Live stream a private event to a selected group

[VJ]

Hello,

I'm looking for ways to live stream a private event (wedding) to a selected group of people that cannot attend (thank you Corona ). The event will be filmed, but using the professional services for streaming has quite some limitations and is expensive.

So we were thinking of other means... The audience would mainly be my family, of which many do not have Facebook but they do have Whatsapp. I'm currently thinking of putting them all in a group and using a Whatsapp group call: my mobile phone gives good video quality, we could add a gimbal/stabilizer and an external microphone and have someone hold it and stream the event via a group call.

I'm also looking at Larix Broadcaster in combination with some free webstream service such as restream.io... It would allow people to more easily see the stream on something other than a mobile...


It would not so much be for the quality (that is why we have the professional filming), but rather to give my side of the family a bit of a feeling of attending the ceremony...

Any other suggestions?
(Bear in mind that I won't be able to set up things at my parents side, so anything complicated that involves installations or configurations is problematic)


Thanks!

[Umfriend]

We used Zoom once and it worked like a charm. As I understand it, it is easily possible to set it up securely but that may require a bit of study.

https://www.tomsguide.com/news/zoom-...y-privacy-woes includes links to faceoffs with Skype and Team (which I think I read have improved considerably since Corona).

[VJ]

Didn't think of Zoom... might be quite easy for my parents to setup based on my instructions.
(WhatsApp may have some limitations in number of people and is more restricted to mobile devices (ok, there is WhatsApp web and so)).

Thanks!

[VJ]

Apparently, the free Zoom has a limit of 30 minutes (but you can reconnect). This may be an issue for my parents....

From asking around, I've heard good things about Google Meet. It may also be easy to explain (go to gmail.com, login, click the icon on the top right, select Meet and enter the code) while giving them the use of a bigger monitor (not just mobile).

I'm still wondering if to get a stabilizer thing, although it seems they are mainly intended for recording with their own camera-app. I'm not sure if/how they work with other apps. Any thoughts? The other option would be a purely gravitational stabilizer, which would always work but maybe not work as well... For sure I would get a tripod adapter and put it on a tripod, but it would be nice if it could be moved around without too much shaking
...

[Umfriend]

Ah yes, did not think of that time limit. No clue about stabilizer.

[UtwigMU]

Get one of phone gimbals. DJI is trusted, watch some reviews on youtube. They are not that expensive.

[VJ]

Yes, I'm looking at those things... I was checking some that are cheaper than DJI and get good reviews. Not sure if I will have a use for it afterwards, although it may be useful for video conferencing as well, or when using the phone as a webcam (new function in Windows 10 2004: you can add a network camera as normal camera, and for sure there are apps for that).

[VJ]

I've ordered a Moza Mini-S in a good promotion. No DJI, but from what I read more than capable for the job. The main reason I got it is that it may be tricky for the person filming to hold the phone relatively steady in a recording position for 15+ minutes. So hopefully the handle on the gimbal and the gimbal itself will help with this. And second reason is that it can be mounted on a tripod.
I'm thinking it may be useful later with video conferencing or so (Windows 10 2004 allows for any network camera to be used as a webcam, or even with whatsapp/skype on the phone), so it may have some use as a dedicated phone tripod after the wedding as well.

I've already sent instructions to my parents, so this weekend we'll test Google Meet...

[VJ]

First test with Google Meet was not without issues... For some reason, my father's Firefox does not allow him to start or join a Google Meet session. It just states "Couldn't join the meeting for some reason. Try again". He has no extensions on his Firefox, and privacy settings for use of camera and microphone are set correctly. Looked a bit on Google, but none of the causes listed seem to apply to his situation (and non of the solutions presented work)... we spent almost an hour on that. But luckily he also has Edge installed, and with Edge it worked from the first try.
Later this week we schedule another test and then a third test with multiple people.

Meanwhile my stabilizer arrived, and it looks fancy. I got the Moza Mini S Essential, as it was one of the cheaper models that still gets good reviews. It is a bit magical to see the gimbal in operation. It has many features (and not a bad app), but for what we need it is very intuitive.

Now thinking that it may be my go-to device for videocalling my parents.

[VJ]

Google meet worked... A friend with a professional Google account suggested that he could record it, so he became the organizer.
The gimbal made it easier for the guy filming, while the phone battery held out without problems.
Lacking other network options, I livestreamed through LTE.

There were huge issues with the sound. I had thought of buying an external microphone, but figured it won't be that important to have very good sound quality. However, the internal phone microphone completely did not manage. Perhaps it had issues with distinguishing sound from background noise? Or there were bandwidth limitations (image also was not always fluent) due to too many people on a small area? The sound can be heard speeding up, slowing down, changing frequency and going completely silent. So that was a bit unlucky. Near the end (after almost 1h30min!), the sound feed from my side died completely, with no idea why.

Either way, my parents were very happy that they at least had some sense of being there. We also have that recording, which is nice. But I'm sure the professional recording will be much better both in sound (they had a microphone near the music, I had a microphone and they may have had access to the mic-feed of the room's microphones) and video (2x 4k cameras on monopods).

So, if you want to do something like that: gimbal and external mic are very highly recommended.

[Umfriend]

So, uhm, you married now?

[UtwigMU]

Congrats VJ!

[VJ]

So, uhm, you married now?

Yep..

Congrats VJ!

Thanks!

We got some videos from other people, and hearing the audio quality there makes me certain the issue was with the connection. The sound on their videos is also not very good, but it does not suffer the weird speed and frequency distortions we observe on our video. But ours was first sent over LTE and recorded elsewhere. The video is not super smooth, but that is less noticeable. Lesson learned for next time we have to livestream something...

[Umfriend]

Conrats! Finally found a woman who'd make an honorable man out of you!

[VJ]

I'm flattered that you think that still is possible.

But thanks. :-)