Product Review: LiveU Solo
By Jim Bask
When I was first approached about reviewing the new LiveU Solo I admit, I was skeptical.
I have seen LiveU units used throughout the industry for several years. On election day 2016, I spent most of the day at WSB-TV in Atlanta and they were using LiveU units all over the state. Literally, they were covering a major trial in the southern part of the state and used another unit in the north to cover the election. I was impressed but thought “that’s something, we will never be able to do.” Boy was I wrong.
The LiveU solo is a bonded video encoder that allows you to stream to a variety of services including the obvious Facebook and YouTube. Bonded video encoders are the best way to make sure you stay live. The units use multiple network connections to maintain a solid transmission despite changes in location or other problems that plague live streams. The LiveU Solo can bond a wireless signal, a wired internet connection, and up to Two cellular modems. This allows the LiveU Solo to produce a high definition video stream without pushing too much data over a poor connection, instead balanceing load across multiple interfaces
The LiveU Solo unit is about the size of a brick and weighs enough to make it feel it can handle any job. The carrying case provided with the unit allows you to wear it on a belt or a backpack with the attached clip. The rugged metal design on the model we tested (HDMI Version) has Two USB connections, 1 HDMI connection, and an ethernet jack. There are only Two buttons on the unit – One to connect and disconnect and the other to change settings, etc. The unit is extremely simple to set up. Connect everything and power it up. The LiveU Solo has a built in battery that lasted just over 3 hours while streaming. It took about an hour to get back to a full charge. You can also power the unit during a broadcast with the provided power supply.
Setup of the LiveU Solo was a breeze. I had one issue and it was self imposed (read as: I didn’t read the instructions) and when I contacted support they responded within 10 minutes on a Sunday morning! I was blown away. I thought it would be at least 2 hours before I got the resolution. The LiveU Solo user panel online was easy to use and synched the unit with the broadcast specs very quickly….[continue reading]