My friend, and article writing accountability partner, Jeremy asks:

You mentioned in a previous podcast you would put up a post about how you live stream a wedding and what tools you use to do so. You still planning to put this up, mate?

In the words of the somewhat-great, Bill O’Reilly, if everyone can’t be at a wedding, we’ll do it live.

Live streaming has a number of tiers of quality, in my humble opinion.

The lowest tier is that regardless of video and audio quality – we’re live.

The next tier up is low quality video and audio, but on a good internet connection.

The next tier up has better audio.

And the top tier has great video.

So let’s approach it like this:

Step 1: Good internet

If you can’t get full 4G service on your mobile device, or if there is wifi available then that’s great too, my recommendation is to simply record the ceremony then upload it to Youtube afterward.

Good upload speeds allows the video and audio to get from the ceremony to the streaming provider (Youtube or Facebook, or other) without interruption. So get the Speedtest app on your device and test out the internet speed at the location before the day if possible.

Step 2: Average audio

Average audio quality means the ceremony can be heard, but maybe it’s not great. Unless a smartphone is going to be held 1-2 metres from the ceremony, without wind or background noise, you’re going to need some kind of shotgun or directional microphone attached to your phone.

Step 3: Above average audio

Good audio means getting wirelessly transmitted audio from the ceremony, either via a handheld microphone, or a wireless lapel microphone like the Rode Wireless Go, into the device doing the streaming – whether it’s a phone, laptop, or professional camera.

Step. 4: Average video

Average video means the ceremony can be seen, but maybe it’s not great. This probably means you’re using an iPad/iPhone/Andoid phone, or worst case, a laptop webcam, to transmit the video. The cameras on these devices are fine, but there’s a reason you don’t see professional videographers using their laptop webcam to record weddings.

Step 5: Above average video

Good video quality probably means a professional camera, I use a Sony A6400 with an appropriate lens on it. Appropriate lenses come from knowing your camera, something that can’t really be taught in this kind of article.

Step 6: Getting it online in ok quality

This is vernally about opening up the Facebook or Youtube app on the phone and choosing the Live option. Please make sure the phone is on it’s side, aka in landscape mode.

Step 7: Getting it all into the internet in above average quality

So the best case scenario sees you getting wireless audio from a handheld or lapel microphone, into a professional camera that can see the ceremony beautifully, and it has HDMI out.

Now that the camera can see and hear the ceremony well, you output from the HDMI port of the camera into a HDMI capture device for a laptop, like a Blackmagic or Elgato device, and the live video and audio is available as a webcam feed.

You’ll open up Facebook or Youtube, and choose the Live option, choose that camera, and you’re on

There’s a reason video is a profession

In short, there’s a good reason videography and live streaming is a profession, because it’s hard work, and overly technical. I’ve barely scratched the surface on the service, and luckily for me, it’s the kind of stuff I’m familiar with.

But if you have any direct questions about gear or techniques, jump in the comments and let me know.