Creating your own digital live show has become simpler and easier than ever with cloud video production technology. Major broadcasters and publishers such as UFC, NASCAR, Arizona Cardinals, AELTC Wimbledon and The FA have leveraged cloud production tools to create bespoke live programming for their social and digital channels, driving engagement with fans across the globe. 

You might be thinking it takes a small army of people and a whole bunch of equipment to produce these shows – but it doesn’t! We’d like to share five simple steps that you can take to create your own digital show.

Listen to the first Grabyo Podcast as CEO Gareth Capon and VP of Marketing Clare Butler delve further into the 5 steps below.

1. Choose your format, choose your assets 

The first step is deciding what the format of your show will look like.

If you’re focused on a live event, you can bring in multiple high-definition live video feeds and remote guests, and switch between them with a couple of clicks using Grabyo Producer. Whether you are streaming content from in a studio or onsite at a live event, you can cover every angle and location using a portable encoder (from manufacturers such as LiveU) for reliable remote video transport.

You can also set up scenes and layouts with multiple assets in Grabyo Producer – but more on that later. 

If you’re looking to produce a magazine show, or behind the scenes ancillary content, you can preload as many VOD assets as you need in Grabyo, ready to overlay and mix during your show. You can even create a playlist of VOD assets to play out, so you don’t need to cue the next segment.

2. Recruit and bring in talent

One of the key advantages of cloud production is that there are no limits to getting the best talent for your show. It’s simple to bring in anyone from anywhere across the globe. 

In 2020 The FA scheduled an archive watchalong with former England football strikers Micheal Owen and Emile Heskey, who joined for the entirety from their own homes. Grabyo’s remote guest feature enables you to invite anyone, anywhere in the world to appear on your broadcast, all they need is a laptop or smartphone with a camera and microphone enabled.

3. Set up your graphics and scenes

Consumers expect to see TV-quality live shows on every screen and platform. Before your show, you can preload a number of custom graphics such as lower thirds, L bars, name straps and branding to create engaging and dynamic layouts. You can also overlay branding and graphics from your sponsors to create more advertising inventory. 

Grabyo is also deeply integrated with cloud-based graphics tools such as Singular.Live and never.no, if you would like to overlay animated graphics and data visualizations. 

During the production, you can easily drag and drop assets to create scenes and layouts across multiple layers, using graphic overlays on top of VOD or live video sources, with pixel-precise control for size and position. Scenes can then be stored, reused, and shared for use in any live production, giving an extremely simplified workflow.

Get your scenes ready ahead of time for quick and easy switching when you go live.

4. Integrate with social media for real-time interaction

To go the extra mile and engage with your audience, you can also set up social listening and comment moderation tools from the likes of never.no, Flowics and Tagboard. 

This will allow you to collect social posts and interactions such as questions and comments from your audience, and display them on screen, for your presenters or talent to answer and interact. You can also run polls, adding another layer of engagement for the audience. 

This is a very effective way to connect with your audience to drive engagement and watch times. Getting these integrations set up before time is key, allowing a live broadcast to be executed seamlessly.

5. Stream everywhere

The last step to create your own digital live show. Consumers want to view content in the places and platforms they like the most –  therefore you should deliver your live show to as many places and platforms as possible. Grabyo is directly integrated with all major social platforms, with tools that enable you to deliver directly to digital and OTT platforms, giving you the ability to stream to multiple platforms simultaneously. 

The benefit of cloud video production here is that you can manage your show in one place, using less equipment and resources than if you were to go the traditional hardware route.

The final word

Putting together a digital live show might seem challenging, but if you plan ahead they can be seamlessly created and executed by a small team, using minimal equipment. 

We are here to help, our platform has been designed to support a live show of any size and complexity – be it one camera or multi-location setups. 

Check out this virtual tour of Grabyo Producer’s Control Room: