Stageit Delivers 15 Live-Performance Streams a Day to Connect Artists With Their Fans

The startup market is a tricky one, and it often takes a team of devoted employees countless hours and long, sleepless nights to turn a unique idea into a thriving business. But the employees at the startup Stageit weren’t afraid of a little hard work. Stageit is an online venue where artists perform live, interactive, monetized shows online for fans directly from their laptops, offering fans unique experiences that are never archived.

From seasoned musicians, such as Sara Bareilles, Bonnie Raitt, Jimmy Buffett, Debbie Gibson and Jason Mraz, to up-and-coming acts, more than 25,000 artists of all ages, genres and talents use Stageit to connect with their fans and gain new ones. Fans are encouraged to ask questions, request songs and chat with other fans during the shows. Stageit also enables fans to support artists, whether it’s helping to finance their next album or contributing to the performer's favorite charity.

Click the image to see it at full size

While Stageit mostly works with musicians, the company welcomes a range of performers, such as chefs, writers, and magicians. No matter what type of performance, it’s my job as the production specialist to ensure that each show looks and sounds as good as possible regardless of the performer’s equipment or Internet connection.

I advise the artists on their technical setups and provide remote support, as well as oversee our own in-house studio in our Los Angeles office. While the artists use a variety of equipment, when it came to our studio, I use Blackmagic Design’s ATEM Television Studio for live streaming performances.

Click the image to see it at full size

A Performance from Virtually Anywhere

On average, Stageit runs 15 shows per day on the website. In preparation for the shows, I contact the artists or production companies to ensure that their equipment will interface with the Stageit website. As part of this process, I will often recommend hardware or setups so there are no hiccups come show time.

It’s a great way for any creative to interact with their die-hard fans and share a very personal experience. Artists can put on a show whenever and wherever as long as they have a computer with a built-in microphone and camera. We’ve had acts performing in environments ranging someone’s kitchen to the side of the road to a full-fledged production studio. This do-it-yourself approach keeps our side lean, with only myself and one other person managing productions, and allows for a greater number of artists to participate regardless of location.

Click the image to see it at full size

It also gives me the time to focus on building and enhancing Stageit’s in house studio. With approximately 75 in-house productions, Stageit invites artists traveling through Los Angeles to perform in its studio, which can also be rented out.

Even though we are still a fairly new startup, we have definitely grown over the last two years. Our original studio setup consisted of USB webcams and DV camcorders with Firewire. It used more consumer-level composite interfaces, SD cameras, and free software to switch between the USB cameras.

In order to help grow the business, I knew we needed to upgrade the production value to HD quality, and I implemented prosumer HD cameras along with Blackmagic Design’s Intensity Extreme capture and playback device. While the new setup produced a better-quality stream, I knew we needed to start looking at professional multi-camera production.

We want to attract big-name artists to our studio, which will help grow our business. These artists are used to professional setups, and I knew the time would come when one of them would ask for a multi camera setup. We needed to be ready. I researched which production switcher would fit into our budget, but still provide a professional live stream, and the ATEM Television Studio was it.