5 Must-Have Tools to Start Your Live Streaming Journey

Hi! I’m Nicolas Ayerbe-Barona, Senior Program Manager for the TELUS STORYHIVE On Location program. At STORYHIVE, we support emerging live streamers, presenters and hosts to bring their communities to life—one interview at a time.

Through the On Location program, local storytellers across B.C. and Alberta have covered everything from the Krampus Parade in Kamloops to karate classes in Lethbridge. These live streamers have become on-the-ground guides, capturing the pulse of their hometowns and spotlighting the stories that make them unique.

But every great storyteller starts somewhere. If you're ready to step in front of the camera and share your slice of the world, here are five essential pieces of equipment to help launch your live streaming journey.

A Camera

Going live has never been easier. Whether it's your laptop’s webcam or using the latest one-tap streaming cameras like the Hollyland VenusLiv 2, the right camera equipment is the number one tool for streamers. After all, you are running a live video show. In-studio and on the go, STORYHIVE On Location crews have used all of them, including high level cinema cameras connected to capture cards! While there are many streaming platforms, you only need 50 subscribers on YouTube to go live directly on the smartphone app (no other tools required). For anyone out there who maybe doesn’t have 50 friends and family to sub your channel, you are building your audience and have a little technical know-how in your toolbelt, you can also just go live using any multitude of streaming apps found on any app store (RTMP Live, Streamlab, Larix and Broadcaster are just a few). If you are thinking of starting a live streaming journey just remember that the most important tool is already in the back of your pocket (your smartphone) and the rest are all nice-to-haves.

A Microphone

Unless you are planning to run the first silent live stream, your second most important tool is your microphone. On the go, our crews are big fans of the latest generation of portable wireless microphones and two brands are leading the way: Rode and DJI. Talk to any professional sound engineer and you’ll be sold hundreds of brands worth thousands of dollars and way too many mics for you to really even learn about. Just like cameras, sound is a whole world of tech and gear all on its own. And if you do use a professional sound person on set, then you are golden as they will do all the work for you. But here at On Location we are always moving around, going from studios to the streets, to someone’s apartment or to another city. A good streamer needs to have the ability and flexibility to hit ‘record’ and just go. These tiny mics come from two highly reputable brands, clip on any item of clothing, are easy to hide, can connect to a wired microphone and, most importantly, just sound good! Like any tool in video, you’ll have to maybe study a tutorial or two and tinker with three (or four) settings to get it right. Practice makes perfect!

A Portable Mobile WiFi Router

Access to a good, solid and fast internet connection is without a doubt what makes live streaming happen real-time, without a hitch and takes it from a pre-recorded video to a real live stream. Wherever you are recording, the first thing to check is the reliability of your internet connection. You don’t want to be in the middle of a great interview with a farmer out in the fields and have your live stream show drop in the middle of the conversation! Using a portable mobile WiFi router connected to a data plan is the simplest way to have internet in the most remote areas. Some are as affordable as $30 (and you’ll need a data plan), but you can also find incredibly powerful ones that use up to three separate SIM cards and connect to a WiFi router to make a super-strong cellphone connection. Check the internet speeds using speedtest.net before going live and if anything goes wrong you can also just carry an ethernet cable with you and plug into your guests’ modem (ask them politely first!). 

A laptop or second-screen

You will need this to check that you truly are going live without a hitch. Perhaps when you become a super-live streamer you will have achieved the ability to feel totally confident that you are indeed streaming and live on the internet but any good streamer will bring with them a second screen of some kind to login into your show as a viewer and check that everything (internet, video, sound) is working just fine. Bring a friend and they can be your producer behind the scenes checking the show, cutting to camera B, and throwing in a graphic or two. In the world of entertainment, practice, rehearsal, and double-triple checking everything is essential, so check if your streams are actually going live before going live-live. Most modern laptops are perfect little streaming machines themselves, as they come with microphones, webcams, and can connect to the internet, so it is also very common to use them as a portable studio using apps like OBS, a free and open-source, cross platform, screencasting and live streaming app used by all the professional streamers to run complex live stream shows that include video clips, images, text on screen and switching between multiple cameras. Only a few years ago, video professionals had to carry around big mixing boards to switch between multiple cameras if you were running a semi-professional show, but now with a laptop and enough tinkering knowledge on your part, everyone is capable of becoming their own TV studio. I highly recommend OBS, but you can also use paid apps like vMix, Wirecast and Xsplit. And yes, if you love mixing boards you can also still get a livestream device like the Yololiv Yolobox or the Blackmagic ATEM Mini Pro if you want to feel like a real TV producer. That’s not counting the fact that your laptop is still just a laptop and will be where you do all your prep and post work for your show: notes, spreadsheets, emails, Zoom calls, social media marketing and video clip edits.

A tripod (or something like it)

As a live streamer, you need a support system and I don’t necessarily mean your friends and family (or your therapist), though I highly recommend having a group of trusted advisors and friends around you who will support you on your way. I am actually talking about tripods, monopods, video rig kits, stabilizers and even selfie-sticks. The SmallRig All-in-On Video Kit Pro has been our go to at STORYHIVE On Location for smartphones since it includes a cage for your phone, handles for stabilization, and several mounting points for extra accessories like small lights and microphones. You can handhold it or you can set it down on a table with its legs open and voila you’ve got a support system for your phone. Tripods and Monopods are great too and we found very quickly, early on that everyone enjoyed shooting far more on the monopod than the traditional tripod. It is the perfect tool to go from static shooting to mobile shooting. All of these pieces of equipment help stabilize your camera by adding weight and balance, instantly making your shots look more stable avoiding any of the dreaded handshake look. Be careful of flimsy dollar store tripods made of plastic, while they are comfortable to carry they can also be carried away easily by the wind along with your camera and right into the ground. Good tripods and monopods tend to be made of harder materials that add a little weight and are rugged to sustain a variety of environments. In the end, you could just get a cage rig like the SmallRig for whichever camera you are using. There are multiple brands out there to fit different camera packages, and it is not uncommon for semi-professionals and professionals to build their perfect support system later in their careers made up of all kinds of parts from all kinds of brands.

Now that you’ve got an idea of what you might need for your live streaming toolkit, get inspired to start your very own live streaming show! 

Explore TELUS STORYHIVE On Location live streams now on TELUS Optik TV Video on Demand channel 9.