Blog Posts by Alex Hilleary

This post covers how to make money from a live stream with sponsorships using the Graphic Overlays feature from BoxCast. It's part of our series on BoxCast Features.

Not all organizations have the same goals in mind when they start to live stream. Many broadcasters use live streaming as a way to promote their events to viewers for free. Others want to earn revenue with their live content. Some want to do a little of both.

When it comes to making money with your live stream, there are two main options. You can charge your viewers to watch your stream with ticketing, or you can offer sponsorships opportunities on your stream. This post talks about how to add logos and ads to your stream to earn money from streaming sponsorships.

This post addresses frame rate (fps) and the role that it plays in creating a great quality live stream. It's part of our series on HD live streaming.

While many factors affect the quality of your live video, resolution and frame rate are the most prominent. In this post, we'll talk about the latter.

Note: You can read more on video resolution here.

In this post, we'll reflect on the major trends in live streaming over the last five years. Then we'll make some predictions on how the industry will continue to develop into the future.

In 2018, BoxCast celebrated its 5th Birthday 🥳 !

It's been a wild ride so far. The live streaming landscape going into 2019 barely resembles that of 2013. It's a fast-paced world, but that's what makes it so exciting.

This post is an overview of live streaming video resolution. We talk about standard-definition (480p + 480i), high-definition (720p, 1080i, + 1080p) and 4K video resolutions. It's the main post in our series on HD Live Streaming.

The video world is advancing quickly. It's tough for us all to keep pace with increasing standards and qualities.

Video resolution is only one aspect that affects the quality of a live stream. Alongside frame rate, it's the feature most top of mind in determining video quality.

If you're responsible for your organization's live streaming strategy and need to wrap your head around the advancement of video resolution, you're in the right spot.

This post explores identifying upload speeds required for broadcasting, finding your current bandwidth, and troubleshooting potential connection issues. It's the main post in our series on upload speed for live streaming.

Most broadcasters recognize the critical role of network connections in creating great live video.

As a result, one of the most common questions we hear at BoxCast is, “What internet speed do I need to live stream?”

Our answer— to the frustration of our inquirers— is almost always, "It depends."

Unfortunately, the response involves more intricacy than a simple calculation. This post provides the information, context, and tools needed to estimate the network speeds you require for a high-quality broadcast.

This post covers how to make the most of the significant moments in your live stream with highlight clipping. It's part of our series on BoxCast Features.

When you live stream, some moments stand out more than others. As a broadcaster, you may want to highlight particular moments in your stream. Those moments could be anything from a soccer goal to a particularly interesting quote from a speaker.

One way to note those moments is by tagging them in the video index of your live stream. If you want to capture those moments in a more shareable format, you need the ability to clip highlights.

On most live streaming platforms, capturing highlights requires downloading the recorded video, editing it elsewhere, and re-uploading clip it as a separate highlight file. At BoxCast, we make capturing highlights easy.

This post talks about how to create high quality live video from your iPhone. It covers internet, stabilization, audio, and choosing the right streaming platform. It's part of our series on How to Start Live Streaming.

In concept, live streaming from your phone appears straightforward. You just whip out your iPhone and press record, right?

Not quite. Anyone who has live streamed from a mobile device before will tell you that there are a few more factors involved in creating a quality live stream.

This post breaks down those factors which include internet, stabilization, audio, the right platform.

This post addresses features like Captions, Graphic Overlays, Video Indexing, and Document Uploads that take your live stream viewer experience from good to great. It's part of our series on BoxCast Features.

Your live stream lives and dies by how your viewers experience it. If you don't create a great experience for your audience, they won't come back to watch it again.

Notable factors that are fundamental to creating a watchable live stream include video resolution, video frame rate, transcoding, audio quality, and proactive monitoring. These are the basics. If you successfully consistently deliver on these, you are delivering a good viewer experience.

This post talks about how to use emoji effectively as a means to communicate with your organization's audiences. It's part of our series on How to Start Live Streaming.

What began as a fun addition to person-to-person communication, emoji have now entered the mainstream. More and more organizations are using emoji in a professional communication setting.

Will it last? Is it a fad? Who knows 🤔.

You think emoji aren't professional enough for your organization? No problem. Don't use them 🙅‍♂️.

Side Note: As a marketer, I myself, was a little late to the game. I was dubious at first, but I ultimately came to value the upsides.

Organizations can use emojis to:

1️⃣ To become more approachable and fun

2️⃣ To seem relevant to younger audiences

3️⃣ To create text fields that stand out

This post explores the wider range of options for adding captions to your live stream. It's part of our series on BoxCast Features.

Captioning your video content is an important step in making your video content more accessible to everyone. It also may be important to meet compliance standards for your organization.

More than 30 million Americans live with a form of hearing loss. Millions of others are illiterate, learning to read, or use English as a second language. It's more likely than not, that some of these people are your viewers.

In this post, we'll address your options for adding captions to your live stream. Then we'll talk about how we do it at BoxCast.