What to Consider When Hosting a Live Stream and Essential Tools You Need
Charge your phone fully: it needs to last at least two hours.
A live-streaming stand: I mean a dedicated stand that holds your phone upright, not a regular phone holder. A model with a built-in fill light is ideal, but a standard desktop version will do the job.
Fill lighting: Without it, your face can look dark and washed out. Most people should just grab a live-streaming stand with a ring light. I recommend one that can hold two phones side by side—sometimes called a dual-camera setup, though a three-phone setup works too. Check this one out. A single phone placed directly under a ring light tends to glare, and viewers wearing glasses will just see two bright circles reflected in their lenses.
Wired earphones: This is crucial. Always use wired earbuds—they’re inexpensive, sound great, and have zero latency, which makes clipping and editing podcasts much smoother. Bluetooth earbuds are prone to connection drops, lag, and interference. A lot of streams fall apart or feel choppy because the host isn’t using wired audio (Apple’s offerings are usually more reliable than most).
Your streaming space: Pick somewhere with solid internet and minimal background noise. Poor connectivity is the most common headache, so if your Wi-Fi keeps struggling, switch to 5G. If you can, upgrading to China Unicom’s gigabit fiber and swapping your router for something better—Wi-Fi 6 is plenty like this one—will noticeably improve your experience.
Computer: You can keep your PC nearby during the stream so you can glance at WeChat messages or look things up while others are talking. Just remember to mute your computer and any other nearby devices. If colleagues are hanging around, ask them to wear headphones or keep their devices on silent too.
Keyboard and mouse: Don’t type on a mechanical keyboard or use a clicky mouse while you’re live. Loud keycaps and clicking sounds wreck the audio quality, especially if you plan to edit the stream into a podcast later.
Audio check: Before jumping into the main topic, have your guests chat casually for a minute or two so you can dial in the sound levels and call out any issues early. Speak normally into the mic on your wired earbuds—keep it close, but don’t hover over it. And if you need to cough, turn away from the mic. If someone off-camera needs to speak to you, hit mute first.
If you hear static or buzzing, try these fixes:
1. Check whether any power cords or electronics are sitting too close to your wired earbuds.
2. Make sure the jack is fully plugged in—if in doubt, unplug it and reinsert it, then follow your host’s guidance.
3. Incoming calls can also cause static. Try switching to Airplane Mode, but if you still hear noise, unplug and replug the earbuds.