I wanted to drop my thoughts on Switchboard after playing with it for a little while. To preface this review, I'm one of those people that regrets not picking up the Restream LTD, and also picked up the OneStream LTD. I was intrigued by Switchboard's sharestream feature, so I jumped in with 5 codes.
Using Switchboard is pretty straightforward. I use OBS, connect it to Switchboard, and boom, I can start live streaming. Switchboard connects to most of the major platforms (FB, YT, LinkedIn, Periscope), and then you can connect to any other applications that support RTMP.
Some things I like about Switchboard:
- the templates for title/descriptions is great. No more having to find your links and stuff to drop before going live. Just activate a template, change anything related to your specific live, and go.
- the ability to create groups is great. I have certain destinations for my affiliate marketing stuff, certain destinations for my law practice stuff
Here are some 'constructive criticisms' I have so far of Switchboard:
- the deal sort of says "stream to unlimited destinations." This isn't affecting my rating, just be aware that a destination is simply an endpoint for the video. At any given moment, the most you can stream to is 60 destinations (with 5 codes). If, like me, you stream to your FB profile, FB page, FB group, YT, that's 4 destinations. If fellow sumolings want to accept invites for the other 56 destinations to share my streams, I would love it!
- the streamshare function seems cool in theory, but hard in practice. I've sent invites out to people close to me, and they are wary of accepting the invite. The question is "what are you posting on my profile?" If you've got a following (maybe a pastor at a church, you're hosting a conference and encourage participants to share the livestream), it seems like a good use case. I would love it if I can get people on board to accept the invite, because even just a few people sharing a stream can have a huge impact.
Overall, I'm still on the fence about keeping my account. When OneStream released it's live streaming ability, it provided what I needed - not perfect, but can get the job done. The real difference right now between OneStream and Switchboard for me is the Streamshare, which as I've shared above, is a little more challenging to enroll people in unless you've got a strong, loyal following. If you don't have any livestream platform, I would encourage you take advantage of this deal.