Hubtag

Company Overview

Hubtag is an esport technology company that provides resources and broadcast solutions for gamers. In short, we build livestreaming software for gamer’s to make game-broadcasting more professional and easier to manage.

In addition to our production suite, the Hubtag Caster, we also run the Hubtag Academy, a free knowledge resource for streamers and event organizers. We see events and esports forever intertwined with broadcasting. By helping organizers host better events, we can create higher quality content for broadcasters. Makes sense, right? We think so.

A Little Background:

Prior to the release of the Hubtag Caster, we have been working in the esports and event industry for quite some time. Working with a variety of organizations ranging from online communities to Electronic Arts and Gameworks, we have organized and executed a variety of esport programs and live streams over the years including multi-state competitive leagues, and 32-team tournaments.

This frustration and struggle with the broadcasting experience is ultimately where the Hubtag Caster was born.

Through those experiences we learned that event organizers and streamers constantly struggle with the broadcasting experience. Whether it be a first-time broadcast, need for high-quality streaming, or working to market yourself effectively; putting together a broadcast is no small feat. Granted, it is a lot easier now compared to just a few years ago; however the significant tech and knowledge gap that comes with live streaming persists.

Enter The Hubtag Caster:

The Hubtag Caster is a live stream production suite that gives video game broadcasters greater control over their stream production. Currently it is an Open Broadcaster Software Plugin, with plans to support a variety of other encoding softwares later in 2016.

The Caster was mainly designed to increase audience engagement while simplifying the management and broadcast experience. Below is a full feature list on what it will offer at launch:

Feature List:

• New Follower/Subscriber Alert (Twitch, Hitbox)
• Countdown Timer (With scene transition)
• Twitter Integration (Displaying Tweets live on stream from the dashboard)
• Real-Time Polling (Strawpoll integration)
• Custom Scene Transitions (Ability to build your own)
• Timed Alerts (Delay for on stream alerts to appear at set time intervals)
• Nameplates (Show name and title for who is on stream, ability to update in real time)
• Chatbot (Standard features with the addition of regular expression commands)
• Web Dashboard (Everything you need in one place)
• Remote Stream Management (Ability to grant access to anyone to manage your stream remotely)
• OBS Setup Wizard (Simplifying the 0 to Broadcast experience, recomending Bitrates and Codecs)
• Themepacks (Template overlays for consistent branding across all alerts)

Our industry is still young and it is important we lay down a solid infrastructure to ensure a healthy growth for the years to come. Empowering streamers with professionalism and simplifying the broadcasting experience is a crucial first step to this.

Impact for Streamers/Industry:

Streamers face the difficult job of doing 3 things at once every time you go live:

1. Playing your game (at a relatively high skill level)
2. Entertaining your audience
3. Managing a live stream broadcast

That’s a lot right?, We thought so. So we built something to help.

Broadcasting can be challenging regardless of your audience size. Because it’s a mix of entertainment and entrepreneurship, streamers are constantly refining, streamlining, and growing their brands. Production value plays a key role in this growth.

With the Hubtag Caster, we want to give streamers the tools they need to successfully grow their streams and brands. By doing so, we believe we can help create better content for everyone, while lowering the barrier to entry for new streamers.

What’s the difference from Twitch Alerts?

Let me just preface this section by saying we love Twitch Alerts. By no means are asking you to use the Caster exclusively. Our decision to not include donation alerts speaks to this. We are BOTH in the business of helping streamers improve the quality of their broadcasts. Twitch Alerts operates through a CLR browser plugin, Hubtag is its own plugin that operates locally within OBS with a web dashboard.

With that being said, there is a clear difference between “stream notifications”, and “production value”. Twitch Alerts is great for having certain alerts pop up as the result of an action. This is mainly used for audience vanity, being able to see their name after a follow or a donation.

Viewer vanity is not the same as audience engagement.

“Production value” is a collection of tools that are designed to make your stream look professional and engage your audience at the same time. Features like Twitter control, integrated chatbot, scene transitions, web dashboard and more are all designed to involve your audience in a greater capacity with your content. By engaging your audience in a greater capacity, streamers will have more options to monetize and viewers will form a deeper connection with the entertainer.

Not all of a streamer’s struggles comes from the software and hardware side of things. Beyond finding the right technology, there are a number of strategies and nuances that come with growing your brand effectively. To speak to this, we also created the Hubtag Academy.

The Hubtag Academy

The Hubtag Academy is a free knowledge resource with courses and tutorials for streamers and event organizers. Encompassing topics like Gaming History and Live Streaming 101 (Beginner to Advanced), we plan to cover most of what a new or veteran broadcaster needs to know.

There can be a great deal of technical and business knowledge required to becoming a successful broadcaster. By educating streamers on good practices and providing resources, we hope to make it easier for new members to join the community and improve the overall quality of content!

Looking Ahead

The Caster consumer version is going into Open Beta this weekend (Jan 29th). We are very excited to share what we have been working on for the past year and the potential it means for streamers.

We will be expanding the Caster in a variety of ways in 2016 with new features, support for multiple encoding softwaress, and some exciting content geared specifically for esports.

We are just at the beginning of our journey and excited about what the future holds. If you want to talk more about Hubtag, gaming, or live streaming in general, feel free to reach out. You can find Hubtag on Twitter or via our Website.

-Taylor Ward (CEO/Founder)