Broadcasting a live event is an effective and impactful way to connect to a large audience. Live streaming has become popular, especially among average viewers, as they get the chance to become creators and presenters of their content.

Whether they lack high-grade equipment, they can stream live events in optimal quality with standard devices and the best live streaming engine software.

Many platforms allow users to stream live events, yet they lack features to improve the viewer’s experience. Professional live video streaming services can streamline the broadcasting experience as you have more control over the quality, layout, production, and overall setup.

They can help you produce professional-grade live streams without spending too much on video or audio equipment.

Most services already contain the tools you need to host, manage, broadcast, and even monetize your content. However, you still need to consider possible compatibility issues, advanced features, and pricing so you can choose the best live-streaming software that fits your expertise, niche, audience, and budget.

In this article, we are bringing you the top five best live streaming engine software of 2024 and learn about their key features.

vMix

Overview

vMix empowers users to create professional quality productions from their computers. It is a live streaming and production software that supports the latest PCIe, Thunderbolt, and USB capture devices from different manufacturers. It also supports other inputs like DVDs, playlists, SRT, NDI, and more.

It contains all the necessary elements to ensure the product quality matches the standard of professional media networks. It can easily transmit to any streaming platform like YouTube, Twitch, or Facebook Live so users can reach their audience in different channels. It can also record the stream for future playbacks. Customers also have the option to create a basic production template for branding consistency.

vMix is versatile live streaming software that is applicable for a wide variety of solutions, from large-scale live concert productions to small classroom productions. It has also been utilized for auctions, e-sports casting, and live chroma key for movie SFW. Customers can choose between lifetime licenses and subscription licenses. It offers a free 60-day trial so users can test out all the features available and choose the edition that suits their workflow: Basic HD, HD, 4K, PRO, and MAX. Currently, it is only available for Windows PCs.

Key Features

13 Transition Effects

vMix contains 13 transition effects to animate monotonous presentations. These give visual interest to the live stream as the video shifts to a different angle or scene. These effects are available with four customizable transition buttons for easy access during production.

Simultaneous Streaming, Recording, and Output

vMix can stream multiple destinations simultaneously, even recording in full HD to AVI, MP4, MPEG-2, or WMV. It features an external output allowing users to send audio and video from the live streaming engine software to other applications, devices, or HDMI/SDI/Analog outputs through compatible hardware from AJA, Blackmagic Design, and Bluefish. It can also act as a virtual camera support for streaming out to third-party software like Zoom or Skype.

Animated Graphics

It contains over a hundred built-in animated titles, scoreboards, and tickers. Users can create custom static titles and animated tickers. You can also import layers from Adobe Photoshop if they’re subscribed to the 4K or Pro edition.

HD Virtual Sets

It also contains virtual sets with high-quality real-time chroma keys. These are suitable for sportscasters or news broadcasters needing a professional-looking studio background, reducing the costs of location scouting, logistics, and even transportation.

vMix Call

Users can add up to eight remote guests to their live show through vMix call. This is essential for live interviews or video conferences. The guests will appear and sound in high quality, regardless of the hardware they’re using.

Instant Replay

vMix can help users create replay events on the fly to display the highlights of their live show.

Audio Mixer

Fine-tune every audio source with a built-in audio mixer. Users can easily keep track of all audio sources with the ability to mute, auto-mix, and delay any source.

Full NDI Capabilities

Maintain the video performance while streaming with NDI, ensuring ultra-low latency, lossless transmission, and interactive control without the use of regular HDMI and SDI cables.

SRT Support

vMix features SRT support, ensuring fixed latency streams over unreliable internet connections, optimizing live video streaming performance across unpredictable networks.

XSplit

Overview

XSplit Broadcaster is an all-in-one live video streaming and recording application content creation, powering the biggest events in gaming, eSports, and more. It contains dozens of plugins and extensions to tailor the broadcast and viewer’s experience. It only supports Windows 10 OS and supports 2nd Generation Core i5 CPU or higher. For HD stream quality, it requires a minimum upload speed of 5Mbps.

Key Features

Layout Wizard

Layout Wizard can help users build professional scenes, from podcasts to professional production events. They can easily switch from a solo camera stream to a full-fledged podcast with multiple guests, a virtual video conference, or presentations.

Powerful UI

XSplit features a powerful UI that offers limitless customization. Users can simply drag, drop, and resize media sources like images, videos, and GIFs. More importantly, you can also add Skype calls or screen capture Zoom calls. They can manage everything from a single monitor with the In-Game HUD or use multiple displays with the projector mode.

Multistreaming

XSplit lets users stream to all their favorite platforms. They can stream through its native plugins or use a Custom RTMP to stream on other platforms. It contains built-in Chat plugins and a browser source so users can add web pages designed for live streaming alerts.

Scene Presents

The live streaming engine software also contains screen presets like animations and broadcast effects that elevate the production of the live stream.

Noise Suppression

It can also reduce unwanted background noise with its noise suppression. This provides good clarity and improved concentration for the viewers.

Audio Level Management

Users can adjust the audio levels for each scene.

Custom Transitions

XSplit also features custom transitions to make the live stream more cohesive for viewers, signaling the change in the scene or focus of discussion.

Split Mode

Users can activate split mode to enable scene preview and program views for professional scene switching.

NVIDIA Encoder

It features an exclusive NVIDIA Encoder to improve the performance of the live stream as it offloads video coding tasks from the CPU. It also supports AV1 to compress 4K and 8K videos without ruining the visual quality, providing users with optimal streaming quality while saving on bandwidth costs.

Recording Profiles

Users can record different scenes at the same time without losing the overlays of the stream. They can also add queue points to fast-track the editing during post-production.

XSplit allows users to record or live stream any type of media. It can serve many use cases like virtual events, conferences, online classes, and webinars. With a premium license, users can stream to multiple destinations like Facebook Live and YouTube. It is optimized for high-quality recordings with a Team Manager system for managing and distributing licenses for teams.

Ant Media Server

Overview

Ant Media Server is a live video streaming engine that uses WebRTC technology to provide adaptive, ultra-low latency streaming. It is trusted by over 1700 enterprises worldwide and simplifies the complex process of streaming, making it accessible to any user.

Customers can easily deploy Ant Media’s live video and VoD streaming solutions based on their requirements and preferences. They can choose to deploy it either on-premises or on public cloud networks like AWS, Azure, Google, Linode/Akamai, Oracle, or Digital Ocean. The company has been serving a significant and growing number of customers in 120+ countries across different segments like Educational Institutions, Radio and TV Broadcasters, Gaming Companies, and even Telehealth Solution Providers.

Ant Media‘s cutting-edge solutions augment the live-streaming experience by achieving an exceptional sub-second latency of approximately 0.5 seconds while maintaining an unparalleled stream performance. It also handles multiple concurrent streams and viewers and contains a built-in recording functionality that enables users to capture and save live streams for future playback.

The live streaming software engine offers a rich and robust ecosystem of SDKs and APIs, including iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter, Unity, JS SDKs, and REST APIs, empowering users with seamless control and management. It also possesses chat and messaging capabilities that enable users to facilitate real-time communication.

Key Features

Ultra-Low Latency Streaming

Ant Media promises minimal delays in content delivery, ensuring quick and efficient streaming. This is particularly beneficial for real-time interactions in sectors like online betting, bidding, video conferencing, and more. The platform supports WebRTC streaming with a mere 0.5-second latency.

Scalability

The live streaming software is designed to handle varying audience sizes, allowing seamless growth as per user needs. Ant Media can operate in cluster mode, automatically scaling the number of viewers and publishers.

Adaptability to Various Cases

Ant Media is versatile and can adapt to diverse use cases. It serves as a flexible live video streaming service for various industries and applications. Users from media networks or gaming companies can customize the platform to meet their specific requirements using its robust Rest APIs and rich SDKs.

Cost-Effective Solution

Ant Media Server provides budget-friendly streaming solutions, catering to a wide range of users. Customers can opt for hourly, monthly, annual, or perpetual licenses, including free WebRTC SDKs/Rest APIs with no limitations.

All-In-One Pack

It’s an all-encompassing Live video streaming solution that consolidates transcoding/transmuxing, ingest, and delivery, including protocols like WebRTC, LL-DASH/CMAF, HLS, RTMP, RTSP, SRT and Zixi SDKs, recording, and plug-ins into a single software package with straightforward pricing.

Marketplace Offering

The platform offers a library of ready-made integrations and services such as streaming analytics tools, AI engines, and remote control utility via WebRTC.

Ant Media also collaborates with strategic partners like Google Cloud, Azure, AWS, Digital Ocean, and Linode for multiple deployment options.

Responsive Customer and Community Support

The user-friendly live-streaming engine is backed by responsive customer and community support. The Ant Media team is dedicated to resolving issues, optimizing settings, and troubleshooting promptly, ensuring a smooth experience for customers. They prioritize customer needs and engage with the community for effective support.

Ant Media Server is a highly praised live streaming engine with scalable solutions for video game streamers, broadcasters, educators, auctioneers, telehealth providers and more. Its adaptive bitrate technologies make it adaptable to network conditions, and it can scale to accommodate thousands of publishers and viewers. Contact for a free consultation to explore how the platform can enhance video stream production and elevate the viewer experience.

Wirecast

Overview

Wirecast is a professional live streaming engine software with production tools for Mac and Windows users. It can turn the ordinary laptop into a professional production studio, supporting unlimited live camera sources with PTZ control and control surface integrations. It supports over 12 languages and contains over 500,000 unique Stock Media assets to make the content accessible and engaging for global audiences.

Key Features

Wirecast can capture images and audio from multiple sources, including IP sources or anything displayed on the computer screen. It also features a wireless camera app exclusive to iOS devices. It is capable of multi-channel audi ingest with support for ASIO, WASAPI, and CoreAudio-compatible devices. Users can mix up to eight independent audio tracks and add FX and processing, making conferencing and remote production possible with one app.

It contains shot templates, hotkeys, playlists, and more automation features so users can quickly create content. Wirecast also seamlessly integrates with social media platforms to display comment overlays, Facebook Polling, and live viewer counts to keep users engaged and in contact with their audience.  For sports competitions or gaming events, users can include scoreboards, clocks, and timers so viewers can follow the action in real-time and never miss an important play.

Users can archive each live video input into a clean, modified file with ISO recording, separate from the composited program recording. They can also record while streaming simultaneously. Overall, Wirecast is a powerful, flexible, and easy live-streaming software for producing high-quality, engaging content. Customers can choose between Wirecast Studio and Wirecast Pro, with two billing options for flexible cost savings.

Streamlabs Desktop

Overview

Streamlabs Desktop is free, user-friendly live streaming software with features most useful for gamers. It contains all the essential elements to help users stream to the top platforms like Facebook Gaming, YouTube, or Twitch. It optimizes the stream for the best video and audio quality, capturing the webcam, games, desktop, music, and microphone in one place.

Key Features

Streamlabs Desktop can stream to multiple destinations in vertical and horizontal formats. Users can set and customize resolutions, scenes, and sources for both layouts. It also contains hundreds of free professionally-designed overlay themes made to match the unique personalities and brands of different users. They can also personalize the layout to highlight chat, donations, and subscribers. Creation of custom alerts to acknowledge them is also available.

Streamlabs Desktop also contains widgets that can elevate the visual appeal of streams, like alert boxes for raids, follower goals, or end credits for a proper outro. These can drive engagement to keep audiences entertained. It also features a free chatbot that viewers can interact with. It can moderate the chat from trolls and offer fun games to keep the interactions ongoing for a lively and engaging stream.

The live streaming software also features a highlighter that lets users record and post highlights quickly, an aspect most useful for gamers who want to clip their best plays to attract more viewers to their platform. Streamlabs Desktop is easy to use, customizable, and free for anyone new to the field of streaming.