Live Stream Plunge

Hi All,
I decided to take the plunge and live stream my daughter’s games this summer. I purchased the GoPro Hero 5 with a 64 GB card, Easyacc battery, tool belt from Lowes and the LynkSpyder camera mount (thanks Josh G from LynkSpyder for helping me with this and answering my endless emails). I am increasing my iPhone data plan to unlimited for the softball season so I can use it as a hotspot.

From what I am reading, Facebook seems to be a good option for live streaming. YouTube looked promising but I understand they changed their streaming policy that requires at least 1,000 followers in order to live stream. I am somewhat popular in my neighborhood but not popular enough to have 1K followers . With that in mind, I will try Facebook with a companion app, LIVE4. In theory that should work ( keeping fingers crossed).
I will keep everyone posted on how this works out.

One piece missing that would be a “nice to have” is adding audio commentary to the stream without being next to the GoPro and speaking into the built in mic. It would be great to be about 10 or so feet away from the camera and speaking into the iPhone mic or one plugged into iPhone headphone jack. If anyone has any suggestions, that would be great.

Regards,
Mo

Honest question, but just me wondering out loud. Every "unlimited" plan I've heard of still has a soft limit, where once you surpass it your speeds are seriously crippled. Just wondering if that would potentially happen here where your games would no longer be able to stream?

justanotherguy said:

Honest question, but just me wondering out loud. Every "unlimited" plan I've heard of still has a soft limit, where once you surpass it your speeds are seriously crippled. Just wondering if that would potentially happen here where your games would no longer be able to stream?

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I think it will be throttled back after 20GB. The Verizon person I spoke to said it is still “unlimited” after 20 GB and if there is some congestion in network traffic it may get cut back a bit but I will always have priority on bandwidth in that situation. The fine print indicates 20GB and then it will be reduced to 600Kbpsntherebafter. We’ll see what happens when I hit the limit.

I've never tried the LIVE4 app. Let us know how that goes.

The soft "unlimited" limit is why we have been playing with a hotspot from OTR Mobile. It is truly unlimited LTE (via ATT network) that has no throttle point. I disconnected our internet at home and plugged in the hotspot for several days. It was actually faster than my home internet (rural internet...so not terribly surprising). But more importantly, we exceeded 200GB in less than a week. So no limit that I've been able to find.

For the audio piece, we have some umpires that use our product and use wireless microphones, with a receiver plugged into the GoPro. That allows them to ensure their voice is recorded on the video. That might solve your problem. Not sure what they used however, sorry.

Another option, which would require a camera change, is to use the Mevo Plus camera. It allows you to select either the microphone on the camera or on the smartphone controlling it. So you can mount the camera on the fence and sit in the stands with your phone and add commentary. The only problem with this is that you wouldn't get much game sound on the recording.

MoC said:

One piece missing that would be a “nice to have” is adding audio commentary to the stream without being next to the GoPro and speaking into the built in mic. It would be great to be about 10 or so feet away from the camera and speaking into the iPhone mic or one plugged into iPhone headphone jack. If anyone has any suggestions, that would be great.

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There is no way I would give up the live audio from the crowd. That stuff is gold.

DD's 10U team just starting live streaming games on facebook. Unfortunately with the backstops being so far away (so far..is there a way to "zoom in" with GoPro??) and the size of most of the players (umpire blocks 3/4 of the view of the batter) the viewing experience will not be winning any Oscars in the near future. Anyway, hopefully your experience is better..lol.

pattar said:

DD's 10U team just starting live streaming games on facebook. Unfortunately with the backstops being so far away (so far..is there a way to "zoom in" with GoPro??) and the size of most of the players (umpire blocks 3/4 of the view of the batter) the viewing experience will not be winning any Oscars in the near future. Anyway, hopefully your experience is better..lol.

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My GoPro Hero 4 has 3 view settings, Wide, Medium and Narrow. I typically record using Medium, as Narrow tends to cut off the corners of the outfield. But, if the backstop is really far back, Narrow would "zoom" you in a bit. I never "intentionally" use Wide, as this makes everyone tiny, and you see the backstop fencing running down both sides of the image.

wheresmycar said:

My GoPro Hero 4 has 3 view settings, Wide, Medium and Narrow. I typically record using Medium, as Narrow tends to cut off the corners of the outfield. But, if the backstop is really far back, Narrow would "zoom" you in a bit. I never "intentionally" use Wide, as this makes everyone tiny, and you see the backstop fencing running down both sides of the image.

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Thanks. I am not the one doing it so I have no idea what setting he is using but it isn't working whatever it is

pattar said:

DD's 10U team just starting live streaming games on facebook. Unfortunately with the backstops being so far away (so far..is there a way to "zoom in" with GoPro??) and the size of most of the players (umpire blocks 3/4 of the view of the batter) the viewing experience will not be winning any Oscars in the near future. Anyway, hopefully your experience is better..lol.

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If they are using the GoPro HERO7 (which they probably are...other GoPro's can't easily stream without external involvement), you can only stream in the wide Field Of View. Unfortunately, this is a huge limitation to GoPro's first stab at streaming. Until they get that fixed, a smartphone or the Mevo Plus is our recommended streaming hardware.

Josh Greer said:

you can only stream in the wide Field Of View. Unfortunately, this is a huge limitation to GoPro's first stab at streaming.

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Oh, wow. I didn't know that! This is me crossing GoPro Hero7 of my "Things I want" list. Thanks for saving me $389 for the GoPro bundle at Costco.