What is Lightstream?

If you're looking to get into console streaming, Lightstream Studio could be the right software for you. 

What is Lightstream?

Lightstream Studio is a cloud-based livestreaming software. It captures the stream from your console that's going to Twitch and reinvades it with your customizations in Lightstream. This gets rid of the need for having a capture card or a PC that can handle streaming. 

It's free to use with the option to upgrade to their Premium plan for more features. 

Lightstream Studio works on the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One X|S, and the Xbox Series X|S. You can then stream to all your favorite sites like Twitch, Facebook, YouTube, and more.

Lightstream aims to be easy to set up, not requiring hours of your time and countless YouTube tutorials to figure it out. Their goal is to empower anyone with no or limited experience to be able to start streaming and showcase their adventure, brand,  or story with a live audience. 

Plans

Lightstream offers both a free and a premium plan. 

With the free plan, you get...

• Lightstream Studio logo on all streams
• Cloud Capture for Xbox and PlayStation
• Simulcasting with up to 5 destinations, including Custom RTMP
• Preset overlay and background options
• Livestream Alerts
• XPN alerts and overlays
• 720p streaming
• 10-hour stream limit

This is definitely enough for someone who is new to streaming, especially if you're wanting to check out the software before switching to the premium plan. You're still able to use the overlays and alerts, but you will have the Lightstream logo as a watermark on your stream. 

The premium plan is only $12/month or $9/month if you choose the annual subscription.

With this plan, you get everything in the free plan, as well as...

• Ability to remove the Lightstream Studio logo from streams
• Add up to 10 guests to your stream
• Preset and custom overlays and backgrounds
• Import URLs from any 3rd party service (coming soon)
• 720p and 1080p streaming
• 48-hour limit per stream
• RTMP video sources (coming soon)

The premium plan offers higher quality streams, no watermark, the ability to add custom overlays, and a longer stream time limit. 

If you do opt for the premium plan and are looking to import overlays, be sure to check out Stream Designz. This is where I get all of my overlays from, as there are so many different options and they're really easy to get set up. 

Features of Lightstream 

Lightstream offers quite a few really neat features that are easy to use. If you're new to streaming or new to console streaming, all of these features are intuitive and simple. 

They offer integrated overlays and alerts so that your stream can look professional and well put-together. With the free plan, you're not able to upload your own overlays, but you can use their pre-made overlays, which is a great option for beginners.

Overlays and alerts really do a lot to help your stream stand out and become memorable to your audience. This will help to draw in viewers and keep them coming back. With so many streamers nowadays, it's really important to make your stream stand out and look unique. You want to set your stream apart from others and have viewers click on your stream rather than others. 

Livestream also offers effortless multi-player streams. This is only available with the premium plan, but it does allow you to add up to 10 people to your stream. By adding people to your stream, it's perfect for multiplayer games, TTRPG nights, or anything else where you would want to have multiple people joining your stream. 

Multistreaming is another great feature of Lightstream that is available on both the free and premium plans. With the free plan, you're able to multistreaming to Facebook, Twitch, and YouTube. With the premium plan, you're able to add your own custom destinations if there are other sites that you want to stream to. 

Multistreaming helps to grow your audience by streaming to multiple platforms at the same time. This allows more viewers to find your stream and increases the chances that they'll keep coming back. It will also help you to build not just a regular audience, but a community that you can really keep up with.

Another feature that Lightstream has that many people might not know about, or may overlook on their site, is their creator academy. They have plenty of articles and tutorials available for free to help you grow your stream, learn how to use Lightroom, or learn more about being a content creator. 

They have four different categories: Creator, Tech, Growth, and Lightstream. These are all written by members of their staff or community, meant to be useful and helpful resources available to all. This all falls in line with their mission to make streaming easily available to new streamers and to empower them. 

Pros and Cons

Pros of streaming with Lightstream

• No capture card or PC needed
• Easy to use for new streamers
• Lots of resources to learn about the software and streaming
• Ability to multistream - helps to grow your stream and introduce it to more viewers
• Free overlays and alerts 

Cons of streaming with Lightstream

• Watermarked streams with the free plan
• Not very customizable - other platforms that require a capture card may allow you to do more with your stream
• Lacks a lot of advanced features due to its simple and easy-to-use nature

Recap

Lightstream Studio is great for new streamers who do not have a capture card or PC. It's really easy to use and set up, but it doesn't have a lot of options for customization, which can feel limiting to people who are more advanced streamers. The free plan is very useful for people just starting out, but the premium plan does offer a lot of advantages, especially once you start to build up an audience. 

If you are a new streamer and are planning to stream from your PlayStation or Xbox, then this is probably a really good option for you. Again, it's really simple to use and will allow you to get your stream off and running.