For today’s podcast episode, Alex Burdine and Rachel Grossinger sit down to discuss a few hot livestreaming news topics, including the release of Pococha, the hugely popular Livestreaming app from Japan, as well as Panasonic's latest, the Lumix GH5 II refresh which offers some exciting new features. They also chat with their colleague, Joey Palermino, the Customer Success Lead at Switchboard, to get to know him a bit better and steal some insights for users looking to grow their audiences.
Pococha App
Available for both iOS and Android, Pococha allows broadcasters and viewers to communicate with each other through livestreams. It is based on the concept of "Live Link Life" which is meant to connect with the idea of enjoying every moment. They're also offering ways to drive revenue for content creators, as well as reporting, goals, challenges and more to support that.
Panasonic's GHIII Refresh
This new model is an update, bringing with it 4k video quality and livestreaming functionality. It is a refreshed version of the GH5 video and vlogging camera, with the same body and a 20.3 megapixel sensor, but it comes with some new video capabilities and improved stabilization. You can set the camera up to stream directly over wired or wifi connections at up to 1080p. Panasonic states that it provides easy streaming to YouTube, Facebook, Twitch and others using the Lumix Sync smartphone app.
Getting to Know Joey, Customer Success Lead at Switchboard
Joey grew up in Rockville, Maryland just outside of Washington, D.C. but he currently resides in Boulder, Colorado. He has a background in Sports Account Management and also worked as a Training Specialist. He recently passed his 1 year work anniversary with Switchboard! He offers hands-on training and support to current and new users, making sure they get set up seamlessly!
Joey offers up some suggestions to those looking to grow their audience using Switchboard. There are a handful of good ones here, so take note:
- Scheduling Your Events Prior: On several platforms, like Facebook or YouTube, you can schedule livestream events ahead of time (link to support articles?) which gives you the chance to let followers know ahead of time that you’ll be doing an event. This way, they can plan for it and make sure they show up. You can do this by way of using a Custom RTMP destination within your Switchboard account to connect to that event.
- Quality Production/Setup: The better your production, the better off you’ll be. As with anything, appearance isn’t everything, but impressions do matter. Not everyone is going to be equipped with top-of-the-line gear, but a nice camera is worth the investment, and there are some affordable options out there. So, do the research because it’s all worthwhile if it gives your viewers a better experience.
- More Content = More Streams: The more you stream, the more people will know to hop on board and engage with what you’re doing. It’s not unlike any other content you put out there -- whether that’s blogging, social, emails -- doing it as frequently as you can to let people know they’re going to be getting the latest and greatest updates which is what they want. Give the people what they want!
- Mobile Encoding using Switcher Studio: Did you know you can stream through Switchboard using your mobile phone by incorporating Switcher Studio? This allows you to use multiple mobile inputs with one stream. Feel free to email support if you’d like more information on how this works.
- Use of StreamShare: StreamShare is a feature that allows you to stream to other people’s social channels as well as your own. In order to do so, you just send an invite allowing them to opt-in their channels to your Switchboard account. This functionality provides complete security because there’s no password sharing whatsoever. A great benefit to using StreamShare is that you can exponentially increase your viewership/expand your audience this way, by leveraging your viewers’ social followers.
- Success Using StreamShare, A Use Case: We recently did a webinar with one of our partners, Broadcast Pix. Joey was running the webinar so he sent them an invite using StreamShare which made it possible for them to add 4 of their social media channels to his Switchboard account. So for the webinar, he was streaming to both Switchboard’s social media channels as well as Broadcast Pix’s. Viewership increased instantly by extending our reach using StreamShare’s functionality.
- Joey’s Favorite Switchboard Feature - Autostart: This new feature (by demand!) means that a group of destinations in Switchboard can auto start for you. Meaning, you don’t have to click ‘go live’ by each destination if you use this. Imagine this - you start your encoder, then, once Switchboard receives the content from the encoder, these selected destinations just go live for you which saves you an additional step and allows for a more seamless experience using Switchboard. People absolutely love this new feature!
Feel free to check out this latest Dot Live Experience Podcast episode and prior recordings here.
