You have been watching Pokimane, Ninja, AnneMunition, and Tfue, carefully studying the on-air setup and habits. In most cases, the on-air setups include quirky banter, quality lighting, keyboards and cameras on faces, and lots of reminders to donate. You’ve previously played League of Legends and Fortnite every single day for the past few months and you’re now ready to go live on your favorite streaming channel. It’s now time to setup your streaming kit.
Streaming isn’t just about playing different games in front of an audience, but it also revolves around demonstrating your personality, interacting through live chat, and making the live audience feel like they are in the same room as you. A wrong setup can disrupt this immersion, but the right equipment can keep your audience watching for endless hours.
With regards to your streaming hardware, there are two areas you need to focus on: how you sound and how you look.
Lighting
Every person wants to see their face when you’re playing your favorite games, it’s that simple. Nevertheless, you do not want to feel as if you’re covered in shadows or look blown out – proper lighting is the best solution.
The ring lights work perfectly for showcasing your new devices or the beautiful vlogger’s pores, but when it comes to streaming, they could be considered harsh. Technically, every streamer needs a clean surrounding even with regards to lighting and for this reason, you require softboxes with the LED bulbs. The softboxes usually provide diffuse light whereas the LED does not become as hot as other bulbs, which means you can keep cool as you entertain the live audience.
If you have sufficient floor space, a Neewer lighting gear has all the important parts for just £73 including a carrying case, power adapters, two stands, and two softboxes with dimmable LEDs. The best thing you can do is place the softboxes at 45 ° angles on both sides of the streaming spaces. This helps eliminate shadows and evenly light the green screen. Keep in mind that every lighting scenario is different. As a result, you can play with the warmth and angles to find the most ideal glow.
Camera
Streaming has now joined the rest of the technology market in the 4K-resolution world, and this means high-quality streaming requires more than just an ordinary pre-installed webcam. If you’re committed to your vlogging business and streaming, search no more than Sony a7 III.
The main reason you should get yourself a 4K camera for streaming is scalability. 4K cameras are perfect for shooting videos and other content after the platform takes off. Nevertheless, it’s without a doubt valid to kick-start your streaming endeavors with a high-quality 1080p webcam. Most streamers usually get started with some elegance and then ultimately upgrade to a 4K Camera once they start getting new subscribers.
Although the visual appeal is crucial, the battle doesn’t end here, you still need a great mic to take care of how you sound.
Mic
For great audio quality, you need a microphone that clearly catches your voice and at the same time reduces background noise. Generally, mics come in 2 different flavors, condenser and dynamic. Dynamic microphones are usually rugged and can easily handle very loud sounds whereas the consider microphones are more sensitive and can capture quality sounds. When it comes to streaming, if you want to remove all the background noises except your voice, dynamic microphones are the best bet.
Furthermore, with the condenser microphone, you can still play around with the settings, especially in the noise gate to get the most from your mic.
References
Mackenzie, N. (2020, July 30). What you need to become an internet streaming star. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-53496475
The best media streaming devices. (2015, May 12). Wirecutter: Reviews for the Real World. https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-media-streamers/
The streaming era has finally arrived. Everything is about to change. (Published 2019). (2019, November 19). The New York Times – Breaking News, US News, World News and Videos. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/18/business/media/streaming-hollywood-revolution.html
