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Live streaming at the professional level requires a lot of hard work and resources. When you’re investing a great deal of time, money, and effort into your live streams, you’re going to want to keep a recording of your live stream for future use.
Whether you want to offer on-demand access to the event after it has taken place or you want a copy of the stream for your archive, recording your live stream is a good idea.
In this post, we’re going to cover everything you need to know about recording your live streams. We will address when and why you might want to create a live stream recording of your event.
We’ll dive into four different methods to use to record a live stream, including dedicated live stream recording software, an encoder, or an online video platform. To wrap things up, we will cover the most popular methods for monetizing your live stream recording.
Why Record Live Streaming Video?
Learning how to live stream is an important tool for business, remote learning, and remote event attendance.
There are several advantages to keeping live stream recordings. Some of the most basic reasons why broadcasters record their live streams include:
- Saving footage for the archive
- Using recordings for promo reels, advertisements, etc.
- Continuing engagement after live events have ended
- Generating revenue via on-demand video
Let’s take a closer look at a few of the other reasons why broadcasters choose to create a recording of their live streams.
Give Viewers a Second Chance to Watch
Another key reason to capture and publish your live recording online is to give viewers a chance to replay the stream to catch anything they might have missed the first time around.
A viewer may find so much value in a stream that they come back to rewatch your live stream recording again and again. For live sports broadcasts, for example, making live streams accessible after the game or match has ended is particularly beneficial to your biggest fans.
Nourishing relationships with these dedicated followers is important since they are likely to tune in to future streams and live events. True fans can be extremely powerful, and recording your live streams can help you to capitalize on this potential.
How to Record Streaming Video
At Mslive, we recommend eight or more GB of RAM and a modern i7 processor if you intend to record directly.
There are several ways to record a live stream. You can do it through an encoder, an online video player, or through a dedicated screen-capture tool.
Let’s take a look at how to record live streaming videos with each of these methods.
1. Live Stream Recording via Streaming Software
There are a couple of types of software that are used for capturing live stream recordings. The most common two are encoding software and streaming software with dedicated live stream recording tools. Oftentimes, the two are merged into one software.
Software encoders are appealing because of their low cost and ease of operation. They also support future performance enhancements as the software can be upgraded as new features or product versions are released. Streaming software is very similar in nature.
The main difference between the two is that streaming software offers more functionality than just encoding. In fact, many include encoding tools in addition to “studio” tools that are designed for mixing, editing, and adding other elements to live streams. Stream recording is another important function that many offer.
The exact process for stream recording varies from software to software. However, there are some basics to keep in mind.
If you’ve chosen streaming software to record your live stream, you can set up stream recording on your internal or networked drives. However, this approach does require two important components: spare processing power and disk space.
Streaming solutions, in general, require a good deal of processing power. Simultaneously transcoding your stream into a commonly recorded format (e.g., MP4) can tax mid-range computer hardware. A powerful machine should be able to tackle this task.
Also, video recording takes up a great deal of space. Depending on your encoder, recordings you save directly to local drives will encode in the format the camera sends.
Often, the streaming recording is saved at a much higher video bitrate than the online stream. As a result, you’ll need considerable storage space. For a multi-hour event, that easily amounts to hundreds of gigabytes. In that case, multi-terabyte hard drives may be necessary. Factors affecting this requirement include recording resolution, audio quality, frame rate, and other settings that affect the bitrate.
The exact process for live stream capture will vary from software to software, so we encourage you to look for instructions specific to your chosen video platform.
2. Live Stream Recording via Built-In Screen Capture Tools
Another option for recording live streams is to use the built-in screen capture tools on your computer. Both Mac and Windows offer their own screen recording tools.
Let’s take a look at how live stream recording works on each of these operating systems.
3. Live Stream Recording via a Video Platform
If you’re looking to use an OVP, be sure to compare each platform and what they offer. Every platform is unique in its’ own way.
A live stream recorder via a streaming service is usually as simple as enabling an option in your account settings. You may also need to enable stream recording for the specific live stream/channel that you plan to capture.
There are quite a few advantages of recording live stream video content on a professional live streaming platform. For one, the processing power for transcoding locally isn’t required, nor is the storage space. This approach also means that you don’t have to worry about local disk failures.
The reason for this is that OVPs record to redundant RAID-based servers. You also maintain control and rights to all of your content when you stream with a professional OVP like Mslive. In that sense, it’s a win-win.
Only some video hosting platforms offer live stream recording, so make sure to review all the features for the platform and plan you have before you try to record your live streams.
4. Live Stream Recording via a Hardware Encoder
Hardware encoders are a bit different from the software encoders we discussed earlier in this post. They are standalone, dedicated devices that do not require a PC to run.
Hardware encoders have specialized internal components and firmware and don’t share resources with any other processors. This high speed comes at a price though as these devices are considerably more expensive than their software counterparts.
With a hardware encoder, live stream recording is a somewhat different process. First, you want to explore your encoder settings to determine if this method is even possible, to begin with.
Some hardware encoders feature internal disk space to which you can save content. Some, like the Matrox Monarch HD, are optimized for this usage. Others may require you to plug in an external hard drive before recording content.
Hardware encoders are also less flexible overall. Some hardware encoders don’t support simultaneous live stream recorders at all.
How to Monetize Live Stream Recordings
Monetization is key for recording live streaming video. You want your viewers to be able to pay for your content safely and securely.
As we mentioned, recording your live streams and uploading them as on-demand VOD content can help to extend your revenue generation, both in terms of time and total sales brought in.
Financially speaking, video is a very significant asset. For many businesses and organizations, high-quality prerecorded video content is as good as gold. Simply put, if you manage it properly, you’ll get high returns. Instead of just throwing something out there for viewers, put it to focused and advantageous use.
For example, let’s briefly consider the NBA. If you’re not aware, the NBA now generates the majority of its revenue via live broadcasts on TV. However, it also records all live-streamed content and makes that coverage available to subscribers on-demand.
This expands the NBA’s revenue potential while making true fans very happy. For avid sports fans with busy lives or no cable, live stream recording allows them to watch every game from their favorite teams on their own time.
At Mslive, we offer secure video monetization, which means that both you and your viewers are protected on transactions that take place through our video paywall. All data collected by the paywall system is enforced and protected.
Viewers can purchase content securely by credit card, and all payments processed by the system are SSL encrypted to protect data during transmission.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at some specific methods for monetizing live stream recordings.
Final Thoughts on How to Record Streaming Video
There is a lot of value in recording your online streams for on-demand playback and other uses. In particular, live stream recordings are great for reaching new audiences, extending engagement, and providing content for your true supporters. Let’s not forget that they can also improve revenue generation.
The live stream recording process differs depending on whether you use a professional OVP, like Mslive, dedicated stream recording software, the tools built into your computer, or an encoder. However, no matter what method you choose, the recording is important.
Luckily, it’s fairly easy to “set it and forget it” so that you’ll have a high-quality recording waiting for you after every broadcast.
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