Transmission bit rate
Data transfer strongly influences the resulting video quality and the size of your data.
That’s why it’s a good idea to decide what video you’ll post and where you want to place it. It is also necessary to take into account the scene of the video. If you only have one moving object in the shot, a moderator, for example, against a static background, you can drop the bitrate to several hundred kb/s. The image will lose some quality, but it will still run smoothly and remain “watchable”. But, if the background of the scene is moving (ocean waves, trees moving in the wind, rain or snow), the resulting video will look choppy when running at such a low bitrate. This is because the scene is currently creating such a large amount of data that it is too much for the data transfer settings to handle. This is when it is better to increase the bitrate to speeds above 10Mb/s, considerably improving the quality.
However, you will have to consider the fact that the resulting video data size will have grown dramatically. You may even find that it cannot be used for its intended purpose. That is why you have to weigh all aspects: selecting the right shot, the resolution and the resulting quality, all without going beyond the capacity of the link that is being used.
The role of data transfer in live video streaming
Data transfer is the most important criteria for smooth live streaming. You will have to choose the speed of your Internet connection based on the bit rate at which you will be streaming. Your main interest will be the loading speed. Everyone would love to stream live streams in the highest possible resolution, Full HD or now even 4K, but they often don’t realize that data transfer is highly dependent on your internet connection specifications. With Full HD resolution values of 6Mb/s can be reached and, with 4K, values of up to 15Mb/s. Those are considerable requirements to upload lines. That’s why you should always check if your connection has adequate capacity for what you plan to stream. If you find that this is not the case, you should consider lowering the resolution of the streamed video to, for example, 720p at a transfer rate of 4 Mb/s, which ensures you a smooth live stream.