- Are you looking for the best
live streaming gear for smartphones?
Well, whether you're on
an iPhone or an Android
in this video we're gonna run through
the best smartphone set up.
So that's things like
microphones, tripods,
and other live streaming
gear to help you get
the best results on your
Facebook Lives, your YouTube Live
or your preferred streaming platform.
(upbeat dance music)
Hey, it's Justin Brown here
from Primal Video, where we help
you amplify your business
and brand with video.
If you're new here, then make
sure you click that subscribe
button and all the links to
everything I mention in this
video, you can find linked
in the description box below,
so let's jump into it.
Now, whether you're using
YouTube Live, Facebook Live
or you're streaming to another
platform, your iPhone or your
Android smartphone can be one
of the best tools for the job.
And even better, with just
some simple smartphone
accessories, you can quickly
level up the quality of your
live stream with no extra work.
So, we've tested a ton
of smartphone accessories
over the years and in this
video we're gonna run through my
current pick for best
setup for live stream
on both iPhone and Android.
So there's no need to make notes as we go
through this video, we're gonna
include links to everything
we mention in the description below.
And while you're watching, let
us know down in the comments
what is your number one
smartphone accessory
that you can't live without
when creating videos.
So the first piece of gear
we gonna look at is a tripod.
Now, a tripod is one of the easiest ways
to make your live streams
look more professional,
because it's going to
remove any shake or jitter
from handholding your
phone while you're live.
So wherever possible I would say
try to get your phones out of your hands
and into something like a
tripod to hold it steady.
Now, if you don't have a
tripod then use a book case,
rest it up against something,
sit it in a tree if you have to,
whatever it takes, get your
phone out of your hands
to get a more professional
looking live stream.
Now, obviously with tripods
they're a great way to do it.
Now, they obviously come in
all different shapes and sizes.
So for a small, portable tripod,
I would recommend something
like the Arkon Tripod.
These are a great little portable tripod
and they come with the
phone holder as well
that will rotate between
portrait and landscape.
Another great portable, cheap
tripod is something like
the Takama Flip-Zip Tripod.
And the great thing about this tripod
is not only is it small
and easy to travel with,
it also doubles as a selfie stick,
a monopode, and a regular tripod as well,
going down to a lower height
to use on a desk or right up to
standing height if you want
a free standing tripod.
So the idea with a tripod
here is to set it up
at the correct height, whether
you're gonna be standing
or sitting and get your
hands off the device.
Now, using something like the Arkon Tripod
with a little mount that
comes with the Arkon Tripod,
which is also sold separately,
but that'll give you
the flexibility, no matter
which tripod you're using
to mount your phone either
portrait or landscape
so that you've got the options
if you decide to mix it up.
Okay, so the second thing we're
gonna look at is the audio.
Now, what I would say is
that audio is actually
probably more important
than the video itself,
so definitely pay attention to your audio.
If you've got bad audio it's gonna make it
really hard and really
distracting for your viewers
to stick around and to
watch your live streams.
Now when it comes to microphones
for getting good audio
on your smartphone, there
are a heap of options
and you've got a few different
types of microphones.
You've obviously got
the built in microphone,
which will work if that's all you've got.
But I would strongly
recommend that you look at
some of these other options to
really take things up a notch
and to help remove a lot
of those distractions or
things like background noise
that can ruin your audio.
So you've got different microphone options
like a lapel or a lavalier
microphone, and those are
the clip on ones, you've
got shotgun or directional
microphones and you've
also got wireless options
as well like wireless lapel
or lavalier microphones.
Now, we have done quite a
few videos on microphones,
and I will put a link to
our video covering our top
recommended microphones
for video in general,
but when we're looking at smartphones
and specifically smartphones
for live streaming,
the ones that I would
recommend to look at would be
the Boya BY-M1, which is
a wired lapel or lavalier
microphone, it sells for
around the $20 price point.
If you don't wanna be tied
or tethered to your phone,
or a lapel or lavalier microphone
isn't what you're after
then you could look at a
mini shotgun microphone,
something like the Rode Videomicro,
it's an amazing microphone.
Or if you're after a wireless set up,
then you could look at
the Rode Filmmaker Kit.
Now, the beauty of phones
these days is that we can
pretty much connect almost any microphone
to our smartphones for
getting great audio.
So no matter what the microphone is,
there will be some sort of
an adaptor that you can get
to connect through.
Now if you are on an iPhone,
anything from a seven and up
and with the newer phones then
obviously you will need to
use that lightning to 3.5 mm
or lightning to headphone jack
adaptor that came with your
phone, or, if you've lost it
you can definitely pick
those up aftermarket as well.
Now obviously the other
piece of the puzzle is
with some of those microphones,
you will need to look
at some mounting options
to mount that shotgun microphone
or that wireless set up
alongside your smartphone
and ideally it's mounted
on the tripod right next to your phone.
There's a great piece of gear called
a hot shoe extension bar.
So what you do with that
is you actually attach that
to the tripod and then
you've got room there
to mount your phone mount on one side
and your microphone on the other side.
And again all the links
to everything that we're
mentioning here will be down
in the description box as well.
But these extension
bars aren't just limited
to holding your phone or your microphone.
You can actually use them
for our next piece of gear
that we're looking at as
well, which is lighting.
Now, lighting is another one
of those critical elements
of video, as not only does
it help your shot look good,
it can also help your
viewers consume your content
by making it more aesthetically pleasing
or easier for them to watch.
So the idea with lighting is
you can get really complicated
and I will put a link
to some lighting videos
that we've got, up in the
cards, but the overall,
fundamental key, or the most
important part of lighting
is to make sure that your subject,
or whoever is speaking or
presenting in your videos
is lit well, so that your
viewer can connect with them
and the message that they are delivering.
So these days there are some really great,
small, portable lighting options
that are great for filming
with your smartphone
because they're small,
they're light, they're easy
to travel with and they've got
decent battery life as well.
So our top two recommendations
for small, portable lights
is the Aperture Amaran AL-M9,
it's an amazing little light,
with about a two-hour battery life.
And the other one is called a Litratorch.
Now this is again, a crazy
bright, super small light
that is aimed actually at the
adventure or the action sports
industries because it's
waterproof, it's drop proof, it's,
yeah a crazy little light.
Now, we'll put some links
up in the description
talking through some
portable lighting options,
but those are two that I
would recommend right now.
Now obviously, if you don't
have any lighting then you can
always use whatever you have
around, use a desk light,
use a lamp, whatever you've
got to get your subject
or yourself lit well.
If you got nothing else,
then sit in front of a window
or use sunlight, just make
sure that you are lit well
for your videos and for your live streams.
Okay, so we've covered off
tripods, audio and lighting.
The next category is really
additional gear, extra stuff
that you can use to take
your live streams up a notch.
Now, the first one we're gonna
look at is the Osmo Mobile 2
which is a gimbal stabilizer
for your smartphone.
This will work on both
iPhones and Android phones
and it's essentially a stabilizer,
meaning if you're gonna be walking around,
it's gonna hold your phone rock solid
and take any shake or
any jitter out of it.
So if you are doing live streams
when you're walking around
and talking to your audience
and connecting with them
that way, then this is an
awesome addition to your toolkit.
Now, another piece of
additional gear that you can use
to take your live streams up
a notch is a wide angle lens.
Now just clipping a wide angle
lens onto your smartphone
camera is gonna give it much wider shot,
which is actually a lot
closer to what you would find
if you were using a DSLR or another camera
and creating videos that way.
So these are perfect if you're
going to be doing something
where you wanna show off
some really nice scenery
and you wanna get a heap of it
in there, or maybe you wanna
show off a room, and get
a lot of that in there,
it's perfect for real
estate and things like that.
But also if you're gonna
have multiple people in your
live stream then a wide angle
lens is gonna give you so much
more room and flexibility
so that you don't have to,
pretty much sit on top of each other
in order to both be in the shot.
So the one that we currently
recommend that works on both
iPhones and Android is a TECHO brand lens,
and again links will be
down in the description.
But this one should work
on most smartphone cameras
because it is huge, but it's
got really decent quality glass
and there's minimal distortion
or warping, which is the
biggest thing that you'll find
on cheap end wide angle lens
adapters, so there's
none of that on this one.
And the last piece of additional
gear, it's not really gear,
it's an app and I'm sorry iPhone
users, this one is only for
Android users and it's
an app called Oratory.
Now this thing, if you've
got an Android phone
is an absolute game changer, so much so
that if you've got an iPhone
you may wanna consider getting
an Android phone just for this app.
Now, I'm definitely not
sponsored or anything like that,
but this is an amazing, amazing
app and it is a real game
changer because what it lets
you do is turn your phone
into a teleprompter, yeah
we've got that on iPhone too,
no, no, no, this will let
you convert your phone into a
teleprompter with an overlay
of your script or your dot
points, or the things you
wanna cover off in your
live stream and move it
up next to your camera
and still have your Facebook
Live, Instagram Live
or any other app open and
running underneath it.
So there's no other app out
there that lets you do this
and there's no app that
comes close to doing anything
like this on iPhone or on iOS.
Now for me I think this app
is an absolute game changer
whether you are used to using
teleprompter for your videos
or whether you just wanna
have a couple of dot points
on there, maybe you're doing
a live stream about a product
or a product launch or
something where you really don't
wanna miss anything, you don't
have to look away at notes,
you can have your dot
points right up there
underneath the camera,
and really if you wanted
to write out a full script
and read it word for word
you can position those dot
points right up against
the camera lens so that you're
able to read word for word
and your viewers will still
think that you're looking
and talking directly to
them, so, an amazing app,
unfortunately for right now it is only for
Android users, but it's called Oratory.
So those are our top recommendations
for live streaming gear
and apps for live streaming
from your smartphone.
Now, if I had to prioritize these things
I'd probably say go with your audio first,
upgrade your audio gear
first, then tripod,
then closely followed by lighting,
so at least if you've got your
audio and your phone stable
then you can use a window,
use natural lighting,
whatever you've got in
the house or your office
to get the lighting done, but
these things are compounding,
and the more of them that you
can tick off, and the more of
them that you can improve in
your live streams, then your
live streams are gonna get
progressively better that way.
Alright, so that's live
streaming, now if you're looking
to get better results
while you're filming,
then check out the videos
linked on screen, all about
filming on iPhone and on
Android and getting better
results with those two,
and I'll see you soon.
