Live streaming is gaining immense popularity in Singapore, with everyone from celebrities to everyday individuals using it to engage audiences. If you’re considering live streaming an event in Singapore, understanding the costs and available services is crucial

The Cost of Live Stream Services in Singapore

The cost of live streaming services in Singapore can vary depending on a number of factors, such as the length of the event, the number of cameras used, and whether or not you need a live band. For a two-hour event with two cameras and a live band, you can expect to pay around $1,000.

Types of Live Streaming Services

1. Hybrid Streaming

Hybrid streaming combines classic and new streaming techniques on a single platform, providing benefits such as increased flexibility, scalability, quality, security, and cost effectiveness. It enables the use of numerous streaming protocols to accommodate a wider audience and stream multiple types of content simultaneously. Furthermore, hybrid streaming uses many layers of encryption to provide greater security than standard streaming methods.

With a hybrid streaming, one can stream a vast collection of multimedia data such as videos, music, podcasts and live events. The charge for this service fluctuates with the type of streaming service required and the anticipated audience. In the main, the service costs more as the number of viewers increases. This type of streaming can be watched on all sorts of gadgets, such as tablets, smartphones, desktop PCs, and smart TVs.

2. Unreal Engine Webinars

Spring Forest Studio is focused on helping entrepreneurs, event organizers, and marketing executives to build stimulating and interactive virtual platforms for their audiences. The Unreal Engine Webinar tool helps users in making awesome and interactive webinars using the Unreal Engine. The advantages of using Unreal Engine for webinars include better graphics, interactivity, adaptability, and lower costs.

The Unreal Engine allows you to develop bespoke visuals and interactive features to fulfill specific requirements. The cost of using Unreal Engine for webinars will vary according to the project’s complexity. However, it has the potential to save long-term costs by reducing hosting, administrative, and customization requirements. The Unreal Engine provides you with the opportunity of building visually breath-taking worlds and simulations that boost audience involvement. Besides polls, quizzes, virtual tours, and 3D models, interactive tools can be used in webinars as well. The period of developing a webinar with the Unreal Engine is determined by the project’s size, however a customized timeline can be established to fit specific tastes. If seeking to deliver an immersive webinar experience, the Unreal Engine may be a suitable option for generating captivating visuals and interactive elements. Collaborating with us can result in a unique and unforgettable webinar experience for your audience.

Speaker’s Studio

The Humanize Studio provides video production services with a use of the Unreal Engine, which is a well-known game engine that is widely used in the development of video games, virtual and augmented reality, and 3D and 2D animations. Using Unreal Engine for video creation gives the possibility of greater visual and audio quality, more realistic lighting and shadows, faster rendering times and the introduction of interactive features.

Unreal Engine service contains a number of video production options, such as corporate videos, presentations, master courses, and greetings. It comprises such natural lighting and shadows as well as other effects of motion blur, depth of field, and fog. The engine is known for its fast rendering speed and graphics. It is very much liked by people who make content on sites like YouTube, Tik Tok, and Instagram. Apart from video games, Unreal Engine is also applied for virtual and augmented reality, and the 3D and 2D animations. It is also used to produce cinematic visuals in video projects. The cost of using Unreal Engine for video production will vary based on the project’s specific requirements.

Our Services at Spring Forest Studio

Spring Forest Studio offers a range of live streaming services, including live webinars, live events, and hybrid event streaming. We use top-notch equipment like Unreal Engine/Aximmetry, HTC Vive Mars, Vmix Pro workstations, and the VHall China streaming platform. Our team collaborates closely with clients to create customized plans, ensuring successful event execution from concept to completion. For any technical issues, our support team is ready to assist.

For personalized streaming solutions or technical support, contact us to discover how we can meet your live streaming needs.

Under the relatively light touch regulatory environment in Singapore, competition laws may be able to play a complementary role in regulating abusive practices, as well as other regulatory and/or self-regulatory instruments. Prices are generally regulated through various measures, which may encourage the cable TV market to be more structured and the market to professionals. A disparity pricing scheme has also been set up by the Singapore Advisory Committee on Free-to-Air Television and Cable Programmes (SCAT). However, regulation for live streaming services is almost non-existent and market players are mainly market-driven. Numerous industry players have already entered the market or are considering doing so, and the live streaming services industry is increasing in size. The lack of a clear blueprint for distributing the high cost of digital delivery remains a significant barrier to the growth of the live streaming peer-to-peer industry. Large numbers of internet users have been exposed to a proliferation of live streaming services, via promotion and word-of-mouth or through internet links at relatively low cost. At various price points, live streaming and traditional recorded media content can be effectively monetized. However, there are also constraints on pricing strategies in the live streaming services market. This paper primarily investigates if absolute price constraints are present in the Singapore live streaming industry market.

With a substantial increase in broadband infrastructure, internet users have been able to watch live streaming more conveniently. Watching live streaming symbolizes the current lifestyle because it allows viewers to watch various live events regardless of time schedule limitations. Large numbers of internet users are exposed to a proliferation of live streaming services, and live streaming audience reach into the millions. Live streaming business activities, including e-sports competitions, are growing rapidly and becoming more professional. This has drawn the attention of an increasing number of economists; subsequently, live streaming has become a preferred subject in economics studies. Numerous research works have been conducted on live streaming from multiple perspectives, which focus on the motivating factors of the broadcasters and their monetizing behavior, viewers’ behavior, as well as website policies. Contents and frequency of live streaming services are relatively transitory, and it is difficult to collect large-scale data from the portal of live streaming services. Thus, there has been relatively little research on pricing in the field of live streaming.

Key Factors Influencing Live Streaming Service Prices

Prices reflect the surplus by achieving matching between the supply capacities and demand capabilities, and what the market forces units to provide is also the contribution to society. The higher live streaming prices currently perceived in Singapore may also reflect that live streaming services in Singapore provide more benefits than they would in other countries. The analysis of the specific factors influencing the production of live streaming services may lead to the prudential evaluation of the benefits of consuming live streaming services. At the same time, recognizing the price gap for live streaming services helps to better employ resources and raise social welfare. The demand for live streaming services in Singapore is increasing rapidly and the supply of live streaming technology has been developing continuously. This provides opportunities for live streaming service providers to promote modern e-sports, develop related industries, and create niche market segments.

The competitiveness of a country’s live streaming industry can be reflected by its live streaming service prices. Most countries in the world have live streaming services. The widespread development of live streaming services means that no single factor shapes the price of such a service. We will therefore focus, in this essay, on the most influential factors in the pricing of live streaming services. The following are considered to be the three most significant categories of factors: e-sports event factors, enterprise marketing strategy, business operation costs, legal policy factors, and economical factors. Simply put, the price of a product is essentially the result of the production technology, management structure, and external environment for the enterprise. The impact of all these factors is reflected in the product price. The prices of live streaming services, likewise, have various influences.

Quality of Streaming

Video experiences are positively affected by screen size, resolution, FPS and the absence of freezes, lags and frame drops, Arend et al. (2015). The six-level quality paradigm established by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) recognized these factors and classifies over-the-top (OTT) streaming into six levels of quality, ITU-T (2019): suitable for mobile use, mainly for mobile use, suitable for SD mobile use, mainly for SD mobile use, HD quality, suitable for full HD TV use. Suitable quality for those engaging in live streaming is between primarily for SD mobile use and HD quality, especially when users are parting with money for live streaming events. Although there are a few research papers studying user demand for live streaming, few actually consider the video quality of OTT services. This paper attempts to fill this gap by gathering data on the quality of video that users actually demand for live streaming services.

In Chapter 1, the survey methodology was reviewed and discussed. In this chapter, the author uses relevant data about live streaming services in Singapore to conduct data analysis. Comparisons of user prices are made between traditional cable and streaming services, streaming services and other leisure activities, and amongst the various streaming platforms.

Types of Live Streaming Services

Hosted Service This type of service is when many fan channels are broadcasted on the same network, for example in an advertisement, game, or exhibition event. These are usually commercial photographic companies or live broadcast service providers who come to participants on the spot to capture the event and provide this server. The network charge for this type of service will depend on how the video service providers choose to charge the participants.

Self-produced service This is the most common type of service as it uses PC or consumer-grade broadcasting equipment to self-produce and broadcast videos live. Especially when the client wants to have a small-scale and low-cost broadcast, and they are less demanding on the video and sound quality, they may choose to use a simple self-produced service or an all-inclusive package from a broadcast service company that provides broadcasting equipment or staff members responsible for production.

A live streaming service provider usually provides a mix of services, taking stream service prices into consideration, notably the usage fee and initial or modem set-up fees. Broadcasting equipment exploitations are likely to incur additional charges attached to the services in total. The probability of take-up is limited to the price setting as the survey results surprisingly did not indicate resistance to prices when quality benefits would cost to be incurred.

Professional Live Stream

According to the price and service provided, we grouped the vendors into four different categories. Information of the vendors and a summary of the group are then presented in the following subsections.

Some of our findings are as follows: – The price of live stream services offered by the eight investigated vendors starts from $169 and they end at $2,000. – Mevie Live offers the most valued option, which is their consultation service priced at $100. With this consultation service, they can advise on what type of event Mevie Live is most suitable for and their staff can provide equipment as well as onsite supply and setup service for events. – IT Solution provides the most comprehensive offer. Besides the production crew and a delayed payment option, they offer two collaborations with leading webcasting platforms – Boxcasting and Powells. Clients can get live statistics, online Q&A and polling services, as well as a pre-event test to ensure that the organization of live streaming runs smoothly.

This section highlights the prices of various live streaming services available in Singapore. The prices are estimated based on the rate card provided on the respective website of the vendors. Some vendors offer an extra option such as custom packages and consultancy service. Rate card on such offers was also estimated and presented.

Cost Components of Live Streaming Services

As demonstrated by Fig. 1, there are three essential steps for live streaming: capturing, compressing and transmitting, and then the viewers receive the stream over time. Each step requires specialized equipment and know-how. The prices of the services, such as acquiring the rights to a specific event, preparing the live streaming, and marketing efforts, may or may not be included in the charges for establishing the live streaming. Obviously, these could differ for different providers, hence impacting the current ‘tariff’ transparency.

In general, the prices of live streaming services can be divided into two parts. There is a cost for the provision of the live stream and another cost for the physical technology required for the streaming. This article discusses these two components separately. Firstly, we take a look into the procedures in which a live stream is established.

Equipment Costs

Investment in good equipment could play a significant role in influencing the price of a live streaming service. Not only can a better camera bring about visual clarity, which is crucial in enhancing the video quality of a live streaming, but it may also possess other special features that can assist in the job of the producer or videographer. For instance, some cameras may have a better auto-focus adjustment feature for subjects that move non-stop, while some may have a longer durable battery life which can last longer than others. Generally, a good camera that produces decent video quality can cost between $1,000 to $20,000. But while a high-end camera can cost anything from $20,000 to more, especially those made for professional broadcasting and film production. Even though a typical indoor event can be managed by one camera, other outdoor activities may require additional cameras in order to achieve different perspectives. In previous research, a small-medium webcasting setup that uses 2 HD cameras, 1 switcher, live streaming PC and microphone costs $12,000.

Price Comparison of Live Streaming Services in Singapore

In 2018, Netflix had the highest absolute AR, followed by SingTel’s Cast, Fox+, StarHub’s Go, M1’s Go, Viu and Toggle.sg. M1’s service had the highest network-adjusted AR, followed by Netflix, Go, Toggle, Cast, Viu and Fox+. Cast’s absolute AR was the lowest, while the network-adjusted AR of Fox+ was the lowest. Comparing the prices of the eight services in 2019 and 2018, we see that Cast, Fox+, Go, and Viu have increased their prices; M1’s service has reduced its price, and Netflix and Toggle.sg have maintained the same membership fees. The M1 live streaming service had the highest return in 2018, while Netflix had the highest return in 2019. M1’s return was the lowest in 2019 and Fox+’s return was the lowest in 2018. These results are useful to OTT live streaming service providers who are modifying their pricing strategies and provide valuable insights to all the OTT service providers, existing investors, potential investors and academics who are interested in the potential on offer from these services.

Virtual Events

The event industry is worth not only billions of dollars but also thousands of jobs. Hence, it is surely one of the hardest-hit sectors. In 2020, the Department estimated that Singapore had an 84% decline in the number of MICE attendees compared to 2019, which brought the number of business visitors to only 1% of the 2019 tally. Likewise, in 2020, revenue earned from the MICE sector fell 50 times from almost S$4 billion to S$800 million in 2020. These were unimaginable changes, but not the whole loss as MICE added S$5.7 billion annually and employed 34,000 people in 2019. The good news is that after the successful orchestration of 1,793 virtual events in 2020, the event situation has appeared much rosier even though horseracing revenue is still much higher than the stakes.

Covid-19 reshaped the event industry. In 2020, 2,319 physical business events were organized in Singapore, drawing 95,463 international business visitors and earning S$811.56 million. However, when large-scale events were prohibited or had to adhere to strict safe management measures, event organizers turned to the internet. According to the Singapore Department of Statistics (2021b), it was possible to only use online channels to organize 1% of all physical events in 2020. The event Turning a necessity into a virtue is now a necessity has become the norm, and the novel event type is called a virtual event. A virtual event refers to an online event that involves people’s participation and interaction online, large-scale networking, and various activities including live video streaming, with the use of even more expensive virtual engagement platforms making it a perfect platform for interaction online.

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