The Ultimate Guide On How To Create A Live Video Streaming App

When it comes to targeting millennial markets, live streaming is probably the go-to vehicle for businesses. The fact that Amazon competed intensely with Google so as to purchase Twitch.TV for a whopping $970 million speaks volumes about how profitable the business of live streaming is. Twitch.TV has a phenomenally huge user community of gamers who take pride and pleasure in showcasing their gaming skills live. It is to be very much kept in mind that Twitch.Tv isn’t a pioneer in the live streaming segment. As a matter of fact, it was created as a spin-off of Justin.TV. There are various other disruptors such as Periscope, Meerkat etc. Disruption in the live streaming market is fine but there are many more possibilities to be explored. For instance, there are movie streaming websites, sports streaming websites etc.

If you have a potentially appealing live video streaming idea which can attract masses, you should definitely consider launching your own live video streaming app. Here is a brief guide on how to launch your own live broadcast app:

Choose Your Platform

Before launching your own live video streaming app, it is important to choose a platform and intended target audiences. The following questions shall help you in this regard:

• Who are your target audiences?
• Do you want to incorporate features such as video conference and chat?
• Will audiences be able to create their respective profiles on your app?
• Do you intend to charge them for live streaming events? If not, how else are you planning to monetize your live broadcast app?

You are required to make decisions at the very outset. Otherwise, scaling your live video streaming app will be difficult.

Key Considerations

Model:

It is important to identify the operational levels of your live video streaming app. Do you require your app to be operated on a one-to-one basis? For all intents and purposes, the one-one model is only for individuals who intend to live stream their videos to their friends and families. One-to-many model is for all those who intend to live stream their videos to a broader audience.

Interest Generation:

It is a good practice to allow free user sign-ups. This generates interest amongst audiences.  

Customization:

Your live broadcast app should have sufficient customization options. For instance, a customer should be able to tweak his / her profile according to his / her discretion.

Live Chat Feature:

Many live video streaming apps which operate on ‘one to many’ operational basis usually incorporate this feature. It is therefore suggested to incorporate this feature in your live broadcast app as well.

Canned Solutions:

Considering the presence of various WordPress plug-ins, Video Whisper plug-in requires a special mention for its popularity amongst the members of video streaming community. However, this isn’t a good plug-in when it comes to customization. Options are pretty much confusing and users might end-up in a mess. Live video streaming apps are high load applications. More often than not, programmers use Java for coding heavy apps.

Licensing

It is important to link your content with servers. My personal favorite has always been Amazon AWS. The best thing about Amazon AWS is that scaling your app –from small to large instances will be easy. Wowza streaming server is also good.

CDN: Content Delivery Network

A Content Delivery Network is a network of servers which help you deliver your content to various people across a swathe of countries.  CDNs are associated with high-capacity infrastructure. In other words, they have superior scalability offered by sites such as Google, Microsoft or Yahoo. Apart from solving problems such as poor latency and severe packet loss, they offer higher availability of data. Content Delivery Networks have a distributed data architecture. In other words, CDNs have several localized data centers which are closer to the users, thereby enabling faster downloads. Yet another interesting aspect of CDNs is that they boost performance and minimize your existing hosting costs. Thanks to CDNs, not only can you save bandwidth but also distribute the load.

Reliable Hosting

Beyond any shadow of doubt, live video streaming exacts a lot of bandwidth power. It is a known fact that audiences have a distaste for slow buffering and frozen videos. So it is recommended to invest on a decent hosting solution.  Here are a few stats to help you make a decision in this regard:

• To watch a video whose resolution is 720 pixels, each and every user requires bandwidth of 4 Mbps.
• If more than 2500 users intend to watch the same video simultaneously, bandwidth of 10 Gbps is required.

Take your investment decision based on the afore-mentioned facts. Sometimes, people tend to migrate to advanced hosting solutions depending on the volume of web-traffic. This isn’t a bad decision at all.

Theme and Design

When it comes to the aspect of choosing a theme, entrepreneurs find themselves in a bind. Of course, there are awesome themes available on the web. However, I suggest you hire professional web developers with superior expertise in UX design. Tell them your requirements and wait for your theme to get drafted/designed.

Channels

Are you interested in providing an option of creating channels to your users? If yes, every streamer should have enough privileges and permissions to tweak his / her channel according to his / her volition. Also, your live video streaming app should be safe, secure and should prevent streamers of one channel from making any modifications to the channels of other streamers.

Controlling Uploads

Sometimes, streamers might be streaming objectionable content such as child pornography or extreme violence etc. Streamers who do not adhere to the app guidelines and principles of etiquette should be blocked from accessing your live broadcast app. Also, users shouldn’t interrupt each other while uploading their videos. They should be able to lock-in their profile.

Monetization Options

The following monetization options should be in the offing:

• Pay per View
• Pay per Download
• Subscription plans: Monthly / Quarterly / Annual
• Advertisements – Banners, Pop under and in-video
• Sponsorships

After doing enough research- both primary and secondary, I opted for StreamNow. It perfectly caters to all my live video streaming requirements. You should give it a try as well.

If you have any doubts or concerns, feel free to drop a line or two in the comments section. I shall reply in a day or two. My best wishes are with you and your live broadcast app. To get content delivered to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter. Keep watching this space for insights on live video streaming apps and upcoming trends in live video streaming. Cheers!