10 Tips to Improve Your Broadcasts

10 Tips to Improve Your Broadcasts 

If you are reading this, I’ll assume you’ve just started your broadcasting journey and I’m proud of you. We all are! Or maybe you are an experienced broadcaster. Regardless, these tips could help guide your broadcasts to new heights. Some of these may be obvious, but it is always nice to have good broadcasting habits. So without further ado, let’s take a look at 10 tips to improve your broadcasts.

1. Internet Connection

Improving your internet / mobile connection can be a crucial step in improving your broadcasts. If you are broadcasting from a computer, having an Ethernet connection can greatly improve stability. People and things can interfere with your WiFi connection, causing dips in your speed and reliability. If you must go with WiFi, try to stay close to the router. If you are streaming on the go from a mobile device, you will have to be reliant on your signal unless you can connect to a hotspot or WiFi.

2. Bitrate & Resolution

To follow up on your internet connection, choosing the right bitrate for you is also important. As a general rule, you can set your bitrate up to half of your upload speed at most. For example, say you have a 3 Mbps (3,000 Kbps) upload speed. You should be able to support a bitrate of 1,500 Kbps.

Next we need a resolution for your bitrate. If your resolution is set a lot larger than the bitrate can generally support, your broadcast quality will appear blurry. Here is a rough guideline to keep in mind:

Recommended bitrate for 720p: 2000 Kbps

Recommended bitrate for 480p: 1000 Kbps

Recommended bitrate for 360p: 750 Kbps

Recommended bitrate for 240p: 400 Kbps

These recommendations are just a general outline. The more active the screen, the more bitrate is required to keep it looking smooth. However, this will affect gaming streams more than social streams.

3. Closing Programs/Applications

If your stream is running slow or choppy, try closing all unused programs and apps. Broadcasting uses a lot of your computer’s or mobile device’s resources. Specifically the encoder you are using to live stream. You want your computer to be putting forth all of its effort towards the broadcast and not on unused programs.

If your stream continues to buffer a lot, try lowering your bitrate.

4. Which Encoder?

There is a plethora of ways for you to broadcast on AfreecaTV. You have our own software, the PC Studio, OBS/Xsplit, and apple/android mobile devices.  All have their own pros and cons, but maybe one is better for you than the others.

The PC Studio is a simple way to get started on your computer and offers chat advantages to the Dashboard when using OBS/Xsplit. However, the PC Studio doesn’t run on OS X. If you would like to broadcast from your apple computer, try using OBS.

For gamers, I would highly recommend setting up your broadcast with either OBS or XSplit. You can find a quick guide on how to get started here: http://www.afreeca.tv/help/#pt=faq#no=12. There is also a large amount of resources and guides online for setting up your OBS/Xsplit for broadcasting.

With your mobile device, you miss out on a lot of the advantages that a computer offers. However, you have the advantage of being able take your camera and show anywhere! Your portable device allows you to pick up and go when you want or to broadcast on the fly when you see something cool.

5. Test Your Broadcast

Broadcasting without doing a test run is like skydiving without checking your parachute. Sure you might have a lot of fun, but you might look back and find a few holes in your chute. Run a full test of your broadcast. Invite a friend or two to watch your broadcast to check the sound and quality of your broadcast.

You can always password/hide your test broadcasts to prevent others from coming in and interrupting.

6. Viewer Interaction

Don’t forget about your viewers. Interacting can be one of the best ways to gain viewership. While you have tons to offer your viewers, they will most likely want to offer something back. Having the ability to ask questions and interact with you, plus the other viewers, can have a profound impact on your live stream.

7. Promote Yourself

If you don’t let people know you are streaming, how are they going to find you? Sure, people on the site will stop by and watch, but perhaps you have a following elsewhere. Let your followers on YouTube, Twitter, Tumblr or other platforms know where you broadcast!

8. Consistency

This is an important tip for not only regular broadcasters, but for first time streamers as well. Try to keep your broadcast schedule consistent. You will be hard to follow if your broadcasts are random and sporadic. Keep consistent with the day and time you stream to keep your viewership consistent and informed.

Take advantage of the new scheduling feature. Schedule your broadcasts so that users can see when you plan to go live on the homepage.

9. Patience

Success doesn’t happen overnight. It will take time to learn what works best for you to gain more followers and viewership. Try out new things and build up your community over time.

10. Ask For Help

You can always come to us for help with setting up your broadcast and getting started. Alternatively, you can always give us suggestions on how we can improve your broadcasting experience on AfreecaTV. You are more than welcomed to email us anytime at support@afreeca.tv.