Twelve Technical and Non-Technical Tips for Live Streaming Musical Performances –
Tip 3 ‘Use Facebook Live If Viewers Will Access Your Live Stream On Facebook’
Author: Chris Thompson P. Eng.
[email protected]
613-692-5380
Date: June 24, 2020
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Ottawa Jazz Happenings or of JazzWorks Canada.
Note: Since the beginning of April I've acquired a fair depth and breadth of practical knowledge regarding live streaming musical performances, due to a) my two week technical investigation of Facebook Live and YouTube Live at the beginning of April (see 'Background' below), and b) my organizing the 'ZOLAS Live Jazz Saturday Nights ONLINE!' live stream performance series including, as required, mentoring series performers using a range of physical setups on doing live streams (see 'Background' below). Please feel free to phone me (613-692-5380) or email me ([email protected]) if you would like any advice on/assistance with live streaming your musical performance(s). My fee is a donation of whatever you feel is appropriate to the GoFundMe campaign for the ZOLAS series, every penny of which (after advertising expenses and GoFundMe's service charge) will go to covering performers' fees.
Introduction
This is the third in a series of twelve articles. Each article discusses in detail a technical or non-technical tip for doing live streamed musical performances. This article discusses Tip 3 ‘Use Facebook Live if viewers will access your live stream on Facebook’.
Tip 3 – Use Facebook Live if viewers will access your live stream on Facebook
From what I’ve seen, by far the most popular live streaming services for stay-at-home musical performances (probably because they’re both free) are Facebook Live and YouTube Live.
Note: This article discusses what I refer to as ‘live live streaming’, as opposed to ‘pre-recorded live streaming’ as supported by, for example, Facebook Premiere service. Facebook Live and Facebook Premiere are discussed and compared in my June 17th, 2020, article ‘Live vs Pre-Recorded Live Streams – Which Viewers Prefer and Why’.
During my detailed technical investigation of Facebook Live and YouTube Live at the beginning of April (see ‘Background’ below), I set up numerous end-to-end test live streams in order to understand how the two services work, understand the differences, and identify serious and less serious issues. Based on a) the results of this technical investigation, and b) my experience to date organizing the ‘ZOLAS Live Jazz Saturday Nights ONLINE!’ live stream performance series (http://zolas.ca/events), my conclusion is that, like ‘live live streaming’ and ‘prerecorded live streaming’ (see my article ‘Live vs Pre-Recorded Live Streams – Which Viewers Prefer and Why’), each has its own pros and cons:
Audio and Video Quality
Performer/Viewer Interaction
It’s not surprising that YouTube Live offers better audio and video quality and Facebook Live offers better ‘chat’ capability. YouTube is inherently about ‘video’, and so the audio and video quality of YouTube Live streams is better, while Facebook is inherently about ‘social networking’, and so it’s better with respect to comments (aka ‘chat’) and, in turn, performer/viewer interaction.
The ‘ZOLAS Live Jazz Saturday Nights ONLINE!’ live stream performance series uses Facebook to promote the live stream performances and to provide access to the actual live streams. In fact, Facebook events (example), reminders, and live streams are posted on, as a minimum, the performer’s, ZOLAS’, JazzWorks’, and ‘Ottawa Live Music Streams!’ Facebook pages.
Facebook and YouTube Do NOT Play Well Together
Note: Since the beginning of April I've acquired a fair depth and breadth of practical knowledge regarding live streaming musical performances, due to a) my two week technical investigation of Facebook Live and YouTube Live at the beginning of April (see 'Background' below), and b) my organizing the 'ZOLAS Live Jazz Saturday Nights ONLINE!' live stream performance series including, as required, mentoring series performers using a range of physical setups on doing live streams (see 'Background' below). Please feel free to phone me (613-692-5380) or email me ([email protected]) if you would like any advice on/assistance with live streaming your musical performance(s). My fee is a donation of whatever you feel is appropriate to the GoFundMe campaign for the ZOLAS series, every penny of which (after advertising expenses and GoFundMe's service charge) will go to covering performers' fees.
Introduction
This is the third in a series of twelve articles. Each article discusses in detail a technical or non-technical tip for doing live streamed musical performances. This article discusses Tip 3 ‘Use Facebook Live if viewers will access your live stream on Facebook’.
Tip 3 – Use Facebook Live if viewers will access your live stream on Facebook
From what I’ve seen, by far the most popular live streaming services for stay-at-home musical performances (probably because they’re both free) are Facebook Live and YouTube Live.
Note: This article discusses what I refer to as ‘live live streaming’, as opposed to ‘pre-recorded live streaming’ as supported by, for example, Facebook Premiere service. Facebook Live and Facebook Premiere are discussed and compared in my June 17th, 2020, article ‘Live vs Pre-Recorded Live Streams – Which Viewers Prefer and Why’.
During my detailed technical investigation of Facebook Live and YouTube Live at the beginning of April (see ‘Background’ below), I set up numerous end-to-end test live streams in order to understand how the two services work, understand the differences, and identify serious and less serious issues. Based on a) the results of this technical investigation, and b) my experience to date organizing the ‘ZOLAS Live Jazz Saturday Nights ONLINE!’ live stream performance series (http://zolas.ca/events), my conclusion is that, like ‘live live streaming’ and ‘prerecorded live streaming’ (see my article ‘Live vs Pre-Recorded Live Streams – Which Viewers Prefer and Why’), each has its own pros and cons:
Audio and Video Quality
- My understanding from Ottawa’s Adrian Cho who, with Diane Nalini, since April has been doing a very slick half hour YouTube Live stream every Saturday afternoon at 5 pm and did a ZOLAS live stream performance on June 13th, is that YouTube Live offers better audio and video quality. Video streamed by a performer at 1080p (which is typical) to Facebook Live is downconverted to 720p – still HD (high definition), but not as high definition as 1080p. I also understand from Adrian that stereo audio streamed by a performer to Facebook Live is compressed and ‘monoized’ (yech!). YouTube Live, in comparison, does not intentially degrade the audio and video quality.
Performer/Viewer Interaction
- Facebook Live and YouTube Live both provide the ability for viewers to interact with the performer(s) and, I’ve seen and done myself many times, with each other using comments (aka ‘chat’) during the live stream performance. Viewers have told me (see my article ‘Live vs Pre-recorded Live Streams – Which Viewers Prefer and Why’) that it is this ability to ‘chat’ with the performers during the live stream, especially if the performer reacts to the comments on screen (i.e. ‘live live stream’), that puts the ‘live’ in ‘live stream’. Facebook Live lets viewers (and performers) ‘Reply’ to other viewers’ comments, while YouTube Live does not.
It’s not surprising that YouTube Live offers better audio and video quality and Facebook Live offers better ‘chat’ capability. YouTube is inherently about ‘video’, and so the audio and video quality of YouTube Live streams is better, while Facebook is inherently about ‘social networking’, and so it’s better with respect to comments (aka ‘chat’) and, in turn, performer/viewer interaction.
The ‘ZOLAS Live Jazz Saturday Nights ONLINE!’ live stream performance series uses Facebook to promote the live stream performances and to provide access to the actual live streams. In fact, Facebook events (example), reminders, and live streams are posted on, as a minimum, the performer’s, ZOLAS’, JazzWorks’, and ‘Ottawa Live Music Streams!’ Facebook pages.
Facebook and YouTube Do NOT Play Well Together
During my technical investigation of Facebook Live and YouTube Live, I discovered a ‘show-stopper’ issue. If I initiated a YouTube Live stream and then clicked on the ‘share’ icon (see Image 1), there were two options for accessing the YouTube Live stream from Facebook:
- I could copy and paste the URL for the YouTube Live stream (see Image 2) into a Facebook post. When I clicked on the URL in the Facebook post as a viewer, I was taken to the YouTube Live stream. However, the video was frozen. I tried this a number of times with the same result each time. Image 3 shows a Facebook post by Diane Nalini on her Facebook page (www.facebook.com/DianeNaliniMusic). The post includes the URL for their 5 pm Saturday May 30th, 2020, YouTube Live stream. When I clicked on the URL, I was taken to the YouTube Live stream. However, the video was frozen. If I closed YouTube and clicked on the URL in the Facebook post again, the video was updated, but still frozen. Curiously, the audio was fine, and there was no problem watching the recorded live stream afterwards. Afterwards, Laura Anglade (May 16th ZOLAS live stream performance) told me that she had had the same problem with a previous live stream and had gotten around the problem by opening YouTube and going to Diane’s YouTube channel to access the live stream.
2. I could click on the Facebook icon (see Image 4).
This automatically generated a Facebook post as shown in Images 5 and 6.
This Facebook post had a thumbnail of the YouTube Live stream. When I clicked on the thumbnail I was taken to the YouTube Live stream. However, the video was frozen.
You Can’t Get There From Here
The setup for Roddy Ellias's ZOLAS live stream performance on May 23rd was fairly simple and straightforward – his Shure MV88+ USB microphone plugged into his iMac computer, with the MV88+ used as the audio source and his iMac’s built-in webcam used as the video source for his live stream performance. However, we ran into major problems with being able to select the audio and video sources on the Facebook Live stream setup page. After two looong and painful Zoom meetings, one of which involved inviting John Wilson to join the meeting (thanks, John) – John also has an iMac (I have a PC laptop), we determined that the problem was the web browser. In fact, the only web browser that would work with Facebook Live on Roddy’s iMac was the Beta version of Chrome.
I had previously run into the same issue. At the beginning of May, I could no longer set up test Facebook Live streams that I had been able to during my technical investigation of Facebook Live and YouTube Live at the beginning of April. And then on May 4th the following warning started appearing on the Facebook Live stream setup page (see Image 7):
“If you are experiencing an audio issue, you may need to close any browser tabs or applications that you're not using. You may also need to update your browser and download the latest beta version of Chrome here or use Firefox and try again. As a reminder, Live Producer is not fully supported in Safari, Internet Explorer, or older versions of Edge.”
You Can’t Get There From Here
The setup for Roddy Ellias's ZOLAS live stream performance on May 23rd was fairly simple and straightforward – his Shure MV88+ USB microphone plugged into his iMac computer, with the MV88+ used as the audio source and his iMac’s built-in webcam used as the video source for his live stream performance. However, we ran into major problems with being able to select the audio and video sources on the Facebook Live stream setup page. After two looong and painful Zoom meetings, one of which involved inviting John Wilson to join the meeting (thanks, John) – John also has an iMac (I have a PC laptop), we determined that the problem was the web browser. In fact, the only web browser that would work with Facebook Live on Roddy’s iMac was the Beta version of Chrome.
I had previously run into the same issue. At the beginning of May, I could no longer set up test Facebook Live streams that I had been able to during my technical investigation of Facebook Live and YouTube Live at the beginning of April. And then on May 4th the following warning started appearing on the Facebook Live stream setup page (see Image 7):
“If you are experiencing an audio issue, you may need to close any browser tabs or applications that you're not using. You may also need to update your browser and download the latest beta version of Chrome here or use Firefox and try again. As a reminder, Live Producer is not fully supported in Safari, Internet Explorer, or older versions of Edge.”
I have discovered that, like on Roddy’s iMac, on my PC laptop there is no production web browser that works properly with Facebook Live and that the only web browser that does work properly (so far) is the Beta version of Chrome. I find this incredible. It reinforces my conclusion that Facebook Live was never designed for what it is currently being used for – live streaming musical performances to dozens, hundreds, and even thousands of viewers. It was designed for users with smartphones on vacation live streaming, for example, walking through a park in Paris to friends and family back home. The lack of support by standard web browsers, the interworking issues with YouTube, and the various other major and minor issues I have encountered with Facebook Live indicate to me that it is not currently a professional-level live streaming service.
My Conclusion
The ZOLAS live stream performance series uses (mainly) Facebook for promoting and providing access to the live streams. My own feeling, which I believe is shared by most viewers (see my article ‘Live vs Pre-recorded Live Streams – Which Viewers Prefer and Why’), is that Facebook Live’s better interaction (the ability to reply to comments) and easy access to the actual live streams (video thumbnail embedded in a Facebook post) is more important than better audio and video quality. Facebook Live’s audio and video quality is not as good as that of YouTube Live but, in my opinion is ‘good enough’. Therefore, despite its limitations (sigh), I am going to continue to ask ZOLAS live stream performers to use Facebook Live.
My Conclusion
The ZOLAS live stream performance series uses (mainly) Facebook for promoting and providing access to the live streams. My own feeling, which I believe is shared by most viewers (see my article ‘Live vs Pre-recorded Live Streams – Which Viewers Prefer and Why’), is that Facebook Live’s better interaction (the ability to reply to comments) and easy access to the actual live streams (video thumbnail embedded in a Facebook post) is more important than better audio and video quality. Facebook Live’s audio and video quality is not as good as that of YouTube Live but, in my opinion is ‘good enough’. Therefore, despite its limitations (sigh), I am going to continue to ask ZOLAS live stream performers to use Facebook Live.
Background
I got involved with live streaming at the end of March 2020 when ZOLAS restaurant and pasta shop in Ottawa’s West End asked me to help them with live streaming performances by their jazz performers in order to help support their takeout and delivery business during this very difficult time for restaurants. I had been booking the performers for their ‘Live Jazz Saturday Nights’ program for the previous two years. Being an engineer (and borderline OCD – not a job requirement, but definitely an asset), I spent a couple of weeks investigating Facebook Live and YouTube Live from a technical perspective. I set up numerous end-to-end test live streams in order to understand how the two services work, understand the differences, and identify serious and less serious issues. These tests included (successfully) using as the audio source a USB microphone, a sound system (USB and non-USB mixers), and a high quality digital audio recorder.
I’m a retired Professional Engineer (degree in Electrical Engineering). I worked for 23 years at Bell-Northern Research/Nortel in Ottawa, Canada, designing telecommunications services. I’ve been playing drums and electric bass in gigging big bands and small jazz ensembles since 1970 (fifty years!). Playing in bands kept me sane when I was in school and working, and is now (or at least it has been until this year) my major retirement activity. I’m currently the drummer in the big band Standing Room Only and was the bass player in the bossa nova trio Wave until it disbanded (pun intended) in December 2019. Having a technical background and being a gigging musician is proving very valuable for my involvement with live streaming musical performances, since I can bridge the two areas.
I’m currently organizing the ‘ZOLAS Live Jazz Saturday Nights ONLINE!’ live stream performance series. There have been seven successful live stream performances so far:
I got involved with live streaming at the end of March 2020 when ZOLAS restaurant and pasta shop in Ottawa’s West End asked me to help them with live streaming performances by their jazz performers in order to help support their takeout and delivery business during this very difficult time for restaurants. I had been booking the performers for their ‘Live Jazz Saturday Nights’ program for the previous two years. Being an engineer (and borderline OCD – not a job requirement, but definitely an asset), I spent a couple of weeks investigating Facebook Live and YouTube Live from a technical perspective. I set up numerous end-to-end test live streams in order to understand how the two services work, understand the differences, and identify serious and less serious issues. These tests included (successfully) using as the audio source a USB microphone, a sound system (USB and non-USB mixers), and a high quality digital audio recorder.
I’m a retired Professional Engineer (degree in Electrical Engineering). I worked for 23 years at Bell-Northern Research/Nortel in Ottawa, Canada, designing telecommunications services. I’ve been playing drums and electric bass in gigging big bands and small jazz ensembles since 1970 (fifty years!). Playing in bands kept me sane when I was in school and working, and is now (or at least it has been until this year) my major retirement activity. I’m currently the drummer in the big band Standing Room Only and was the bass player in the bossa nova trio Wave until it disbanded (pun intended) in December 2019. Having a technical background and being a gigging musician is proving very valuable for my involvement with live streaming musical performances, since I can bridge the two areas.
I’m currently organizing the ‘ZOLAS Live Jazz Saturday Nights ONLINE!’ live stream performance series. There have been seven successful live stream performances so far:
- Lucas Haneman and Megan Laurence on May 9
- Laura Anglade on May 16
- Roddy Ellias on May 23
- Elise Letourneau & Tim Bedner on May 30
- Mark Ferguson on June 6 (see Image 8 below)
- Diane Nalini and Adrian Cho on June 13
- Sean Duhaime and Suzie Q on June 20
Organizing the series includes having Zoom meetings with the performers in the series as required (some of them are self-admitted ‘luddites’, so our Zoom meetings are looong and painful, although by the end I get them ‘from zero to sixty’) to a) determine the best technical setup for their live stream performance, b) do a step-by-step walk-through of how to set up and initiate a live stream, and c) do a test end-to-end live stream. I’ve authored a detailed technical user guide ‘Live Streaming Stay-at-Home Musical Performances – Technical User Guide’ for the performers to use as a reference document after our Zoom meeting, and which you can access (read only) at this URL. Appendix B of the reference document provides twelve technical and non-technical tips on live streaming musical performances based on my technical investigation and on the experiences from the ZOLAS live stream performances so far:
Technical Tips
Non-Technical Tips
10. Start your live stream 15-30 minutes before the start of your actual performance
11. Use a tablet (e.g. iPad) or smartphone (e.g. iPhone) as a ‘viewer’
12. Don’t erase your recorded live stream
Technical Tips
- Do a TEST end-to-end live stream
- Use an Internet connection with the highest upload speed possible
- Use Facebook Live if viewers will access your live stream on Facebook
- Use Immediate (Facebook Live ‘Go Live Now’) NOT Scheduled (Facebook Live ‘Schedule a Live Video’) – Live Streams
- Use a computer for your live stream
- Use a wired ethernet connection between your computer and your router
- Use an external audio source for your live stream
- Use a ‘VHS to DVD converter’ to connect a non-USB mixer to your computer
- Mic your performance for recording – not a live performance – when using a mixer as your external audio source
Non-Technical Tips
10. Start your live stream 15-30 minutes before the start of your actual performance
11. Use a tablet (e.g. iPad) or smartphone (e.g. iPhone) as a ‘viewer’
12. Don’t erase your recorded live stream
Comments
Bob Nesbitt, 4-November-2020 - "Wow, what a resource Chris Thompson is for technical matters! I read a number of his articles and they were truly excellent."
Davina Pearl, 16-August-2020 - "I very much appreciate all the careful thought that you put into your articles. It’s an amazing way of supporting our little community during these times. It’s heartening to read them, and to build hope that we will find some excellent ways to overcome the challenges of our new reality.”
Devon Woods, 17-June-2020 - "Very interesting and relevant series of articles by Chris Thompson."
Bob Nesbitt, 4-November-2020 - "Wow, what a resource Chris Thompson is for technical matters! I read a number of his articles and they were truly excellent."
Davina Pearl, 16-August-2020 - "I very much appreciate all the careful thought that you put into your articles. It’s an amazing way of supporting our little community during these times. It’s heartening to read them, and to build hope that we will find some excellent ways to overcome the challenges of our new reality.”
Devon Woods, 17-June-2020 - "Very interesting and relevant series of articles by Chris Thompson."