Live streaming offers the most immediate and authentic way for someone or a business to connect with its audience. Simply being live allows it to stand apart from regular pre-recorded videos thanks to the possibility for something unexpected to occur and for the streamer’s personality to shine through unfiltered. In this sense, to uphold the authenticity of the medium, you’d think that just a bare live video without any extras would be best.
However, the whole experience doesn’t have to be pure and in the moment. As more and more people adopt live streaming for their own personal use or to promote a business, the bar for quality is being raised. Authenticity still comes from the live streamer, but there is an increasing requirement to utilize the technology available and to be more professional where possible. This is where more graphics and integrations can come into play.
Surging Live Streaming Presents More Opportunities
Live streaming has been going from strength to strength since breaking fully into the mainstream at the turn of the decade. Set to grow at a CAGR of 20.9 percent, the forecast Meticulous Research put together sees the live-streaming market as reaching $756.5 billion by 2031. That’s quite a rapid rate of growth, and a lot of the forecast will be down to how the forecasters expect the technology to develop further.
One of the biggest advancements showcased in the mainstream when it comes to live streaming can be seen in live games. The selection of live online roulette at Buzz Casino offers real-time table play with professional croupiers thanks to some additional tech alongside the HD streams. Optical character recognition tools and game control units enable the online interface and game to recognize and reflect game outcomes.
Along with overlays and a live chat function, it’s clear that this is among the more advanced deployments of live streaming and has enhanced the form of online gaming. Still, the most common interactions with live streaming tend to come via platforms like Twitch. According to the viewer statistics of Twitch holds, the average viewer count within 24 hours is over two million, with 1.6 million live viewers at the time of writing. It’s more in this arena that more could be done to enhance the experience of viewers and the live stream itself.
Enhancing The Live Experience
There are several different ways to keep a live stream authentic and about the person streaming or the event being streamed while also powering it up with different graphics and integrations. One of the most popular methods is to use lower thirds. Quite like on a news channel, these lower-thirds graphics have important information like names, key quotes, headlines, and more. Keeping it animated and providing extra information is key.
Similarly, you can run graphics up a sidebar. With the focus of most live streams having the subject in the middle and then possibly another window to the top left, graphics that run along the bottom and up the right side can help to make everything even more informative and engaging. In these parts, you could also integrate social media feeds to act as the live chat or even have it alongside the live chat to offer more ways to engage.
Another way to mix up the live stream is to bring in some pre-recorded video. It shouldn’t be framed as live, such as an old recording of the subject just playing, but rather a supplement that can then be worked from in the live video. Showcasing a pre-recorded video and discussing it with the audience in real-time helps to up the interaction levels. Given what Stadia almost achieved with Crowd Play, even more options to interact in real-time might soon be developed and made available to live streaming platforms.
Graphics and integrations of other forms of media should become much more prevalent as live streaming continues to grow. Down the line, there are bound to be more accessible plug-ins and stream options that will help to make the experience even more immersive.
