Rolling Up Your Sleeves To Create Live Video


Even the best livestreaming tools won’t help you if you’ve never heard of them. In this installment of Livestreamed Livelihoods, we talk with Rob Hix, co-owner of Enlightened Audiovisual and co-host of the weekly Brand Matters Show. He shares the recent “who’s who” — or rather the “what’s what” — in branded livestreaming choices and more.

Rolling Up Your Sleeves To Create Live Video

Rob Hix is a life-long small business owner with a passion for live video production, commercial audiovisual systems and broadcasting. Considering innovation and out-of-the-box solutions as his “sweet spot”, he is “an employer, employee, executive and janitor all wrapped into one amazing career.” Hix adds that he lives life in his own self-interest, to the benefit of his employees and clients, working best with those who place a premium on their lives and exchange value-for-value to achieve their goals.

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Small Business Trends: Now more than ever, there seems to be many more livestreaming third parties and techniques. This could get overwhelming, I feel. Can you give us a sampling of some noteworthy brands seeing growth or gaining buzz?

Rob Hix: We haven’t deviated much in the past year and a half with the products and services we use for livestream collaboration and broadcasting. We use Zoom Video Conferencing to bring in remote guests and Telestream Wirecast to live mix the on-screen participants with mixed media such as lower-thirds, graphics, videos, etc. Our focus for the past ten years has been to provide highly reliable and scalable end-user collaboration systems that include conference rooms, training rooms, lecture halls and broadcast studios. Because we work with enterprise organizations with hundreds or thousands of employees, there is a greater need for consistency over what may be the latest trends. Enterprise organizations and brands focus on business outcomes rather than compartmentalized widgets and gimmicks.

As for noteworthy brands, I would say Zoom Video Conferencing is one to watch. They have an established base of over 400,000 companies using their cloud-based conferencing service and they will be introducing Facebook and YouTube integration within the next two months. For social media platforms, I believe YouTube will remain dominant in the video space, especially within the live video space. Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter have the current buzz, but YouTube dominates among search and discoverability.

Small Business Trends: What are the best channels to connect with you?

Rob Hix: On Twitter, I’m @rob_hix or @Enlightened_AV. I’m also on Facebook and on LinkedIn. My email is rhix@enlightenedaudiovisual.com

Pictured: Rob Hix, Jennifer Quinn
Images: Rob Hix

This is part of the Small Business Trends Livestreamed Livelihoods interview series featuring sessions with today's movers and shakers in the livestreaming world.


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Alex Yong Alex Yong is a staff writer and host of the Small Business Trends Livestreamed Livelihoods interview series featuring sessions with today's movers and shakers in the livestreaming world. Alex was named a must-follow PR resource in Cision North America’s list of the top 50 Twitter influencers utilizing rich media tweets, alongside Guy Kawasaki and Lee Odden.

4 Reactions
  1. Yes. Live video is great for promotion but not everyone knows how to use it or tailor fit the use of it to their particular niche.

    • Hi Aira! Many of the interviewees in Livestreamed Livelihoods this year will focus on the how.

    • An odd thing I’ve noticed is: only a few solopreneurs seem to be mentioning Zoom right now, but, as the article implies, it might be a force to be reckoned with sooner rather than later. Zoom just got a very large cash infusion from Sequoia this month, unsolicited! But admittedly, I’m basing my comment on what “Periscopers” tout/push/buzz about, and to be honest, tons of “scopers” (as they call themselves) are behind the curve + much much too loyal to Periscope.

  2. Zoom video conferencing is good. Additionally, you may also have a look at R-HUB HD video conferencing servers. It provides 30 way HD video conferencing.