How to choose a live streaming company: the buyer's checklist.
To choose a live streaming company, ask for named work you can check, a written plan for what happens when each part fails, the names of the people who will run your show, and an itemised scope with its assumptions written down. Compare the answers in writing. The right company's answers get more specific the harder you push.
- Reading time
- Updated
- 12Opening remarks
- 13Keynote
- 14Audience questions
- 15Panel
- Keynote On the stage On air
- Panel chair On the stage Ready
- Remote panellist Riyadh Ready
- Interpreter Booth 2, Arabic Waiting
- From the floor Will the slides be shared after the session? Queued
- From Riyadh Can the CFO take the next one? Picked
- From Singapore Will the replay include part one? Queued
- 8 questions
- Named work
- Named crew
- Itemised
Every pitch looks the same. Delivery does not.
Most live streaming and event production companies show you the same things: a logo strip, a showreel and the words "broadcast quality". None of that tells you what happens when the venue internet drops ten minutes into your keynote.
The difference only shows on the day. So the job of the buyer is to surface it before the contract. This checklist does that. Use it on any company, including us.
If you want to test us against it now, send us your brief and we will answer every question below in writing.
Eight questions to ask in writing.
Send the same questions to every company on your shortlist. Written answers are easier to compare, and harder to blur.
| Question | A strong answer | A red flag |
|---|---|---|
| 1. What happens if the venue internet fails? | A second, independent path, already live, with the switchover described. | "We will deal with it on the day." |
| 2. What happens if the main encoder or a camera fails? | A standby encoder running in parallel, and a plan for each critical camera. | "We have spare equipment." |
| 3. What work like ours can you show us? | Named events, with what the company itself did, the scale and the problems solved. | Logos with no story behind them. |
| 4. Who will run our show? | Named producer, director and engineer, who are the people on the day. | "We will assign a team." |
| 5. What do you own and what do you hire? | A clear split, with anything hired named in the quote. | "We have access to all the equipment." |
| 6. Will you survey the venue? | Yes, with a connection test in the actual room before the plan is final. | A quote with no visit and no questions about the room. |
| 7. How far behind live will viewers be? | A number in seconds, with the reason and the options to change it. | "It is fast." |
| 8. What do we get afterwards, and when? | The recording, replay, clips and any viewer report, each with a format and a date. | "We will send the video." |
What evidence to request. Named and checkable.
Claims are easy to make. Evidence is harder to fake. Ask for these, and notice which companies hesitate.
Named work, with detail
Whose credit it is
A full recording, not a showreel
A real signal-flow diagram
A reference
Red flags to walk away from.
Vague redundancy
No site survey
Anonymous crew
One-line pricing
A price far below the others
Venue Wi-Fi as the plan
Big numbers with no names
What a proper scope looks like.
The quote is where a company shows whether it understood your event. A proper scope from any event production company should cover these items.
| Item | What it should say |
|---|---|
| Run of show | Sessions, hours and days, matched to your agenda. |
| Cameras and crew | Each camera position, and each crew role by name or title. |
| Signal flow | A diagram from camera to viewer, including the backup paths. |
| Connection | The primary path, the second path and when each will be tested. |
| Platform and access | Where viewers watch, public or private, and how they sign in. |
| Languages | Interpretation, captions or separate audio channels, if needed. |
| Schedule | Site survey, rig, rehearsal, show and strike, with times. |
| Deliverables | Recording, replay, clips and any report, with formats and dates. |
| Costs | Itemised by crew, equipment, connection and days. |
| Assumptions and exclusions | What the price assumes, what is not included and how changes are handled. |
The assumptions line matters most. It is where two quotes that look different turn out to describe different events.
Should a live streaming company own its kit?
Owning the core kit helps. A team that has run the same equipment through many shows knows how it behaves under load, and how to recover when it fails. A team assembling hired kit for the first time on your event carries more risk.
But hiring is not a red flag on its own. Specialist items, such as extra lenses or a large LED wall, are often better hired. The real test is honesty: the company should tell you what is theirs and what is hired, in the quote.
Our answer: our control room and the platform your audience watches on are our own, and anything hired for the day is named in the quote.
If your event is in Dubai or the GCC.
Add four questions for events in the region.
Languages
Venue connections
Heat and outdoor sites
Permits
How to run the comparison.
Shortlist two or three
Send one brief to all
Ask the eight questions in writing
Press on the details
Compare the assumptions, then the price
How we answer these questions.
We hold ourselves to the same checklist. These are our answers, with work you can read about.
| Question | Our answer |
|---|---|
| Connection | A second path for everything that can fail. We delivered a live multi-camera broadcast from open ground with no venue fibre, on bonded cellular with hot-standby encoding. |
| Named work | We produced the YOUNGO daily broadcast, in four languages across four channels, for two weeks. We ran the stand-up interview broadcast position at IRENA. Ministers were on air with a broadcast cut inside three minutes. |
| Scale and repeat work | We delivered live multi-camera broadcast across two shooting events, a four-day pilot and a three-day return, with live commentary and graphics from our own control room. |
| Multi-session events | We delivered a two-day, eleven-session live broadcast for a global fragrance house, with slide-synced replay published per session. |
| One contract | We delivered a club opening ceremony and awards gala on one contract: stage, LED, lighting, sound and the live multi-camera broadcast. See the Al Ain Shooting Club. |
| Languages | We co-produced the Reeforesting for Peace series for the Global Youth Coalition: seven sessions, four UN languages, one production standard. |
| Crew | The producer, director and engineer you brief are the people who run your show on the day. |
| Scope | Itemised, scoped against your run of show, with our assumptions written down. |
If we are on your shortlist, send us your brief. We will answer the eight questions in writing, for your event.
01 / 09 Every pitch looks the same.
Contents
- 01 Every pitch looks the same.
- 02 Eight questions to ask in writing.
- 03 What evidence to request.
- 04 Red flags to walk away from.
- 05 What a proper scope looks like.
- 06 Should a live streaming company own its kit?
- 07 If your event is in Dubai or the GCC.
- 08 How to run the comparison.
- 09 How we answer these questions.
How to live stream an event in Dubai: venues, connectivity and permits.
How to live stream an event in Dubai: test the venue connection, add a second path, check permits, time it for your audience and prepare the brief.
Read the articleLive event video production: the complete guide.
How CBA produces live events end-to-end: site survey, systems design, multi-camera, encoding, distribution, and what scales from a corporate keynote to a multi-stage conference.
Read the articleWhat is a webcast? A guide from the control room.
A webcast is a video broadcast over the internet to an audience that watches rather than joins. What it means, how a professional webcast is produced, and what drives the cost.
Read the articleQuestions we get asked.
What questions should I ask a live streaming company?
Ask what happens if the internet or an encoder fails, what similar work they can name, who will run your show, what they own and hire, whether they will survey the venue, how far behind live viewers will be, and what you receive afterwards. Ask in writing.
How do I check that a production company really did the events it lists?
Ask for detail on each one: what they did, the scale, how it connected and what went wrong. Ask whether it was the company's own contract or one person's earlier role. Ask for an unedited recording and a reference you can call.
Should a live streaming company own its equipment?
Owning the core kit lowers risk, because the team knows how it behaves under load. Hiring specialist items is normal. What matters is that the quote says clearly what is owned and what is hired.
What should an event production quote include?
The run of show, camera positions and crew roles, a signal-flow diagram, the connection plan with a backup, the schedule, the deliverables with dates, itemised costs, and the assumptions and exclusions behind the price.
Tell us the date, the venue and who is watching.
We scope every engagement against its run of show, not a package.
CBA produces event production services for conferences, launches and ceremonies across the Emirates and the GCC. Creative Broadcast Agency is based in Dubai and builds the broadcast technology it produces on.