LiveU User Story: Video Producer’s Perspective on Live Video
By Adam Noyes
From LiveU
Ben learned of LiveU when he interned at News 12 Long Island. The station wasn’t using it at the time, but he was exposed to cellular bonding technology and knew LiveU was a player in that space.
Over the past year his experience and comfort with LiveU has grown exponentially while at Roker Media producing Facebook Live programs with a LiveU LU600, as well as freelance productions for Alizé and other brands using the plug-and-play LiveU Solo encoder.
“LiveU allows me to reliably go live from anywhere – even if there’s no internet,” noted Ratner. “I can also use a NewTek Tricaster and other production systems with LiveU to produce high-quality content for clients.”
LiveU has helped Ratner during many “murphy’s law” moments.
“The most recent time LiveU Solo was a life-saver was when I got a last-minute shoot for Al Roker-produced GirlStarter on TLC. We had to do a live stream for Facebook from a parking lot outside Atlanta. It was a multi-cam shoot and there was no Ethernet or Wi-Fi to be found. I could NOT have done the broadcast without LiveU – and it was my first time using the Solo. As the only tech person on site, I was able to use it easily and get everything running smoothly,” recalled Ratner.
On StarTalk, the LiveU unit helps the show’s hosts interact with fans in real-time. “We used to ask fans for questions days or weeks in advance of a show, produce the show, and then broadcast it months later. Now, it all happens immediately which makes for a more dynamic and interactive program,” concluded Ratner.
He also uses the LiveU for internal streams where the event may not be streamed out to the public. “We often live-tweet and produce content during our live shows. Many of my co-workers are working remotely from other states. I stream the events to a private Facebook group so they can live-tweet and do their thing from wherever they are.”