Hey guys, it’s GabaVR. I’m a 360 content creator and photographer,
publishing 360 videos and tutorials about creative 360 photo and video techniques.
And this time I share my knowledge about 360 live streaming with you.
Can we live stream directly on YouTube using the Insta360 app?
Does 360 or overcapture live streaming work under 1000 subscribers?
How long can we live stream and how can we charge our devices during streaming?
These are the most frequently asked questions about 360 live streaming.
And among many other ones, I will answer everything right now!
My previous video is still very popular on YouTube, although, it’s almost a year ago, that I posted it.
If you are interested about the basics, I recommend checking it out later.
But now let’s see this topic in early 2020.
You know, I was very excited about 360 live streaming from the beginning,
and also a little bit surprised, that camera manufacturers don’t really talk much about this feature.
Despite Insta360 OneX is one of those few consumer cameras which have live streaming function,
it feels like a secondary or hidden feature, with very little information available about it.
But I still believe that 360 live streaming is a really exciting feature both for content creators and viewers.
It’s like teleportation or looking through a wormhole, being there somewhere else in real time.
You know, we can virtually look around in different locations to see, what is going on at a certain moment.
And it’s almost a year ago that I uploaded my first video, and unfortunately the industry hasn’t changed so much.
Opening Insta360 app, you can see that YouTube live streaming is still in beta version
and it has a couple of bugs.
For instance we can meet error messages like this.
And I’m not really sure what it is, but I couldn’t go live on my channel for months.
Then I just deleted and installed the app again, and since then I haven’t switched between my Google accounts.
And finally it seems working well with my official channel.
So if you have a similar problem, try to reset your app this way
and set only one Google account you’d like to use.
But here we are at another issue.
I have found a lot of posts and comments in Facebook groups that many people can’t go live at all.
You know, it’s a limitation by Google, so you cannot live stream under 1,000 subscribers.
But let’s see how we can fool the system.
So before going forward to other live streaming topics and a real-life test,
let me show you a possible solution to live stream on a small channels, having less than 1000 subscribers.
Unfortunately we need a laptop or a computer, too,
but of course, we don’t have to connect the camera or the phone to that computer.
And essentially, after setting up the basics, we have the freedom to walk around and stream normally,
using the camera and the smartphone.
Let me show you this method.
Opening the Insta360 app, and one of the live streaming modes, we can choose between a few of options.
The first one is Facebook, the second one is YouTube Beta (I will tell you more about this later),
the third one seems to be a Chinese social media platform,
but the last option is RTMP.
And now, this is what we need.
Tapping on it there’s only one option, adding a streaming address.
Maybe it seems weird, or sounds difficult at first,
but this will be the solution for all of you, who cannot live stream with the YouTube beta option.
It will work the same way, like a normal Facebook or YouTube live stream with a camera and a smartphone.
But it needs some preparation first.
So I take my computer and after logging in my YouTube account I create a new video by going live.
Sure, I don’t have a webcam, so I go along and click on Stream.
I can add a title, a description and a custom thumbnail.
And then I create the stream.
As you can see in the stream window, it’s ready to stream, but of course, there’s no input signal.
If you’d like to live stream in 360, click on this button.
And I recommend setting up a low latency.
The normal latency will be too much.
To go live with the Insta360 app, I will need a stream key and stream URL.
To make it accessible on phone, I usually copy and paste it on Google Keep.
First, I copy and paste the URL.
And then the stream key.
It’s very important, that the final URL will look like this.
The beginning of the address is always the same, and the ending is always changing, depending on the project
Of course, I could use any note taking app,
but I like Google Keep, because it works both on desktop and on my phone.
So as I save a note on computer, I can immediately open it on mobile, too.
So it’s a really fast way to transfer texts or links from desktop to the phone.
So after saving the URL on desktop, I open my Google Keep app on smartphone and copy it on the clipboard.
Then I switch to the Insta360 app, and paste it.
That’s all.
I can start live streaming.
Or, there’s one more important step.
As you will see, the app starts streaming, but actually it’s not on air yet.
We have to confirm live streaming on computer, too.
So finally, when everything is fine, I just go live, clicking on this button in the right top corner.
As you can see, it’s not so complicated.
We just create a new event, copy the link, and paste it in the Insta360 app,
then start live streaming both on mobile and on the computer, and that’s all.
It works even under 1000 subscribers.
And now, let’s see what if we have a little bit bigger channel,
and we can use the direct live streaming option in the app.
As you could see, I created a live streaming test last week, showing you the quality of the stream.
And after live streaming starts, you can see that it’s still a beta version,
because actually I can’t see nor the viewer number, nor the live chat or the comment section on YouTube,
while on Facebook it works properly.
As I told you during live streaming, this test wasn’t ideal, because it was quite a low-light situation,
but I could check out the sound quality too, and honestly, I liked it.
It was way better than expected.
Of course, without any compression and limitation
it wasn’t as loud as other videos with processed audio tracks, but it was fine.
If you are interested about it, check out the live stream in the right top corner.
As you could see, it was an 8 minutes video without any complication,
but if you want to create a much longer broadcast, I have a bad news for you.
Unfortunately you will be limited by the battery time of your devices.
As I showed you in the previous live streaming tutorial,
we have to connect the camera and the phone with a cable,
so we cannot charge any of them during live streaming.
In this case, Insta360 has a great design, that at least we can change the battery really quickly,
while of course, we have to break live streaming.
But I think this is just the minor problem.
As I experienced, the battery life of the smartphone is the weakest link in the chain.
Because when it drains, you can’t replace it, and it takes a lot of time to charge.
The longest live streaming I could create was about 50 minutes,
and I had to stop it, because my phone almost died.
So if you are looking for a professional solution for really long live streaming, you need professional equipment.
But why everybody wants to live stream for 3 or 4 hours?
For a consumer or prosumer user I think an hour can be enough.
And Insta360 OneX is one of the most affordable tools for it.
But what about further tools like Insta360 One R? Well, I don’t have good news.
Live streaming wasn’t on the spotlight with One X, and now, that’s all we can see in the One R specifications.
So maybe there will be such an option after a software update,
but in many aspects this camera is really similar to the One X,
and that’s why I don’t expect any big changes.
Maybe the battery time will be better, but after it drains, it will be harder to replace.
I mean, maybe someone will buy multiply battery bases, but I guess most of you won’t.
So in terms of battery management One X still seems to be better.
On the other hand, in a little bit higher price range, we can find Pilot One,
which is said to be a live stream beast.
Unfortunately I couldn’t put my hands on it to test, but it’s going up in resolution, for sure.
If I have the opportunity to try it, you will be the first to see the results,
but until that, I hope you find these tips useful,
and you can create great live stream contents with the good old Insta360 One X.
If you do, please thumbs up. And for further 360 contents and tutorials,
please subscribe, and share my videos in the 360 community!
See you next time!