When creating content, you always want to reach the maximum audience, especially when you're live streaming. But where should you actually stream your live videos to reach all your followers scattered across social media platforms?
The good news is that you don't have to choose a particular platform to stream your videos on. Instead, you can do it for all the channels simultaneously through a single platform, with a technique known as simulcasting.
What is Simulcast?
As evident by the name, simulcasting combines the words simultaneous and broadcasting. When a livestream is sent to more than one channel or various destinations at the same time, it's known as simulcasting.
Let's take the example of a live football match. As it's happening, the same match is broadcast simultaneously on various TV channels and can be streamed online as well. This is simulcasting.
Benefits of Simulcasting
Imagine having to send your content individually to all the platforms you'd like to build a presence on. With simulcasting, you only have to put in the effort once and stream to all the platforms and channels you'd like. It makes for a great return on investment (ROI).
When you simulcast, you can constantly gather feedback from your audiences across channels. This widens your feedback loop and enables you to create better content, making you more popular with your followers.
Additionally, you can monetize your livestreams either through ads or through subscriptions. Monetizing across multiple platforms with simulcasting makes for a better ROI than streaming separately to a few limited platforms.
How Does Simulcasting Actually Work?
There are three ways in which simulcasting primarily works.
Use specialized simulcasting software.
Using specialized software is one of the best options for simulcasting. It gives you greater control over your setup. But the biggest drawback is that it can prove to be very expensive. Unless you're planning on investing a fair amount of money, this probably isn't the right way to go.
Use a software encoder, though this will require a fair amount of technical knowledge.
Livestreaming to multiple platforms must be enabled at the encoder level for this solution. The downside is that the bandwidth requirement is higher, as multiple copies of the same livestream must be dished out simultaneously.
Ask your service provider to give you a share code, and it's done!
Using share codes is the easiest , most hassle-free way of setting up your simulcast. Technical knowledge is not required and the effort involved in the streaming process is minimum. This helps you focus on the actual content you're creating, and not on the technicalities involved in getting your content to your audiences.
Simulcasting is the Way to Go
Brand building is a difficult process in itself. Getting viewers for your content is challenging enough, given that there's no dearth of content available out there. But if you can simplify the technical process, it saves you time and energy to focus on the other challenging tasks at hand.
In order to make your simulcast a success, you must test the setup beforehand. Inform your audiences well in advance so that they can plan around your stream and be available. Monitor the stream to see how users are reacting to your content.
There is no one size fits all simulcasting solution available. You should choose the one that suits your needs and isn't too hard on your pocket. After all, you are doing it to make life simpler.