphone clamps are adjusted securely, just run the Periscope App on one iPhone and the Facebook Live on the other … and way you go!
Applications
Periscope – Download the app and link your Twitter account. We found Periscope to be the most stable and it seems to have more engagement by far, with many users viewing. Retention rate was around 10-15%. Every time you start a broadcast, you have the option to send out a tweet via Twitter to allow your followers to know. A nice feature!
Facebook – Select Live Video. The live video on Facebook was easy to use. There’s no need to download a separate App. However, we came across some stability issues. The connection can be unstable and it would sometimes disconnect, which means you have to setup the live stream again. There’s no option to let your followers know about your live broadcast … if you don’t check your Facebook stream … you won’t be notified. Not very intuitive.
We’ve also publish another interesting article on how to live stream and broadcast via Twitch. In the mean time you can follow our our Twitch page. 🙂
I hope you find this how to useful, and if you plan to setup something similar, we would love to hear from you on how to make it even better and easier. Please your comments below.
- How to live stream and broadcast via Twitch using OBS Studio
- Our Pericsope channel
- Our Twitch page
- Our Facebook page