From the course: Delivering Video to Facebook Live

Improving the streaming quality of Facebook Live from a mobile device - Facebook Tutorial

From the course: Delivering Video to Facebook Live

Start my 1-month free trial

Improving the streaming quality of Facebook Live from a mobile device

- In order to get better results with your Facebook Live stream, there are a few things you could check before you go live. First up is the connection of your network. I suggest that if possible, you turn on Wi-Fi. This will allow you to connect to a network that's likely going to be faster than your cellular network. Although, I must say, having been in many hotels and convention centers, sometimes cellular is going to be faster than Wi-Fi, so it always pays to check. Now, you might be wondering, how do you check? Well, there are lots of free apps available on websites for speed tests. I've already downloaded a speed test app and this allows me to launch it, and simply check my network connection speed. It's gonna analyze the network and when I tap the go button, connect and let me know how fast our network connection is. I see that our download is very fast. You may recall that a two or three megabits per second download is more than enough. What we're concerned about is upload and here, plenty of speed on the Wi-Fi network as well, although a little bit of fluctuation but I easily have 30 or 40 times the speed that I need. So, that works quite well and I feel confident in the connection speed. Another thing to consider is making sure that the camera isn't moving as much as possible. This could mean using a stabilizer or other choices. By keeping the camera steady, you're gonna see less vibration, which will improve the video quality. Now, one other thing to think about is what happens after the stream, so let's go back in and start a new stream, really quick. I'll come here and just do a quick post. Live video and I'll set this so only friends can see it. There we go. (beeping) Just a quick test stream, feel free to ignore. And let's start the live video. Alright, the video is live and we are talking. Now, if other people were to join in, we'd be able to see that, so as they start to log in, I'll see it. I can also click share broadcast if I want to invite people specifically to see the live webcast. Now, additionally, if they start to post comments or other things, those will appear during the video. Now, let's just end this video really quick but I want you to see one option that really affects the quality. There we go, I see someone's logged in, though. Let me just wave back. Great and I'll say goodbye now because this isn't really a livestream. I just wanted to quickly take a test stream. But I'll tap finish. Once you tap finish, the stream will end and you'll be presented with a few options. You'll get a report of who logged in and you have the ability, here, to decide what happens. Do you want the video to appear in a story? If so, it'll do so for 24 hours. If you don't want it, uncheck that. Do you want the video on your timeline? Okay, well you can do that or uncheck, and very importantly, upload in HD but here's the one that people miss. I tap save. This will save the video to your local camera roll. Now, this is very important because if the upload fails, well, you've lost the video but by saving it, that local copy, which is much higher quality, can be re-uploaded, and it can be even uploaded to other services like YouTube or Twitter Periscope. Once the video is on your camera roll, you can share it anywhere. You can even take it onto a computer and re-edit it. So, that ability to save to your local camera roll is very important. When you're set, you have the ability to share the post out to others. Or if you change your mind and you decide you don't want to share it, just tap the delete button, and the livestream, after you confirm, will no longer have a record. And there you have it. It's no longer on my page. Now, as you can see, the ability to improve the visual quality goes a long way. I strongly suggest that you make sure that you have the best internet connection possible, a stable camera, and that after the fact, you upload the higher quality video, which is recorded on your device. That local copy is gonna be significantly better than what was streamed. So, always take the time to upload it and I'd suggest backing it up to your camera roll for safety. Alright, let's move on to some ways to improve the visual quality of your livestream.

Contents