High-Quality, Reliable Streaming for Facebook Live With ClearCaster
By Adam Noyes
By Holly Regan
Whether you’re giving the nightly news or announcing an Oscar winner, the last thing you need is for your live stream to go down on the world’s largest social media site. Despite the fact that Facebook Live is now more popular than YouTube among weekly live-stream viewers, connectivity and streaming problems are all too common for broadcasters on this platform.
Professional streamers and broadcasters demand equally professional quality out of their Facebook Live streams. And their followers now expect it, as well: 90 percent of viewers say quality is the most important aspect of Facebook Live videos. However, in our recent report on Facebook Live streaming, 76 percent of respondents report errors that interfere with stream reliability and quality playback.
Luckily, there’s a solution: the Wowza ClearCaster™ appliance. It’s purpose-built for reliable, broadcast-quality streaming to Facebook Live. In this single, rack-mountable device, the benefits of industry-leading Wowza streaming software meet seamless integration with the Facebook Live APIs.
Broadcasters Report Widespread Challenges Streaming to Facebook Live
From international media companies to mid-market affiliates; live event producers to universities; broadcasters and streaming professionals need solutions that can be configured quickly and easily, and that fit naturally into their existing production workflows. But our survey respondents say equipment, setup and integration are the biggest challenges when streaming to Facebook Live.
“Of all the services out there, Facebook is the most difficult technically.” —Anonymous survey respondent
This is partially because Facebook Live has specific bandwidth and resolution requirements that must be met. Even one incorrect hardware or software setting can cause performance issues—but it can be difficult to determine what exactly went wrong.
That’s where Wowza ClearCaster comes in. It directly connects to the Facebook Live API, keeping you up to date. And it automatically configures and monitors streams for maximum resiliency and reliability. Regardless of bandwidth and connectivity issues, your stream keeps going strong. Just plug it in, and we’ll take it from there.