Regardless of how you livestream, here are some general best practices:
- Ensure you're on a strong internet connection. Test here and ensure an upload speed of at least 10 mbps. The faster the better!
- An ethernet cable will provide a faster and more reliable internet connection than Wi-Fi, and Wi-Fi is generally faster than using cellular data. If you use cellular data, ensure you have enough high-speed data for the entire experience.
- Ensure your device(s) are plugged into power or have more than enough battery for the experience.
- Restart your device if you haven't done so recently.
- Close other applications and tabs (if streaming from a browser). Streaming can consume a lot of CPU and you don't want to compete with anything else.
- Ensure you're running up-to-date versions of all relevant software, including your operating system, browser, and/or encoder.
- If you use a VPN, turn it off.
- Use Chrome or Safari (if streaming from a browser).
- Do a test stream ahead of time to check video and audio quality so you can make adjustments.
- Wireless headphones may improve audio.
If you’re streaming from an encoder:
- After entering the RTMP info into your encoder, you must first start streaming from your encoder, then select “Go Live” on Tastemade.
- Select “End Event” on Tastemade before you stop streaming from your encoder.
- If you’re using Open Broadcaster Software (OBS), we recommend checking “Dynamically change bitrate to manage congestion” (under Advanced Settings) to ensure a smooth stream.
- Closed keyframe rates are required. This means that if there are any B frames in the video, they should always refer to frames within the same keyframe. This setting is the default in most encoding software and hardware, including OBS.
- We only support H.264 video and AAC audio codecs as inputs.
- Use an appropriate bitrate, typically well under 12Mbps (12000Kbps). High motion, high frame rate content typically should use a higher bitrate, while low motion content like slide presentations should use a lower bitrate.
- Use a keyframe interval between 2 to 10 seconds. The default in most encoding software and hardware, including OBS, is within this range. Setting a lower rate will reduce latency for viewers, while also reducing encoding efficiency. Setting a higher rate will improve encoding efficiency, while increasing latency for viewers. This is a tradeoff inherent to video encoding.