Media is everywhere.
Day in and day out we have media at our finger tips. We have it on our phones, on the television, and even screaming at us in the car when we drive. We easily criticize and judge every little, insignificant thing we heard, read, or talk about. But have we ever stop to think about the people reporting or being the entertainment as people?
Having just joined the radio industry I've begun seeing what it takes to be in the entertainment business. From long hours on a soundboard to recording a news piece for the 50th time because it needs to be good to go on the air, the industry is very demanding at times. But this isn't news to me. I've been a live streaming entertainer in the video game industry since 2012 and during that time you learn a lot about what it takes to make it big...or at least try to.
Live streaming has been a hobby of mine for quite sometime. I've always liked how streamers interact with their viewers and some even become friends. That's what I wanted to do. I wanted to create a community of close knit friends that all liked the same things. So in the summer of 2012 I began to walk down the path of an entertainer.
At first, it was all about getting the right equipment. To live stream online, I needed a capture card. If I wanted to talk to my viewers I'd then need a microphone. The list of things I'd need to entertain people kept growing and as you can imagine not all of these things were cheap. Even today, I continue to upgrade and get better things so that I can create better content. That's one thing people don't really understand or know about. Not many people know that entertainers usually start from the bottom and use their own time, money, and resources to provide good content for their viewers. I've had conversations with people who have told me that live streaming is easy; that all the host does is sit in front of a camera and microphone and talk or goof around.
This is false.
Physical equipment aside, there comes the technical and digital side of the business that the entertainer must know in order to make it work properly.
A typical live stream of mine at Hitbox.tv consists of many different digital components. First off, I must have a broadcasting software. There are many programs that can get the job done but I like customization in my streams. Thus, I use a program called OBS or Open Broadcasting Software. In this program I then set up the perimeters to broadcast to the Hitbox website. This includes a URL, the server that it's set to broadcast through, and the stream key which will know exactly which account to stream it to. That's just to have it stream something to the website. We aren't even talking about setting the quality of the stream, adding your physical equipment to the program and making sure there's no delay or lay.
That being said, the digital portion of streaming is very intensive and can take many hours to configure to your liking. Also, what works for you might not work for someone else trying to stream.
Being an entertainer you need to know how to run,manage, and control your content. You also need to know what to stream, how to interact with your target audience, and make what you create entertaining.
Often I see people get equipment to stream and get it all set up only to fail as a streamer. Why? Because they do not have a target audience, they do not know how to interact with viewers, and they don't know what to show. I've joined many streams to see a person looking at their screen, not talking, not doing anything, only to have their viewers leave the channel the second they get in there. This is all due to not having entertaining content. Similar to an author of a book, it is detrimental that you have a way to grab your viewer's attention. That can vary from what you have on screen to how you greet new-comers. Your image is a big factor in grabbing people's interests.
The entertainment business is hard. But it can also be fun and a great experience for everyone. All it takes is a little determination, a plan, and knowledge of what you need and want to show your audience. Give them what they want and they'll keep coming back for more.
