Broadcasting your wedding live all over the world.
You’re having your wedding and you want to project it online for friends and family who can’t make it. What do you do? Welcome to the 21st century, where you can now watch your loved one’s wedding from the other side of the world just as it happens live. This cool feature isn’t new, but its becoming easier and cheaper year by year. There are a couple easy ways you can go about this: A) paying for a professional service B) connecting with free software via Skype, Oovoo or Ustream.
[dropcap]A[/dropcap] list of requirements you’ll need: notebook/laptop, camera (preferably built in), Internet connection and a good microphone.
Stream Your Wedding Via Vendors
There are a few reputable companies which offer the service of streaming your wedding live through an internet connection, where friends and family all over the world can watch. For a fair price, this method relieves you from all the work associated with setup and technical work. Idostream and Live stream wedding work with international videographers all over the world to webcast your wedding on reliable and high grade servers, available for superb quality streaming from simultaneous viewers.
Advantages of hiring a wedding vendor:
– Video playback for up to 90 days after the event.
– A representative will monitor the feed to ensure quality throughout the entire time. Live technical support for the viewers as well.
– Available for download.
– HD streaming.
– No fixed camera position.
Stream Your Wedding For Free
If you are technically inclined you could set up the connection yourself. Here’s a step by step process to help you create an account and get started on Skype, Ovooand Ustream.
Once you’ve built a free account on those websites you can download their program and start a videocast session with anyone on your buddy list. Steps to take to stream your wedding live:
1. Connect a webcamera to your laptop.
Make sure it is working by running a test session on a program. I suggest you run the test on the program you plan to use at your wedding.
2. Set camera
Point the camera in the direction you wish to shoot the entire wedding. You may change the direction throughout the event if you wish.
3. Connect to Internet
Make sure you have an Internet connection set up at the hall or have an Internet stick to support it.
4. Video call
Depending on your software there should be a button to video call or conference. Open a chat session with the buddy you wish to stream to and click video call. If you are using Ustream you may stream it to a number of viewers simultaneously.
Wedding Streaming Tips
You may want to consider plugging the laptop to a projector and displaying the feed on the projection screen. I’ve seen a few videographers support this intriguing effect and it works very well. This way all your guests get to see the action that is being taken place.
If you choose to stream it yourself, consider hiring someone with computer knowledge to monitor and handle anything that may come up. They can also control camera angels to shoot different positions. The person may charge you $100-$200 but it will be well worth the investment. I strongly suggest not getting your wedding DJ in Toronto to fulfill the duty, as they already have an important task during the night.
As an added measure you may ask your Toronto wedding DJ to have an line out so that you could connect to your computer for audio. This would give you the exact audio being transmitted into the microphone.
If you got any questions find me on Facebook or Twitter or better yet leave a comment below.
Hi DJ Borhan, thanks for this. I’ve been looking for ways to stream my brother’s upcoming wedding. Maybe I should try Skype but is there a way to get the Skype video stream on a website? I was also looking at paid options like I Do Stream and WeddingLive.ca – both live wedding streaming services… I still have to research the quality of the broadcasting service (good or crap, who knows). Nevertheless, great article and thanks for the tips!
Thanks Harry! When you say website do you mean your own website? In that case, you’d have to purchase a domain and your own servers which may be costly and technical. Try broadcasting on sites like Ustream or justin.tv