value of a live stream provider?

like most small business owners, i'm totally scrambling right now to come up with other services that i might be able to provide. being able to live stream was suggested to me.

so, because a small, very small, part of my brain still functions as a software engineer, i'm doing a little digging. there are certain aspects of this business that take on a bit of an engineering challenge. it's part of why i love it so much. yea, it's mostly creative but then there are problems that need a technical solution. thankfully, it's only a small portion.

with that said, if you own a business, part of a media/marketing dept in a corporation or if you're a couple looking to get married, what's the value to you for hiring someone with live streaming capabilities in their back pocket?

there would be a significant up front cost for me in hardware but i'm trying to balance that with the potential for future work. one aspect of this would be putting a weboost box in the truck and being able to live stream from remote areas. although, i would have to do a lot of testing to make sure the bandwidth is there.

 

I think its totally dependant on cost to value.. I dont believe the need is 100% there..in a normal situation.. I own a funeral home and only 1 in a 100 cases ask me if we can livestream the services. This is exactly why I havent footed a bill yet to make it possible with hosting services yet. Its just not cost effective in my area yet

 

and if you had the ability to outsource it when needed?

 

Again, I think a cost per service would be the key. Would it be low enough for a family to see the value of paying for it. Personally, I would just forward the cost to the family, and not try to charge extra for it.

 

My O365 subscription comes with live streaming/presenting capabilities within a meeting. Use it quite a bit with my side business clients

 

Depends what you are live streaming; weddings, christenings, etc. I think the service is cool, but is the demand there? All I think when I think of live streaming a wedding for example is "you're not worth inviting to be live, but here's a link you can watch from home".

Maybe like @Duneflyer said, have it in case someone wants it, pass along full cost with zero margin built in.

 

not exactly where my thinking was but yea, i guess there's that.

been trading a bunch of emails with a few folks. general consensus is that unless i'm going to market towards big events that require multiple cameras at high quality, it's probably not worth it. for everyone else, it might just be a nice to have. there is one film maker here in denver that i know of that offers it as an add-on to his wedding work.

i dunno. the idea is filed away. pretty sure that i know all of the necessary hardware just in case it comes up.

back to the drawing board...

 

I feel like it would be best served as an add on to an additional business. Such as, if you already had the equipment/hardware for an ongoing concern, then this could be a way to expanding that original concern. BUt as a single stand alone, I'm not sure the money is there to make it profitable. I do believe funerals would be a decent market for it in larger cities, but getting us old codger morticians to bite is another story. For example, I already have my chapel wired for and have a camera available to stream, but the hosting was the downfall. I think in a few more years the market may grow.

 

ok, so, yes, it would be an add-on to existing work that i already do. definitely not stand alone.

there would be no hosting. the onsite hardware that i would bring would connect directly to a cinema camera. hardware is connected via wifi, hard wire and/or 4G LTE. network interfaces on the hardware can be bonded (connected and shared) so that i can use as much bandwidth as possible. stream would go directly to fb, youtube, or twitch. the 4G modems include multi-carrier sim cards. they are pay as you go and the u.s. cost is $10/gb. canada is $15/gb. not sure on international roaming charges but that's not on my radar right now anyway.