Essential Equipment for Live Streaming: A Guide

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Essential Equipment for Live Streaming: A Guide | CommentSold

Live video selling is at the core of modern e-commerce. “Live selling” (or “live shopping”) is when businesses showcase and sell their goods in real time through live streams, typically on social media platforms. Real-time communication between sellers and customers instills a sense of community that boosts trust, which, in turn, catapults sales, and enhances consumer loyalty.

The growth and popularity of live video commerce makes this sales strategy a necessary next step if you’re looking to increase revenue and strengthen customer loyalty. 60% of consumers say that live selling improves their shopping experience, and successful live sellers have increased revenue by more than 200%.

Getting Started is Simple

The data alone proves live selling to be a lucrative next step for retailers. Even more, it’s super simple to get started. All you need is a smartphone, ring light, and laptop to host vibrant live video streams that transform your business.

3 Essential Equipment for Live Selling

Doing your very own live sale is much easier than you think and only requires three basic things.

1. Smartphone

Whether you use Apple or Android phones, the device you use for the livestream needs to have at least a 12MP front camera. Make sure you are running the latest operating system (OS) updates to ensure the best performance for your live stream.

Use the front camera on your smartphone to capture and broadcast both audio and video to your livestream viewers across multiple channels. Using the front-facing camera will allow you to adjust the framing of your livestream. It also provides a good visual representation of how your live sale will look to viewers and can help you tweak lighting and ambience as needed.

2. LED Ring Light

An LED ring light is a necessity. Ring lights cast an even light across your face and products, and help reduce shadows to properly highlight the products you showcase to your viewers.

An 18-inch ring light is a great starter light. It will give you wide-area illumination and ample space to mount your phone. Depending on your setup and ambience, you may need to add some extra lighting to your surroundings—play around with the lighting to see what setup works best for your viewers.

3. Laptop

A laptop is a crucial piece of mobile live streaming equipment that allows hosts to moderate and manage live streams and all the associated details.

Being able to watch viewer counts, viewer comments, incoming sales, and real-time inventory updates on a device other than your cell phone means you won’t be juggling through apps, or squirting to read the phone you’re streaming from. This will smoothen the experience for you and your viewers.

You do not need to go all out on an expensive laptop for this; just something that enables you to browse with a couple of tabs and applications open. Look for a laptop with at least 8GB RAM and an SSD. You can also opt to install an SSD in your old laptop to improve its performance by a lot.

Take Your Live Sales to the Next Level: Additional Equipment for Live Streaming

Backed by years of expertise, CommentSold’s essential equipment for live streaming recommendations can take your setup to the next level.

A Second Smartphone

One phone is necessary, but a two-smartphone setup will make your live sale experience far more seamless and streamlined. As stated, whether you use Apple or Android phones for the livestream, make sure your phones have a 12MP camera.

Use the higher-quality back-facing camera on one device to ensure top-notch video quality for your live sale. This will be your primary phone that will capture and broadcast both audio and video to your livestream viewers.

Use the front-facing camera on the second phone to adjust the framing of your livestream. The front-facing device will show you how the live sale looks to viewers.

Adjustable Ring Light With Dual Phone Holders

Use a tall, height-adjustable ring light that comes with two phone holders.

A ring light with a tripod stand is stable enough to support both of your mobile devices. It will also help minimize wobble, which is important for creating a crisp video stream. This type of ring light will also let you adjust the height as needed, perfect the lighting, and create framing that supports your live sale aesthetic.

32-Inch TV

We suggest using a TV with a screen size of 32 inches (or larger!) and an HDMI cable to connect to your laptop. This will allow you to use the TV as a large monitor.

With live sale information clearly displayed on a large screen, live sale hosts can engage with products without having to strain their eyes by squinting at smartphones or bending over a laptop. Not having to walk off-screen to read and answer viewer comments will also make for a more consistent viewing experience. This saves hosts a ton of energy and time, resources which are better spent entertaining viewers to scale your business.

Thermal Label Printer & Barcode Scanner

Purchasing a thermal label printer and thermal paper rolls will simplify inventory management and shipping—all you have to do is print labels and stick them to your SKUs.

The same goes for using a barcode scanner, which lets you quickly scan and sort all labeled products, making inventory management and shipping effortless.

If you forget to list an item in your live sale ahead of time, or if you decide to add one at the last second, live commerce platforms like CommentSold make new additions simple with a quick barcode scan; live sale overlays will update in real time so customers can quickly and easily shop the newly added item.

Room Essentials

Your live sale studio will play a large role in how prepared you feel and comfortable you are when going live. Below are our recommended must-haves:

  • Table: Yes, a table. Get your hands on a sturdy table big enough to hold your TV, laptop, and all the rest of the equipment for live streaming you will need to use during your live sale. Having it all in one place keeps things from getting messy and tiring.
  • Quiet Space: Make sure the area you are streaming from is free from noise and other distractions. Before going live, make sure you resolve all situations involving rowdy neighbors, playful dogs, construction equipment, and more. These distractions can throw you off your game and could deter your viewers.
  • Customized Backdrop: Create ambiance by crafting a thoughtful and branded backdrop. Take the opportunity to curate your space with colors and imagery that help boost recognition and best represent your business. Just be sure the backdrop isn’t too distracting from you as a host or the items you’re highlighting. 
    Not only will a great backdrop make for better stream aesthetics, but it can also help boost your sales.
  • Helping Hands: It’s so much easier (and more fun!) to host a live sale with at least one person running the show from behind the scenes, off camera. This person can read out comments and questions as they come, host trivia while the live sale host changes into outfits or prepares another product demonstration, and keep things organized and viewers engaged.

Stable Internet Connection

The quality of your internet connection can make or break your live sale stream. Make sure you have a high-speed, dependable internet connection. A laggy, stuttering, or poor-quality livestream can deter your viewers from watching your live sale. As such, a stable internet connection is the epitome of equipment for live streaming. We recommend an internet connection that can provide at least 10 Mbps upload speed on your streaming device.

It’s a good idea to do test runs a few days before your live sale to see how well your internet performs. It will also help you identify what things you need to be mindful of during a sale, so you’re not left improvising every step of the way.

You can add to the stability of your livestream by ensuring that no other devices, apart from the ones necessary for the live sale, are using the same internet connection while you stream.

Ethernet Adapter for Your Phone

Even though technology has come a long way, wired connections are often much more stable than wireless ones.

An ethernet adapter for your phone will ensure better connectivity and stability. We recommend using a 2-in-1 USB-C to ethernet or Lightning to ethernet connector that also comes with phone-charging capabilities. This way, you won’t have to worry about your battery running dry in the middle of the sale and losing viewers and revenue.

Live Selling Software

The right live selling software will make all the difference when it comes to managing front and back-end operations for your live sale.

CommentSold serves as the perfect partner for automating your live sales and allowing you to manage all aspects from a single dashboard. Its live overlays display all relevant product information to your audience in real time, making the live sale an engaging experience. All you have to do is concentrate on giving your viewers a nice time each time they watch your live sale.

Ready, Set, Stream!

Once you’ve got the necessary equipment, a customized live sale backdrop, and a few other key features, you’re ready to go.

Remember to be regular with your live sales to build viewer trust and help lock-in repeat purchasers. Successful live sellers on the CommentSold platform have seen:

  • 10x higher conversions
  • 200% increase in sales
  • 3x more spending on mobile apps

The most important thing is to speak authentically to your audience, have fun, and know you can rely on live selling experts like CommentSold for live chat support in under three minutes.

To start Instagram live selling for your business!

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