The global pandemic was something none of us expected from 2020, and aside from the clear challenges this has placed on our national health service, many other industries have suffered and had to adapt too. The music industry is one of these, with all live and in-person concerts, gigs, theatre performances being entirely off the cards.
Virtual concerts have always existed, but the lockdown has forced them to take the spotlight. What first was a substitute for live events and an effort to keep the live music industry going during the pandemic, has now arguably become the new norm. Not only do virtual concerts benefit musicians, producers and venues financially at a time when people are unable to spend money face-to-face, but they have also helped to keep a large portion of the UK population sane during a scary time.
On top of this, virtual events and concerts are not what they used to be. Constant advances in technology mean that artists can push boundaries and offer an entirely different yet refreshing live music experience for people no matter where they are.
If you’re a music venue, musician, producer or merely an individual who is looking to stream music or theatre live from a venue or your home, Zidivo have put together a simple guide to hosting a virtual concert and some key reasons why virtual events are so crucial in the current climate.
First things first, whether you’re an independent artist looking to stream a performance from your living room or you are going down a high production route, hiring out a large venue and working with professional producers, you need to decide whether your virtual concert will be pre-recorded or live.
There are pros and cons to doing each, with pre-recorded offering you room to make errors or for aspects of your performance to go wrong. Pre-recorded events also allow you to add visuals and make edits to ensure your concert is as entertaining and visually appealing as possible.
On the other hand though, at a time when we are all missing the atmosphere and ability to go to concerts or the theatre, live virtual shows allow you to achieve a certain level of spontaneity and unpredictability that live events bring. To offer a live virtual concert that doesn’t let your audience down though, you will need to have a robust and highly reliable internet connection and sufficient equipment to offer your stream at professional quality.
Billie Eilish is one artist that has set the tone for virtual concerts in 2020, with her ‘Where Do We Go?’ live stream blowing people away and pushing the boundaries for what a live virtual event can offer. The live stream offered visuals to transform the backdrop for each song and show the audience an authentic experience that, while it doesn’t compare to live music, changed the live streaming game. Keep in mind, though; your live streams don’t need to be high-production events that involve a large investment, all you need is a smartphone or HD camera to offer a high-resolution image quality.
Your virtual concert can be high-brow or minimal and straightforward, depending on your purpose and goals. If you want to offer a professional, attention-grabbing live stream that you plan to monetise, you will need multiple cameras to provide a range of shots like close-ups, wide shots and various angles.
Alternatively, you can offer a more intimate concert online using a simple smartphone, tripod and well-lit setting.
Before going live or recording a video, it's important to consider where your virtual concert will be shared. With all social platforms now offering the ability to go live, you can share your event to your existing audience and following on a specific platform for free.
For artists wanting to generate revenue from their stream at a time when funding is limited for independent artists and musicians, you may want to opt for a more professional live streaming platform to share your content. This way, you can monetise your stream on a pay-per-view basis, where only those who pay a certain fee can have access to the concert.
There’s no good hosting a virtual event or concert if you don’t have the budget or time to invest for promotion. People need to know about your event if they are to consider tuning in at a particular time or parting with their money.
In the run-up to your virtual concert, be vocal on all your social channels and even use paid advertising to make sure your target audience know where to find it when to tune in, who is performing and what the concert will entail.
Even in a pandemic, people are busy and have lots on their mind. Make sure to set up reminders and send out regular updates beforehand, or you can end up with a limited audience and a wasted investment.
Virtual concerts and events, in general, have been a saving grace for many people during the pandemic, and the chances are they aren’t going to disappear anytime soon with many big names offering live streams. They allow artists, venues and merchandisers to generate revenue, increase the accessibility of events and go hand in hand with the constant advances in live streaming technology.
Zidivo now offers a complete virtual events package, including all artists need to launch a successful event online. Depending on your needs, equipment and experience, you can build your package. Whether you need a complete package including a website, restricted access features, custom domains and support with live streaming, or you simply need Zidivo to be a helping hand should anything go wrong during your event.
Get in touch with the team today at hello@zidivo.com to find out more about hosting virtual events!
The lockdown period and limitations on how much exercise we can do outdoors has forced people to become far more resourceful about how they can stay active. Although this period is drawing to an end, people’s exercise habits will not. Virtual gym classes and online fitness regimes, in general, have taken off becoming the new norm with the access to thousands of virtual training classes, whether people want an aggressive HIIT workout that leaves them dripping with sweat or a more relaxed and meditative yoga session.
Virtual exercise allows people to exercise when they want, where they want and how they want, eliminating the need to travel and requiring only a smartphone to have a workout at your fingertips. Whether you are a personal trainer, yogi, CrossFitter or just general fitness fanatic and you haven’t yet branched out into the world of virtual exercise, you will be missing out on a huge potential audience and the chance to grow both your online and offline presence.
To help you start to offer your clients or indeed prospective clients a range of live or on-demand, the team of experts at Zidivo have put together a guide on planning and setting up high-quality and consistent virtual gym classes.
First things first, if you are a professional personal trainer or fitness coach and you don’t yet have a domain or dedicated site to direct prospective clients to, you should aim to get this sorted first. Setting up a simple website with a custom domain that is unique to your personal brand or the company you represent allows you to restrict access or monetize certain areas according to pricing packages, separate your content into live streams and on-demand workouts, and interact with clients in dedicated chatrooms to improve your virtual classes as time goes on.
While social media is an invaluable place for sharing mini-workouts or tips for your audience and gaining reach, you don’t want to remain completely at the mercy of Instagram or Facebook when sharing your hard work online. By only sharing your workouts on social platforms, you run the risk of these being taken down or your account being suspended, should you use music or they believe you to be using sensitive language. By all means, use social media to promote your virtual gym classes, but don’t rely on it as a sole means for delivering a service, particularly if you want to make some money from your well-thought-out virtual events that take time and dedication to set up.
Zidivo’s virtual events package is aimed at individuals who may not have a website but that want to share online classes, courses and more with an audience. You can tailor the package to suit your budget, goals and requirements, whether you need an entire website set up with multiple areas or you only need a simple one-page site to share live workouts a few times a week.
Although lockdown may be drawing to an end and gyms may start to offer a certain number of physical classes in the coming months, the world of virtual fitness will not. Make sure to invest in a decent quality and reliable camera, such as a DSLR or camcorder, to offer your workouts in the top-quality long term. While a simple smartphone can be enough for those on limited budgets, your audience is far more likely to engage and react well to a video in a high resolution with a crisp image for them to follow along with.
Once you’re confident in the visual quality of your workouts, think about your audio. Wireless microphones such as in-ear buds or those that you can position nearby to your workout area are best to make sure your audience can hear your instructions and motivational words loud and clear.
Make sure to test each live stream or on-demand video thoroughly before you get started, including your internet connection. Your bandwidth needs to overcompensate for the requirements of your video bitrate to make sure your workouts don’t buffer or dip in and out as this can severely affect your audience’s motivation and your reputation.
Before you rush into recording workouts and uploading them to social media or your website, you should have a strategy in mind. Think about the types of content your audience reacts well to, would they prefer a daily workout in the form of a live stream or a pre-recorded on-demand version that they can follow at a time that suits them? If you can, try to mix it up and offer your clients both live and on-demand videos to appeal to a wider range of people - some people might like the commitment involved in a live stream whereas others may work long and varying hours at work and need a workout schedule they can adapt to their lifestyle.
Asking your audience what they want to see and publishing weekly timetables of the workouts you will be offering allows people to plan ahead and commit themselves.
Whether you are an individual or you are representing a larger establishment or training course, always keep your branding largely consistent. How? Think about your editing styles, your intros and outros, the language and motivational techniques you use and your setup. People love consistency so these are all elements that will play a part in establishing a brand for yourself online.
While it’s important to make sure that the live and pre-recorded virtual exercise classes you put out there are top-quality and representative of your skill level, if no one sees your content, what’s the point? Generating an audience for your virtual classes is key and involves plenty of preparation in advance. You can’t let your client base know about a workout ten minutes before you go live - you need a weekly timetable including the equipment required, time of day, duration and intensity of each workout so your audience can decide which they want to join in for.
Aside from the importance of promoting your live streams beforehand to optimise your reach, it makes people accountable. By getting your audience to commit to joining in for a workout at a certain time, you are less likely to have unsuccessful workouts with people dropping out at the last minute.
Offering virtual exercise classes has never been more accessible or beneficial for professional trainers or gym fanatics to build their reputation and earn money doing what they enjoy. If you are interested in starting to offer your workouts online you can start a free 30-day trial of the Zidivo platform today. Or, for those who want to kickstart a virtual exercise strategy on a larger scale, get in touch for a quote using our live chat.
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It’s common practise for businesses and professionals these days to utilise live streaming in some way. Whether it’s used on a small scale as a means to build relationships with their audience or to host large scale and high-production virtual events.
The popularity of live streaming is partially down to the fact that it is now widely accessible and completely adaptable to any budget. With all major social platforms offering free live streaming features and larger live streaming platforms like Zidivo offering professional features at affordable prices, businesses of any size can try their hand at live video. While established brands can use it to offer professional-quality streams with interchanging camera angles, smaller businesses can use it just as effectively with a simple smartphone and tripod. You get to decide how complex your live streams are and, in turn, have the budget available to fund it.
There are a number of key components that will determine the budget required for your planned live streams. For example, what type of video do you have in store for your audience? Are you planning a live virtual event that will be highly dynamic or a simple sit-down video with one person talking to the camera? The complexity, content and equipment needed to pull off your live stream will all have an influence on the budget you need available.
The quality of the viewing experience you want to offer your audience plays a big part in how much you should be willing to spend. For brands that want to offer their audience high-resolution streams in 1080p or, even better, 4k HD as many cameras allow these days, its important to be prepared for the extra costs that this will ensue. While it’s true that video quality is key and your audience won’t stick around to watch a blurry live stream, this doesn’t mean you have to invest in top of the range camera and audio equipment - a smartphone can do the job.
Another element of your production is the equipment required. For example, brands looking to host large scale events online that offer their audience multiple views, camera angles and audio feeds, will need far more equipment. Multi-camera live streams are entirely possible and incredibly effective, but they ramp up your overall budget considerably, requiring multiple cameras, microphones, a video switcher and a reliable encoder to make sure your feeds are ready to be streamed across the internet. For brands with lower production streams in mind, there is tons of encoding software out there so you can go live straight from a smartphone to your website with minimal setup, funding or internet bandwidth required.
Once you have a good idea of how complex you plan your streams to be and how much your equipment is going to cost, think about the duration of your live streams. The longer your videos, the stronger and more reliable your internet connection and live streaming platform will need to be, again affecting the cost. Think about how long you expect your average viewer to watch your video content to make sure you don’t go overboard and risk your audience losing interest.
Keep in mind that the higher the resolution and the more complex your stream, the higher your video’s bitrate will be. At Zidivo, we use video bitrate to help our users figure out their live streaming budgets. Simply enter the bitrate offered by your video encoder, along with the number of viewers and your estimated video length, to receive an approximate monthly budget and advice on which of our pricing plans is right for you!
The aim of your live stream will also affect how much you should be willing to spend. Due to the wide range of purposes that live streams can serve and goals that it can help brands to achieve, it’s important to make sure that your equipment, video quality and live streaming platform allow you to reach your goals.
There are several questions to ask yourself. Do you need your streams to be password-protected or extra secure? Do you need a white-label platform that allows you to customise your HTML5 players to represent your brand? Or, do you not yet have a website and need a platform that allows you to create your own webpages to host live streams? Do you want to be able to analyse the success of your live streams using analytics tools? The aim of your live videos will affect the features that you need your live streaming platform to offer and how much you will have to invest.
At Zidivo, we offer users the chance to find a package that works for them and allows them to bring their visions to life. Whether you are looking to work with a live streaming company for a one-off project, or you want to sign-up to one of our monthly packages to live stream in professional quality on a regular basis.
We understand that each company has its own plans and goals, which is why our packages cater to businesses of all sizes and levels. Benefit from our easy live streaming cost calculator or speak to us on ‘live chat’ to get a free quote today.