Case Study – Outdoor Livestream

When I was first approached by Peace Pledge Union about livestreaming from a park in London, I wasn’t 100% sure on how it would work… but it all turned out well.

The challenge was that their Conscientious Objector Memorial Service was taking place in Tavistock Square Gardens, which has no power and no Wi-Fi. It meant that I wouldn’t just be using my normal kit.

So, I spent a lot of time researching camping batteries, trying to work out how much power various setups used and so on. I ended up buying a good-sized Anker Battery, and then setting up various tests, livestreaming my garden to get an idea of how long it would run.

I also did a site test, as I happened to have another job nearby a few months earlier. So I sat in the park running various speed tests on my 5G data, and it looked like it would hold. I also checked to see if there were any public Wi-Fi networks I would use. There wasn’t.

I ended up using a stripped back setup of a single PTZ camera and using my laptop and OBS to encode the stream instead of my normal ATEM switcher. The ATEM is great but can struggle with unreliable internet connections. OBS also had the advantage of being able to control the PTZ camera from the software, meaning I could leave the PTZ controller at home.

On the day, I drove into London, parked at a hotel nearby and walked my case of kit over. Once the table had arrived, I got set up. As well as the main kit, I had a spare webcam just in case the PTZ died. I also had a spare battery-operated camcorder set up independently which was recording as backup in case everything else went wrong, and at least I could upload the recording later.

I got everything set up and tested and then was ready to go. The internet held, the battery lasted (I used about 45% of the full charge) and it all went fairly smoothly.

I recorded a short video onsite of the setup. And you can see the full livestream on the PPU YouTube Channel

One of the things I love about my job is the problem-solving and working out how to provide the best service to meet the clients’ requests. And the sense of relief and pride when it all works!