Effective Strategies for Monitoring Your Live Streams

 Effective Strategies for Monitoring Your Live Streams

Streamers often have to handle multiple tasks on their own, including creating their own graphics, fine-tuning their output settings, keying their green screen, crafting titles, and delivering content on camera. You soon realize you are alone with no one to double-check for errors before you go live. It is a lot to handle, and even the smallest mistakes can result in portions of your stream being lost. However, with a little creativity and some effective strategies, you can turn the stress of streaming into an entertaining and engaging experience for both you and your audience. 

Here are some scenarios: You are all set to start streaming but as soon as you start your show, you accidentally hit the mute button on your microphone, causing you to lose all your audio and no one can hear you. Alternatively, maybe your internet unexpectedly drops, leaving both you and your viewers confused about what is going on as your stream goes dark. Even smaller issues such as a malfunctioning scene, or volume levels that are too high or too low can cause problems. While it would be ideal to catch every potential issue before going live, we all know that the world is far from perfect. That is why it is crucial to keep a watchful eye on your stream while you are streaming. By doing so, you can catch any problems and ensure that your content is always good.

Monitoring your stream with chat

Engaging with chat is essential for building a connection with your audience, but did you know that it can also serve as an effective tool for monitoring your stream? Your chat can quickly detect any significant problems with your stream, such as any audio issues, or any drop in internet speeds that might cause the stream to freeze or disconnect. Even if you don’t notice any issues during your gameplay, your chat will inevitably provide feedback, so you need to make sure to keep an eye on chat to stay on top of any potential issues.  Your chat is your audience’s direct line to you, and they won’t hesitate to let you know about any issues that prevent them from enjoying your stream. Whether it is the stream cutting out, your microphone being muted, or your camera dying, you can count on them to report it. Viewers can be much more reliable than software at recognizing specific problems. For example, your computer won’t warn you if your microphone is muted, but your chat will notice. However, you can’t always rely on your chat to report all problems. For one, your viewers may not notice or may choose not to report subtle issues. Additionally, this method assumes you have an active chat, which can be a challenge for new streamers.

Monitoring your stream locally

In order to identify any issues that might arise during your stream, it is important that you use a local monitoring system such as OBS to keep an eye on everything. Keeping OBS open and visible on your computer, will not only allow you to see your stream's visuals, but it will also allow you to monitor the volume levels of your microphone and other stream sounds. OBS will also report any dropped frames that might occur, so you can determine whether the issue is with your system or if it is something on the viewer's side when they report any type of issue regarding the quality of your stream. With this approach, you can catch any problems at the source and ensure your audience gets the best viewing experience. Now if you don’t happen to have a second monitor to keep an eye on OBS while you stream, don’t worry, you can use your phone instead. Simply place it somewhere visible, with your stream open and the sound turned off. This will allow you to monitor for visual glitches or internet issues that might come up. Additionally, your phone displays your stream’s final output, which can show settings like frame rate, bit rate, and color depth that may not appear in your OBS preview. You can even use your phone to check audio levels during your show. 

Other stream elements to monitor

You do not however want to limit your monitoring efforts to stream issues alone. There are numerous other activities on your channel that deserve your attention, and you must keep an eye on them. Whether it is a follow, a raid, a new subscriber, someone cheering, or any other alert you don’t want to miss them. Each activity is displayed in your chat window, but it’s crucial to manage and separate them from your other chat messages. You don’t want to miss thanking someone for following just because their message got lost in a busy chat. I recommend using dedicated and free pieces of software such as streamer bots or even the built-in OBS activity feed, which will show you a list of any and all stream events. Of course, if you don’t want to use any extra software, you can always simply use your channel’s integrated dashboard and utilize its many features to stay up to date on every event happening during your stream.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to monitoring your streams, it is important to use the tools that will be most effective in detecting issues you have trouble with. This means you need to consider which tools will help you catch the problems as soon as they happen. As you encounter new issues, you can refine your monitoring process even further.  It is also important to experiment with various methods and software options to figure out which one best suits your needs. This way you are more likely to stick with it and achieve better results. The goal is not just to detect issues, but to be able to quickly address them when they arise. With a range of monitoring software and the support of your chat, you can confidently overcome any technical problem that comes up during your stream.