A checklist for choosing who runs your live stream

Start with what the audience must actually see

Before anyone talks about equipment, write down what the viewer needs from the stream. Is it a single wide shot of a talk, a multi-camera concert with graphics, or a festival with several stages that must run side by side? The answer decides how many feeds leave the venue, how much processing sits in the chain and how many people are needed on site. In my work running replay and graphics, I see the same pattern: productions that settle this early make calmer decisions later.

Put the answer on one page and share it with whoever will operate the stream. Include the expected length of transmission, the platforms where it must appear and whether anything needs to be captured for later. A short brief like this lets a streaming lead check the plan against what the venue can really support, instead of discovering mismatches during load-in.

• Number of cameras and audio sources
• Length of the live transmission
• Platforms the stream must reach
• Whether a recording is needed afterwards

Ask how the encoding is handled

Encoding is where a clean picture becomes a stream that fits through a network. Ask who sets the bitrate and resolution, what hardware does the work and what happens if that unit fails. A crew that can explain these choices in plain words, and tie them to your venue's connection, is usually one that has thought them through. A vague answer such as 'we will sort it on the day' deserves a follow-up question.

Also ask whether the encoder settings are tested against the platform you will use, since each platform has its own limits and preferred formats. At narravix, Priya Nair prepares the delivery path before the event, so the settings are known and written down rather than adjusted from memory while the audience is already watching.

Check the platform feeds before the day

Many streams go to more than one place: an event page, a video platform and perhaps a partner's site. Each destination needs its own key, its own test and a named person who owns it. Confirm who sets up the accounts, who holds the access details and who can start or stop a feed if something changes. Confusion over ownership is a common reason a stream starts late.

Ask for a test broadcast that is not public, so you can watch the feed exactly as a viewer would. Look at picture, sound, delay and any on-screen graphics. Make notes while you watch, and agree who will fix each point. A short private test a few days ahead costs very little compared with a public error during the first ten minutes of an event.

• Named owner for every destination
• Access details held by one agreed person
• Private test of each feed

Look closely at the backup paths

A backup is only useful if it fails differently from the main path. A second connection through the same cable or the same provider may drop at the same moment as the first. Ask what the secondary route is, where it enters the venue and how long a switch takes. Ask, too, what happens to the audience during that switch: a short freeze is one thing, a dead page is another.

Power and hardware deserve the same questions. Is there a spare encoder already connected, or one in a case? Is the main unit on protected power? You do not need every safeguard on every show, but you should know which risks have been covered and which have been accepted, and the crew should be willing to tell you which is which.

• Secondary connection on a separate route
• Spare encoding hardware ready to use
• Protected power for the core equipment

Rehearse, and agree who speaks to whom

A rehearsal tells you more than any document. Run through the opening, a graphic, a change of source and the close, with the same people who will be there on the day. Watch how the crew talks to each other: short, clear calls over comms usually mean the stream will be steady when something unexpected happens.

Agree in advance who has the authority to make a call when the picture or sound has a fault. Is it the producer, the director or the streaming lead? Write the name down. When a problem appears mid-transmission, there is no time to discuss who decides, and a crew that already knows the order of command will lose the audience for far less time.

Settle scope, costs and what is left out

Finally, ask for the scope in writing. It should say what the crew provides, what you provide and what is not included, such as extra cameras, venue connectivity or later editing. Compare quotations on those lines rather than on a single total, since two figures that look alike can cover quite different amounts of work.

Check how the quotation changes if the schedule moves or the number of feeds grows. A clear answer now avoids a disagreement later. Keep the checklist beside the quotation and tick each point as it is answered; any line left blank is a question to ask before you decide, not after the cameras are rolling.