Top 10 Private Streaming Platforms for Live Stream Events in 2023
Content creators prefer live streaming to recording, editing, and posting videos because these make your audience a part of the experience.
But streaming has exposed businesses and other professional organizations to online vulnerabilities. Cybercrime has cost the world $3 trillion in 2021. By 2025, cybercrime damages are forecasted to cost the world $10.5 trillion annually, up from $6 trillion in 2021.
So how can you leverage all the advantages of broadcasting private live streams in your favor while ensuring cyber safety? Keep reading to find out.
What is a Private Live Stream?
Some live streams are private or for internal use only.
Private streaming offers the perfect solution to secure your stream while engaging a large group of selected audiences.
A private live streaming event is a broadcast meant to be streamed to a select group of people rather than to the public.
There are many live events where you may want to limit access and viewership, such as:
- Internal company meetings
- Internal company training
- Private streams to family and friends
- Paid virtual events
There are numerous paid private virtual events you could host, such as:
- Webinars
- Conferences
- Concerts
- Private meet & greets
- Classes
Live streams have many purposes in the world of business video hosting. For example, you could stream webinars, conferences, training sessions, and multiple platforms simultaneously.
Which broadcasts are public and private is to be determined by the broadcaster.
Typically, private video sharing would be intended for internal use. However, you can also use private video sharing for paid public events, where you only want those who paid for access to attend the event.
Public outdoor streaming, for example, would be intended for an audience beyond your company or authorized viewers. There are many use cases for private streams for businesses. Public streaming is when anyone, without any access requirements, can view your live streams.
How to Stream Privately
Setting up a private live streaming event is like setting up any other live stream. With a private live stream, you need measures that allow you to limit access to your events, such as password protection or domain restrictions.
Let’s run a quick tutorial on streaming privately using a private video streaming service.
Create a Plan
If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. That can’t be truer than in the case of live-streaming. Much planning and hard work go into each element of streaming since you can’t edit certain parts or make them look better during the post-production stages.
Winging it may sometimes work with a live stream; however, if you want to run continuous successful live streams, you need a plan. When planning a private live stream, you can plan it out on multiple levels:
Goals & Audience
Knowing whom you are streaming for and your goals with your stream is important.
- Who is your audience?
- Where are they located?
- How will they access your stream?
- How will you promote your stream to your audience?
What is the goal of your stream? Knowing what you want to achieve with your stream will help you craft the content and refine your audience.
For example, your goals could be to inform your audience about a product, educate internal company employees about a new idea, entertain the audience, or share a private moment with family and friends.
Choose a Private Streaming Platform
When exploring how to stream privately, the best way to stream an event is with the help of a professional live private streaming platform equipped with the tools you need to reach your individual goals.
For example, monetization features are necessary for hosting a large paid event. However, if you’re leaning towards internal video streaming for the members of your team or organization, monetization is optional.
Streaming at the professional level also calls for branding customization and eliminating third-party ads and logos, something that’s missing from Facebook Live and YouTube Live.
Choosing a platform with an HTML5 white-label video player will help you achieve these things. Plus, an HTML5 video player is compatible with most internet-enabled devices. The nearly universal nature of that type of live video player will help maximize your viewership.
Other valuable features to consider when weighing your options for a live event streaming service include the following:
- Video and player API.
- Reliable content delivery through a global video CDN.
- An easy-to-use content management system.
- Video galleries.
- 24/7 customer support.
You want a private streaming platform allowing you to share the stream with an audience worldwide. In addition, you want a secure streaming platform with an easy-to-use content management system, a customizable video player, and 24/7 customer support.
It’ll help ensure you can create a successful customized private stream event.
Confirm Your Privacy Settings
Now, let’s talk about how to make a secure private stream. Password protection should be your first defense when you confirm your privacy settings for a private stream regardless of the live streaming solution you use.
Run through your online video player’s other privacy and security settings, and enable any additional controls.
- AES encryption
- Domain restrictions
- Geographic restrictions
- HTTPS video delivery
- Dynamic token security
Once you have your RSVP list, you can also set geographic controls on your stream for an extra layer of protection. For example, suppose our RSVP list only has participants from Canada, Guatemala, the United States, and Mexico. In that case, you can whitelist those countries to prevent access from viewers in any other country.
Start Streaming
Once everything is set up, it is time to start streaming. It’s a good idea to do a test run before you start the real stream to identify any snags in the system before you’re live in front of an audience.
It is a good idea to have somebody monitor your stream throughout so that you know if you go offline or experience any issues on the viewing end.
Comparison of the 10 Best Streaming Platforms for Private Live Streams
We’ve evaluated many private live streaming solutions and narrowed them to the top 10 platforms for broadcasting private virtual events in 2023. Here they are.
1. Mslive
Mslive is one of the leading online video platforms with a full-featured, self-service solution for streaming and private video hosting.
Mslive’s acquisition of Vzaar, a video hosting and distribution platform, has made our platform even more powerful and useful to broadcasters.
When it comes to security and privacy controls, Mslive gets an A+. In addition, the streaming platform makes broadcasting private live streams a breeze.
Basic Functionality
Mslive is known for its easy-to-use platform and custom white-label streaming solution. New broadcasters can create a live channel, stream in minutes, and maintain 100% content ownership.
The platform features a robust video solution that meets their business requirements. Mslive offers many features for private live streams, including top-notch AES encryption, a video paywall for monetization, password protection, referrer restriction, and an analytics dashboard to track user events.
Key Features
Mslive offers high-end features with competitive pricing plans. These include ad-free broadcasting, white-label service, and secure CDN video delivery.
It is also one of the few streaming solutions of its caliber that offer video delivery to China.
Detailed Features
- Secure, global content delivery, including industry-best video hosting
- 24/7 tech support with all plans, including email and live chat
- Secure video upload features, including content management, library migration, and video replacement
- RTMP Encoder for ingesting HLS streaming
- Player API access for 3rd party player integration
- Video API access on premium plans (scale and event)
- Best-in-class private RTMP server
- Adaptive multi-bitrate streaming
- Cloud-based video transcoding
- Real-time analytics
- Ad-free streaming
- Multi-user access on Scale and Custom plans
- Zoom live streaming integration for meetings and live events in real-time
- Expo 2.0 galleries video portal for immersive video experiences
- AES video encryption for advanced streaming security
New!
- Mslive now offers Digital Right Management to protect your videos.
- VOD to Live allows you to choose any of your videos, set them to a specific time and date, and go live without using an encoder.
Pros
- Streaming and VOD packages on all pricing plans
- Unlimited viewers and live channels
- White label and branding control
- Embeddable HTML5 video player
- SVOD, AVOD, and TVOD monetization options
- An integrated video paywall
- Mobile device support
- Live stream recording
- China Video Hosting
- Plans for every budget
Cons
- It requires a learning curve.
Upload Guidelines and Specs:
- Minimum dimension: none (but 240p is the recommended minimum)
- Maximum dimension: 1080p or 4K (depends on the user’s hardware and internet)
- Video aspect ratio: no restrictions (but 16:9 is the default)
- Max file size: none
- Max video length: none
- Total file storage: 10-1000GB (depends on plan)
- Compatible video formats: MP4 (preferred), MOV, M4V, M2V, AVI, MPG, FLV, WMV, MKV, WEBM, OGV, MXF, ASF, VOB, MTS
Pricing
Mslive includes four packages in their streaming pricing plans:
- Starter plan: $39/month (billed annually); ideal for newcomers with 1.2 TB of bandwidth and 50 GB of storage per year
- Event plan: $63/month (or $750/year); for organizations that would rather not sign a contract, and want to purchase bandwidth separately to stream an event, offers 6 TB of bandwidth upfront, 50 GB of storage; additional data and storage can be added as needed
- Scale plan: $165/month (billed annually); includes 24 TB of bandwidth per year, with 1 TB of storage; adds phone support, monetization paywall, an M3U8 online player for live channels, ad insertion, white-label video player, and video API access; additional bandwidth is available upon request for monthly plans.
- Custom plan: if your enterprise business has high-volume streaming needs, you can contact Mslive for a custom plan tailored to your needs.
Mslive has all the tools you need to securely host private live streaming, making it one of the best platforms you can work with.
2. Wowza
Wowza helps simplify video delivery.
Wowza is a private video streaming service founded in 2005 as a bootstrap startup. It offers private streaming and on-demand video hosting. Wowza is known for its top-notch security features.
Wowza offers two main products. The first is the Wowza Streaming Engine. The product is widely used in the industry for self-hosted streaming. The second is the Wowza Streaming Cloud offering.
Basic Functionality
The functionality includes various features to provide low-latency content access to global audiences.
Key Features
Wowza is geared mainly toward developers, event producers, and technical entrepreneurs. Therefore, it is more technical than the other competing platforms.
Detailed Features
- Cloud management services
- High-def streaming (up to 4K)
- Robust security and privacy features
- Access to APIs
Pros
- Top-of-the-line security
- Nearly universally supported on different devices
- Live streaming
- Video Looping
- Audience Engagement
- Performance Monitoring
- Mobile Screen Support
- China video delivery
Cons
- No simulcasting
- No monetization features
- Only single-camera feeds
- No event scheduling
Upload Guidelines and Specs
- Minimum dimension: 240p (320 x 240)
- Maximum dimension: 4K (3840 x 2160)
- Aspect ratio: 16:9, 4:3
- Max file size: Not available
- Max video length: Not available
- Total file storage: 250 GB (depends on the plan)
- Compatible video formats: MP4, FLV, MP3, SMIL, AMLST, ID3, NGRP
Pricing
Wowza revised its pricing structures recently and added several other unique features. These plans are broken down into Streaming Cloud and Streaming Engine.
Streaming Cloud offers four specific pricing plans and services, including:
- Pay As You Go: $25/month, with a 3-month minimum; flexible streaming with low startup costs
- Annual: $1,560/annually and includes 300 hours of streaming and 150 GB storage
- One Month Event: $149 one-time purchase and consists of 15 hours of streaming and 500 viewing hours also at 720p
- Enterprise: Plans built for your needs
All of these Live Event plans reflect rates when paid monthly and include complete brand control, multi-bitrate streaming, and HD and UHD streaming.
The Wowza Streaming Engine has its pricing plan packages. These professional-grade streaming plans are billed annually and include the following:
- Basic: $195/month
- Annual: $2,100 per year
- One Month Event: $295/month
- Enterprise: Plans built for your needs
Suppose you have private live events that you want to stream to a single location without monetizing the content. In that case, Wowza is an excellent private streaming platform for your needs.
Security Features to Look for in a Private Streaming Platform
There are three main security features to look for in a private streaming platform service.
As we mentioned, broadcasting webinars, conferences, corporate events, or other private streams at a professional level requires different features for different broadcasters.
These key private live streaming events features include password protection, geographic and referrer restrictions, and payment security. Let’s take a closer look at each of these features.
Password Protection
Password protection is one of the most basic forms of security for private live streaming. Therefore, it is often considered a “first line of defense” for private streaming.
The feature allows the broadcaster to set a password. It’s an ideal setup for smaller events among trusted individuals or groups.
Many live streaming solutions come with password-protected video hosting features.
Payment Security
There are tons of great OVPs on the market, but only a select few have the features you need for private live streaming, such as payment security.
Another great way to keep content secure is for viewers to pay for access. It also provides a revenue stream for your live broadcasts. However, when money is involved, payment security becomes exponentially more important.
Luckily, online payment systems are now stronger than ever. For example, a tokenized security system replaces the payment details with tokens instead of storing your audience’s sensitive payment details.
Note: make sure the live streaming platform you choose uses SSL encryption for payment information.
Pros and Cons of Using a Free Private Stream Platform
You can do live streams for free on these social platforms at the cost of next to no privacy or security features. Also, your video streams aren’t yours when you use free live stream platforms. Facebook Live, YouTube Live, and similar free live streaming platforms have more control than you’d think.
On top of that, video monetization options are minimal. Free live video streaming services like YouTube Live also control what music you can use in your video and give you time limitations on the type of content you can share.
Some benefits of these platforms are that they provide a way for live streaming events online for free, they are well-known, and because you likely use them already, they are super easy to use.
Pros and Cons of Professional Private Streaming Platforms
With so many free options, you might want to skip out on creating a budget and go with one of the free options. However, having a well-thought-out budget can help you save money in the long run.
So while streaming life for free might be super appealing, you should try a more professional solution for your private stream hosting needs. Let’s look at some benefits of using a professional stream hosting service.
Benefits of Hosting a Private Live Stream
Here are some advantages of using a live streaming service to host a private live stream:
- Greater control over content: With a public live stream, you have very little control over what viewers watch or who is watching your content. A private stream allows you to restrict access to only invited viewers and monitor who engages with your stream.
- Improved engagement: When hosting a private live stream, you can personally engage with specific people. That can lead to higher levels of viewer engagement, which can benefit any brand or business trying to reach its target audience.
- Less work: Hosting live streams is much work, and doing so publicly requires more work to ensure the right people see your stream. You don’t have to do as much promotion or marketing with a private stream to get viewers.
- Increased exclusivity: Private live streams offer a feeling of exclusivity that public streams cannot match. That can benefit a business trying to build an audience or strengthen relationships with existing customers.
Ultimately, hosting a private stream can be a great way to engage with viewers in a more controlled and intimate environment. Of course, it’s not for everyone, but it can be very effective for many businesses and brands.
Conclusion
Security and privacy features are essential to control who has access to your content. These features are what make streaming private events possible.
Choosing the right private streaming platform will be easy for you now, especially after reading our live streaming platform comparison.
What’s been your experience so far with private streaming? Let us know in the chat box below!
Are you interested in trying a private streaming platform with the highest grade security and dozens of other phenomenal features?
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