Designing A Home Office For Game Streaming Careers

Game streaming has created an incredible amount of income streams and career opportunities at all levels. There are chances to earn six figures or even become a millionaire, but there are also opportunities to make a living better than retail or even degree-level office work if you're willing to commit to the craft. To make sure that your gaming, editing, streaming, and career goals stay on track, here are a few tech investment points to keep your streaming business afloat.

Game Streaming Requirements

Before anything else, you'll need the gaming platform and a way to distribute your gaming content. This has become easier for almost every mainstream type of gaming, but there are still a few tweaks to keep in mind for optimum efficiency.

If you're playing on a modern gaming console such as Sony's Playstation 4 (PS4) or Microsoft's Xbox One, there are built-in streaming functions. These two major gaming companies have borrowed pages from the Personal Computer (PC) gaming world—which isn't difficult, as both companies are invested in computer technology as well—and have a fairly powerful set of operating systems to handle most of the streaming configuration.

Everything you need to create streaming data is built in. The problem is sending that streaming data to a live video sharing service, as well as editing the information. Your streams are generally recorded on a personal account and with a file saving option that goes straight to your console's storage drive. 

The standard option for most video game consoles is to upload the files straight to YouTube—which you'll need to download from YouTube to edit—or copy with USB. USB transfer speeds are fast, but this requires an external hard drive or some awkward cable management.

You'll need some technical savvy and reliable equipment to make editing consistent. Make sure that your PS4 and production computer are connected to the same router and that your computer can see the game console on the network. If you're having problems with seeing all of your devices that are connected to the network, an IT management service can help you with configuration and training.

Network Requirements For Streaming

Your internet speed needs to be fast enough in both upload and download to produce gaming content reliably, and if you're an online gamer, the internet becomes even more important.

For streaming and uploading content, knowing what "enough" is can be tricky. You could spend as much money as possible to get the best possible internet—which, despite the rest of this advice, is what many people do for the sake of having the best—or figure out the actual bandwidth being used.

Bandwidth is a measurement of network capacity. With most streaming software, there will be a set of meters showing how much speed will be needed to send a stream of a certain quality to a certain destination. Open Broadcaster Software is an open source option with a calibration guide that covers speed and quality, and even if your current internet is too slow, it will tell you the type of connection needed for your desired quality. 

If you're not comfortable with configuring streaming software or if you would rather have a professional make the changes with deeper network insight, speak with an IT management professional and discuss the kind of stream quality you want.