Before I go into too much detail, if you want to skip the back-story bit, simply scroll down to the section that starts ‘HERE’ (it’s a good way down - just scroll away!)... otherwise, read on!
In 2014, after paying CRAZY money for a live-streaming service which, whilst good, left a slight sting in the tail due to the price tag, I concluded that, with all the huge advances in technology, there had to be a better alternative more suited to small businesses. Although I investigated this a little at the time, I didn’t really dig into it too much and then, as it does, life took over.
Then, Candace Payne happened. May 2016. Chewbacca Mom: I have presented to groups on why, in my opinion, she impacted the marketing world so heavily with that one simple Facebook Live. That one video catapulted the fledgling Facebook Live (FBL) service into prominence: It remains the most watched FBL ever, racking up just shy of 200m views and from that point on, marketers woke up to the benefits of that instant and deeply personal connection to an audience - it connects like no other medium.
Fast forward to 2017 - the work situation was less than ideal, the only advantage being, I had access to software developers. My idea came back to me and the search began for a suitable technology that would allow me to take technology found mostly in our pockets and stream from them... not as a single unit, selfie kind of stream - but multi-camera live streams... a scaled down version of BBC or Sky live coverage.
I searched for ages. Months. And somehow, found nothing, I had decided that, if I couldn’t find the solution I wanted, that the easiest thing was to write a spec and wireframe the system I wanted and then find a way to fund developers I had access to, to build it.
In late 2017, I went to a huge HP event in Madrid. While there I got a cold, then a chest infection, came home ill, battled for a couple of weeks and then contracted Australian Flu - the most recent super-strain of flu. In bed for nearly 3 weeks all I could think about was this business idea.
When I was well enough, i decided to give it one last search and, to my amazement, found this small, American company, who had built all of the technology I needed. Literally, it was there waiting. That was January 19th 2018.
Over the next few weeks and months, I first came up with the company name, then developed the branding (I had quite a clear idea in my head what I wanted and how it should look) and then started looking at what kit I was going to build and how I was going to approach it.
Some weeks later and, after a huge deep breath, I borrowed money from family and invested all of it in kit with the aim of building a ‘high-quality, ultra-mobile and affordable live-stream solution for businesses of any kind’. What I have learned in the months since this, is that the kit is never complete, it’s never correct and it will always require investment. I am totally fine with that.
On June 22nd 2018, I was made redundant with immediate effect. On June 23rd, Streeem was official.
Let’s talk name briefly.
Streeem is kind of an obvious name - perhaps not how I spell it, but it’s simple and to the point and 90% of people that engage with me will get it.
In the world of 330 million registered domain names, it’s not easy to find something that works... so you get creative. www.stream.com was never going to be available. Even www.streem.com had been taken. In fact, on the day I tried to register the domain name, so was www.streeem.com
Why Streeem? Actually, it’s a remarkably simple reason and isn’t just because stream wasn’t available.
Look at the answers to two, simple questions:
1 - What does live video give brands the potential to do? Engage Everyone Everywhere.
2 - What three elements does a video need, either individually or together, to be successful... It must be Educational, Entertaining and drive Emotion.
Both answers gave 3 E’s. My name needed 3 E’s - but the domain was taken....
When I first looked for the name, I got the awful message... ‘this domain is taken’. A search on alternative site revealed that actually, while it was taken, it was actually up for sale... the price tag... $800 in auction.
I ummed and ahhed about it and was about to walk away when I noticed the auction was ending in 16 minutes... I hung on and hung on - no one was either watching it or seemingly, interested. Bid, don’t bid? What do I do. Bid and over pay, hold out and pay the right price.... I held out. Bottled it, literally at the last minute and submitted a bid of $100 dollars.... about 3 seconds too late - I missed the auction.
I didn’t realise for a short time but, at some point immediately after the auction ended without a bid or sale, the domain was released for purchase back on the open market: All I had to pay was an expired auction fee of £5.81 and the price of the domain for a year... £13.10.
£18.91 for a domain I was seriously considering putting in a full-price bid for. It was meant to be!
With the stresses of a redundancy still lingering, a former employer who found every excuse NOT to pay me what was owed to me and a financial headache bigger than i could manage, I made the decision to use the impending summer as the time to recharge with a view to kickstarting properly once my children were ready to go back to school.
HERE - you’re still here - good.
Streeem is my brainchild. A simple premise to deliver high-quality, ultra-mobile and affordable live-stream and social video production for businesses of any size that was borne 4 years ago out of annoyance at what I’d just paid for a similar service.
(If you’re wondering, just under £5k for 3 cameras, 3 crew, producer, setup, takedown and travel... oh, and they should have been with us all day and we only ended up with 3 hours as it took so long to setup.)
Streeem - the UKs first iPhone, iPad and iOS only, multi-camera livestream and social video production company.
What can we do? Pretty much anything you can think of with very few limitations.
Right now, we can stream in 720HD (the maximum Facebook allows), for example. However, we can simultaneously record in 1080HD or even 4K.
We can take up to 9 feeds: These could be cameras (in our case, iPhone only), slides from a Mac or even a live feed from a drone.
All our cameras have remote controllable pan, tilt and zoom.... so we don’t need a camera op at every one, most jobs just need a small team or two - really small shoots, just one!
We can feed in B-Roll and Pre-roll video.
We can brand the screen with logos, corner bugs, lower thirds, animated titles and bring the content to life with picture in picture, side-by-side- or dashboard views or multiple screens.
Add in pro-audio - we will provide the kit or, in most instances, our clients’ existing AV company simply provides a mixed stereo output, throw in the ability to take remote dial-in callers into the mix and then finally add the ability to feed out video back out, live, over an HDMI connection to a large venue screen or a series of TVs around a venue and you’re starting to get a good understanding of capability.
In most instances, our client provides the main internet gateway - the connection to the big wide world, over an ethernet connection. Once we have this, we build the wifi network we need to make it all work seemlessly and then it’s down to us to ‘produce’ your event content for you.
Streamed and recorded, just streamed or just recorded, whatver happens, you get a live-edited output to any or all of your social channels or private stream connections... and it’s cost you a fraction of the price of regular live-stream services.
As I write this, we are nearing the end of our third month. We’ve made some amazing friends already. We’ve built a small portfolio of clients who haven’t just committed to us for one or two shows, but a whole years worth. We’ve got bookings abroad, speaking engagements confirmed, launch parties, brand activation and pop up events booked. We have a regular club night and DJ set booked every two weeks for the whole of 2019 and we’re part of a team that’s relaunching an iconic local live-music venue with a regular, monthly show specifically targeted at unsigned artists.
I have massive plans for Streeem. I can see the potential and how to get it where I want it both in the UK and overseas....it’s just going to take hard work, and a continued passion to deliver a service that makes a genuine difference to our clients, their relationship with their customers and, ultimately, their bottom line.
I am incredibly proud of Streeem and I’m hugely passionate about what I do. I would love to work with you.
You can contact me on +44 (0) 7989 555775 or [email protected]
Dominic Compagnone. Founder, Streeem. November 2018
