What to Look for in a Live Stream Delivery Service

Whether you're looking to stream a live event, set up 24/7 streaming, or embed your live stream on an existing platform, OTT streaming gives you the flexibility to stream live everywhere. This makes it one of the most innovative and effective ways to ensure your content is effectively distributed and seen. But what live stream delivery service is going to get you the most leads, viewers, and revenue? Here are some key things to look out for when shopping for your delivery service.

The Ability to Live Stream on Every Screen

If you want to get your live stream events seen, you'll want them playing across the entire planet from any location. Your delivery service should let you configure your encoder so that it can play at any bitrate. The result is that your stream will look as good on a mobile screen as it does in an auditorium! The best services will offer coaching packages that teach you how to use encoders so you can even better optimize the quality of your streams, so be sure to look out for those.

And on Every Platform, Too

Send your live stream to every website, mobile app, OTT, and social platform with the right delivery service. For those with their own OTTs, you can keep your content solely on your platform reaching your existing viewership.

Streaming to places like Facebook and YouTube can offer you additional viewership, and even drive those watching the stream to your website. If you're having a hard time deciding where to send your stream, don't even stress: with the right delivery service, you can send it everywhere at once!

Screen Your Linear Live Streams As Well

There are a few types of linear steaming, AKA 24/7 streaming. Maybe you have a linear stream that you want to be sent to every platform, app, and website that can play it. Your delivery service should certainly link your live encoder to access points globally to get your stream out in the ether. But what about if you want to do a linear loop, which is playing a playlist of VOD assets on an endless loop. These can either be randomized or carefully scheduled.

A cloud-based 24/7 scheduler will allow you to create a constant video stream out of your existing on-demand content and assign them to a “broadcast time” of your choosing. The best schedulers won't even require you to fill every gap between scheduled videos, and instead, fill them automatically with clips or even advertisements! If you don't care about a schedule and are happy to just have a playlist looping randomly, you will still be able to update and modify that playlist at any time.

The world of streaming with OTT allows you to get more eyes on your VOD assets and expand your audience and revenue, so you must partner up with the right people to help you go furthest. Lightcast can do just that, even offering a free consultation on their live streaming services to help you get started. So what are you waiting for? Contact Lightcast today to learn more.