How to Create a Private Live Stream in 5 Steps

When an enterprise talks about live streaming, it’s easy to think of some massive live event with thousands of attendees from around the world and tons of publicity. Now, there is a place for this sort of event – but a private live stream has its place as well.

Read on to find out when a private live stream may be beneficial and how to create a private live stream for your business in just 5 simple steps.

Table of Contents

• What is a Private Live Stream? 
• Why Use a Private Live Stream? 
• 5 Steps to Create a Private Live Stream
  • Choose the Right Online Video Platform
  • Set Up Your Streaming Environment
  • Configure Your Stream Settings
  • Promote Your Private Live Stream
  • Go Live
• Putting It All Together
• Make Maestro Your Private Live Stream Solution

What is a Private Live Stream?

A private live stream is a live video broadcast that’s only available for a select audience to view, as opposed to the general public. 

A private stream uses security measures to ensure that only authorized individuals can view the content and interact with the host. 

Why Use a Private Live Stream?

There are many instances where a business would want to limit access to their live stream. Here are just a few:

• Internal Communications - Conduct internal business meetings, training, and other private events meant only for employees and stakeholders. 
• Sales Presentations - Present sensitive business information to a small number of qualified leads.
• Customer Events - Run an interactive, exclusive event like a Q&A or keynote just for your customer base (or a select group of VIP customers). 

Whether you want to make an event feel more exclusive or you’re dealing with sensitive company data, there are plenty of times where a private live stream is going to be your best route for a broadcast.

Create a Private Live Stream in 5 Steps

If you’re ready to create a private live stream for your business, follow along with these 5 steps to get you set up for success.

1) Choose the Right Online Video Platform

The first thing you’ll need to do is choose a private live stream platform that’s a good fit for your organization. Most online video platforms (OVPs) should support private streaming, but you’ll want to make sure the features are up to your standards.

Then, you’ll want to consider the different platform features to find the right one for you. These should include:

• Security - Make sure you can maintain control over who can access your streams, along with strong data encryption to safeguard your content from cyber threats. 
• Reliability and scalability - You want smooth performance for your streams, even in scenarios with a lot of traffic. This also includes consistent uptime, so you can be sure your event can go off without a hitch. 
• Customization - You should customize the viewing environment for your stream to reflect your brand identity. Beyond that, interactive tools can personalize the private stream further.
• Monetization - Many private events are only accessible for those who paid to attend, which represents a ticketing monetization feature. But you should also be able to monetize through other methods like subscription, advertising, and live shopping.
• Analytics - Real-time analytics are a crucial way to understand viewer behavior and engagement. These insights can inform your live event strategy going forward.

Ultimately, all of these important features are woven together with another important consideration, which is the price. You want the features you need without having to overspend on them. 

When it comes to a private live streaming platform, we hope you’ll consider Maestro.io, an OVP that offers a robust feature set that includes private streaming for an affordable price. 

>> Contact us to learn about Maestro 

2) Set Up Your Streaming Environment

Once you’ve chosen a private live stream app or platform, you’re ready to set up your streaming environment. 

This encompasses all of the hardware and software you’ll use, a studio or setting where you’ll hold the stream, and a robust internet connection. Whether you’re going live publicly or privately, the streaming environment can be the same.

Hardware should include one or more microphones, an audio mixer, a lighting kit, and a computer or hardware encoder. 

For software, you’ll need to use your chosen OVP for the private stream, but you may also use a separate encoding or broadcasting software application like OBS Studio. You may also require some kind of graphic or video editing software to support your stream.

As for internet, we recommend that your internet upload speed is 3X the bitrate of your live stream bitrate. Find out more in our guide about video bitrate for streaming. 

3) Configure Your Stream Settings

With an OVP and a streaming environment ready to go, you can configure your live stream settings.

For a private stream specifically, this usually involves setting a password for your stream, or giving each attendee a unique access code. You may also need to manage user permissions to help ensure only authorized people will be able to attend.

Beyond security, you’ll want to consider other aspects of your stream, such as the resolution and bitrate (which we briefly touched on earlier). You’ll want to decide whether you want to enable any interactive features on the stream, such as live chat or polls.  

Lastly, if this event is monetized at all, you’ll want to make sure that it’s working properly to ensure a smooth user experience. It’s a good idea to test all settings before it’s time to actually go live.

4) Promote Your Private Live Stream

Even though a private live stream isn’t public, that doesn’t change the fact that the right people need to know about it if you want the event to be a success. You just need to be strategic about where you promote something that only certain people are invited to. 

Here are a few quick ideas:

• Email messages
• Intranet announcements
• Word of mouth through company managers or salespeople
• Personalized mailed invitations (especially for a hybrid private event that can be attended in-person or via live stream) 
• Targeted social media posts or posts in private online groups

When you promote your event, don’t forget to highlight why it’s worth attending. If it’s relevant, you should also emphasize the exclusivity of it to make your audience feel special and more inclined to show up!

5) Go Live

Right before it’s time to go live, you’ll want to do a final equipment check and one last round of promotion or outreach to your attendees. 

Assuming everything looks good, you can go live at the scheduled time. You’ll want at least a few people on your team focused on the technical (i.e. monitoring the stream quality) and on the audience (i.e. operating live chat or keeping an eye on engagement metrics).

The name of the game is quality control. You may need to switch cameras, adjust audio levels, or modify settings to keep the stream quality up.

Once the event is over, don’t forget to provide a recording to anyone who wants one – this can include both people who attended live and those who missed the event.

Putting It All Together

Following these 5 steps should be all you need to put on a successful private live stream event. From there, it’s a matter of doing some post-event analysis to figure out how you can make your next private event even better.

All of the channels you used to promote the event in the first place are a perfect way to reach out again to conduct a survey and follow up with attendees. 

The other thing you may want to do after the event is publish the recording of the video on-demand. If you still want it to be private, you can set that up on a platform like Maestro, or you can choose to open it up to the broader public and make your private live event a timed exclusive. 

Lastly, you may consider taking snippets from the recording for social media and your website to promote your brand, your event, or both. 

Make Maestro Your Private Live Streaming Solution

Ultimately, creating a private live stream for your enterprise can do wonders for your internal communications, as well as your external-facing sales efforts and customer engagement.

Whatever your goals for a private live stream, Maestro stands out as the ideal platform to support your efforts. Our all-in-one online video platform comes with robust security features, extensive branded customization options, and interactive tools that cater to enterprise-level businesses for all of your live streaming and VOD needs.

Are you ready to publish and monetize your own high-quality videos on Maestro? Contact us now to book a demo!

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