We've always believed that our livestreams are about more than just talking about e-stim products. They're about sharing knowledge, answering questions, having a laugh, and helping people get more out of their e-stim experiences. Unfortunately, our equipment hasn't always been quite as enthusiastic about that mission as we are!
If you've joined us for one of our recent Saturday livestreams, you might have noticed a few technical hiccups. We've had audio equipment crashing, networking problems, and the occasional moment when something that was working perfectly five minutes earlier suddenly decides it doesn't want to play anymore./p>
It's frustrating for us, and we know it isn't much fun for you either.
So, we've decided it's time to put our hands in our pockets and make some improvements.
Why Our Livestreams Matter to Us
When we started doing livestreams, we wanted to create a space where people could talk openly about e-stim, ask questions, share experiences, and learn from one another.
That hasn't changed.
E-stim can be confusing, especially when you're just starting out. There's a lot of conflicting information online, plenty of questionable advice, and sometimes a worrying lack of discussion about safety and good practices.
We want to do our bit to improve that.
Every Saturday, the three of us — Joanne, Ian and Rachel — get together to talk about equipment, techniques, new products, safety considerations, and whatever else comes up in conversation.
Sometimes we're demonstrating equipment. Sometimes we're answering questions from viewers. Other times we're discussing something that we've encountered ourselves or that someone in the community has asked about.
And, inevitably, there's a fair bit of silliness along the way.
We don't want our streams to feel like a lecture or an extended sales pitch. We want them to be somewhere people feel comfortable joining in, whether they've been enjoying e-stim for twenty years or have just discovered it.
That community aspect matters to us, especially because we know many people don't have anyone in their everyday lives they can comfortably discuss e-stim with.
The Trouble With Technology
Anyone who has ever tried to put together a livestream involving multiple cameras, audio sources, computers, and other bits of equipment will know there's more going on behind the scenes than it might appear.
Our setup has gradually grown as we've tried to improve the quality of what we produce.
Unfortunately, some of the equipment is now starting to show
Our original RØDECaster Pro has served us well, but recently it's developed an annoying habit of crashing. That's particularly inconvenient when it's responsible for managing the audio during a live
There aren't many things more frustrating than being in the middle of an interesting conversation and suddenly finding that your audio equipment has decided to take an unscheduled break./p>
We've also been experiencing networking problems.
Our streaming setup relies on several devices communicating with one another, including our ATEM video switcher, media server, streaming PC, and laptop.
When those connections don't behave themselves, things start going wrong.
We've had situations where equipment has stopped communicating properly, causing unnecessary interruptions and leaving us troubleshooting problems when we should be focusing on the stream.
That's not how we want to spend our Saturday afternoons.
A New RØDECaster Pro II
Our first major upgrade is replacing the original RØDECaster Pro with a RØDECaster Pro II.
It's a substantial investment, but audio is one of those things that really matters during a livestream.
Viewers might forgive the occasional camera problem, but poor or disappearing audio can make a stream almost impossible to follow.
The Pro II gives us a more modern audio production system, improved processing, flexible routing and more control over how we manage the different audio sources used during our broadcasts.
It should also make managing our audio setup easier, especially as we continue experimenting with our stream format.
Of course, buying new equipment doesn't guarantee that nothing will ever go wrong. Technology has a remarkable ability to find new and imaginative ways to misbehave.
But replacing ageing hardware that's already causing problems is a sensible place to start.
Sorting Out the Network
Our second upgrade is a little less glamorous, but potentially just as important.
We're installing a dedicated wired network for our streaming equipment.
Right now, our devices rely on network connections that haven't always been as reliable or predictable as we'd like.
The new setup will use a TP-Link ER605 router and Gigabit Ethernet switching, allowing us to create a separate network specifically for the livestream equipment.
We'll assign fixed IP addresses to the ATEM, media server, streaming PC, and laptop, so every device has a known address and the equipment can find and communicate with one another consistently.
Everything will connect via Ethernet rather than relying on wireless connections.
The advantage is that we'll control our own streaming network without making changes to the main internet router.
Once everything is configured, we should be able to turn on the equipment and have it communicate reliably, without wondering which device changed its address or why something suddenly disappeared from the network.
It's not a particularly exciting upgrade to look at, but if it means fewer interruptions and less frantic troubleshooting, it'll be money well spent.
More Time Streaming, Less Time Fixing Things
One thing that perhaps doesn't come across on camera is just how much work goes into producing our livestreams.
There's preparing subjects to discuss, organising products and demonstrations, setting up cameras and audio, checking software, and making sure everything is ready before we go live.
Then there's the time spent afterwards dealing with recordings, clips and all the other little jobs involved in keeping things running.
We put that effort in because we enjoy doing it and because we believe the streams have genuine value.
But when technical problems start eating into the time we'd rather spend researching subjects, preparing demonstrations or answering questions, something needs to change.
We're not trying to build a television studio or turn our Saturday afternoons into a slick corporate presentation.
We still want the streams to feel like us.
That means honest opinions, practical advice, plenty of interaction with viewers, and the occasional conversation that goes completely off the rails.
We simply want the technology to stop getting in the way.
Investing in the Community
These upgrades aren't about selling more products during our livestreams.
Of course, we're a business, and we often discuss equipment that we stock. But our streams have always been about much more than that.
We want to encourage safer e-stim practices, explain how equipment works, help people avoid common mistakes, and provide a place to ask questions without embarrassment.
That's also why we've invested so much effort in building E-Stim University as a separate educational resource.
Our livestreams are another part of that same commitment to sharing information rather than keeping it to ourselves.
We'd much rather spend our money improving the quality and reliability of those conversations than spend another Saturday trying to work out why the audio has vanished or the ATEM isn't responding.
See You on Saturday!
We're looking forward to getting the new equipment installed, configured and properly tested.
There may still be the occasional technical disaster — we are, after all, dealing with computers — but hopefully they'll become a lot less frequent.
Most importantly, these changes should let us concentrate on what we actually enjoy: talking about e-stim, sharing what we've learned, answering your questions, and having some fun along the way.
And to everyone who joins us regularly, contributes to the conversations, asks questions or simply watches quietly in the background, thank you.
You're the reason we keep doing this, and you're the reason we think it's worth investing in making the streams better.
Join Joanne, Ian and Rachel every Saturday at 5pm on YouTube.
We'll bring the knowledge, the equipment and the questionable sense of humour.
Hopefully, the technology will cooperate!
