I’ve DJed from remote locations many times in the last year, livestreaming my DJ sets to the world. Everything I use fits into a bag small enough to slide under a plane seat, except for the table I DJ on, and the DJ unit itself, which are carried separately. The gear is also compact, portable and battery powered.
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I don’t need any outlet electricity to DJ for up to four hours, and I can carry everything I need away from any transportation to find the perfect spot to livestream from. I’ve livestreamed from camping sites, an island on a reservoir, by an ancient fort overlooking the Atlantic coastline – and just from the pool rather than from the studio.
Read this next: How To Livestream DJ Sets: 4 Ways To Do It
In this article, I’ll detail the equipment I use, and explain why. This isn’t a “how to” (although you’ll pick up lots of tips), and it isn’t by any means the only way to livestream DJ sets – this is simply the exact way I am doing it, right now. No doubt what I share here will continue to change and evolve over time, but I’m very happy with how it is all working at the moment.
The DJ Gear
Denon DJ Prime GO DJ unit
This is small, professionally built, battery powered, and doesn’t require a computer to DJ from, with music provided via SD, USB, or streaming services.
It has a good mic input, and multiple outputs – important so I can feed audio both to speakers and the broadcasting system (more about that later).
I tried even smaller DJ controllers, but it felt like DJing with toys, and thus a compromise too far. While this unit is by no means perfect, there’s nothing else remotely like it, and I do love it.
Price: $999 / £929 / €958
Our review: Denon DJ Prime Go System Review
Sony WH-1000XM4 noise-cancelling headphones
These serve a dual purpose. They are great for auditioning music and planning sets on the road (as they have active noise cancelling and Bluetooth), but they also work just fine wired, and with noise cancelling turned off. In this “mode”, they act just like DJ headphones.
The only thing I miss is a decent coiled cable, as the one provided is straight, and a bit short – but as a single pair of headphones to “do it all” when on the road, these are the best I’ve found.
Price: $278 / £299 / €303
Minirig 3 2.1 speaker system
I’ve been an advocate of Minirig speakers for years. They’re well-made, sound great, and work both with Bluetooth (for day-to-day use) and with latency-free line-in (for DJing use). Many such portable speakers still have latency even when wired, which makes them useless for DJing.
These aren’t perfect (I find the app a bit clunky, and they can get a bit complicated when wiring up a couple of Minirigs with the separate bass unit, which is the “rig” I carry), but so far I’ve found nothing better.
Speaker price: $180 / £140 / €153
Subwoofer price: $155 / £140 / €146
Our review: Minirig Mini 3 & Minirig Subwoofer Review
Buy speaker: Official Website
Buy subwoofer: Official Website
Shure SM58 handheld microphone
I’ve always used this brand and model of mic – it is virtually indestructible, seems to keep out wind and background noise amazingly even without any shields or foam covers, and it just sounds great.
It is unidirectional (that means it picks up what’s right in front of it, rather than everything – which is good), and it looks “pro” too. Yes, you have to hold it, but I don’t have room in the bag to carry a mic on a boom stand, so this is my compromise.
Price: $99 / £92 / €98
The Livestreaming Gear
Mevo Multicam 3-camera set
Mevo is a camera system for livestreaming that you control via an app on your iPhone/iPad or Android device – I control it via my iPad. The Mevo cameras connect to a router (more on this later), as does your phone/tablet, and they also have audio inputs and microphones, although I never use the mics – I just plug the DJ controller into the line-in on one of the cameras, and feed it to the broadcast via the app’s mixer.
Livestream your DJ sets like a pro: DJ Livestreaming Made Easy
The basic idea is that you can have a three-camera live set-up over wifi with tiny cameras and no leads (and no laptop running complex software), and control it all yourself as you DJ – it’s easy to switch cameras, zoom, add slides and overlays, and so on. You enter the RTMP destination of where you want to stream to (we use Restream.io to stream to YouTube, Mixcloud Live and Twitch simultaneously), and hit “go live” – done.
Mevo is constantly developing the app, so I’m excited to see what gets added over the coming months.
Price: $399 / £399 / €436
Our review: Mevo Start Livestreaming Camera Review
Generic lightweight full-sized tripod
For around $20-$40, you can buy a lightweight, somewhat flimsy tripod that folds up small enough to fit into a bag (the one I use is detailed later), where the equivalent “pro” tripod would cost many times the price.
Mine is made by “TACKlife”, but there are dozens the same out there. Although I don’t think it’ll last forever, it’s 18 months and counting. I sometimes tie a weight (usually the gear bag) to it if it’s a bit windy.
Price: $40
Buy now: Official Website
Two Manfrotto tabletop tripods
These are a good brand, and they’re sturdy and easy to adjust. I’ll set one of them up as a close-up of the DJ gear, the other somewhere further away than the main tripod to give a “wide angle” view of what’s going on. I have a small one and a medium one.
I would also consider one of those bendy tripods, because sometimes there’s something obvious to attach a camera to (a tree, for instance) where one of these is no use.
Price: $31 / £29 / €54
Boling P1 Vlogger LED light
This is a tiny, bright, well-built LED light that is easy to mount next to the main (front) camera, which I achieve using an Ulanzi mount.
It is useful when light is fading, or as a “fill in” light to help get me out of the shadows when filming against a bright background. I don’t always use it, but it’s good to have.
Price: $139 / £99 / €129
Netgear Nighthawk M1 4G modem
When you’re livestreaming from remote places and relying on cellular data to get your stream out to the world, you need a good router. This is an expensive one, but it is the best purchase I could have made.
It has powerful wifi, it has good 4G aerials (and option for external antenna too), a wired ethernet port if needed, and long battery life.
Learn to livestream with us: DJ Livestreaming Made Easy
When we are “on the road”, it is not just about DJ livestreaming – we travel as a family, and work on the road too – so it’s two adults using the internet for work purposes, plus two kids on iPads. The modem handles it all easily.
Paired with an unlimited data SIM (we carry two, on different networks, to give us a second option if we have poor coverage on one of them), and it’s the closest we’ve found to reliable internet, anywhere.
Price: $318 / £259 / €256
The Bags & Covers
Gate8 Flight Mate carry-on bag
This was originally bought as an ultra-minimal bag for plane travel, but it turns out it is perfect for the rest of the gear apart from the Prime GO that I need for portable, battery-powered DJ livestreaming.
It has lots of pockets and compartments to keep everything organised, and is not too deep, not too wide, not too tall – a good shape to shove into any nook and cranny when on the move.
Price: £85
Buy now: Official Website
Decksaver cover for Prime GO
Hugely important, as I do not carry the Prime GO in a case for space reasons, so the hard acrylic Decksaver effectively protects the knobs, faders, screen and so on.
Even if you never move your DJ gear, I recommend these relatively inexpensive cases, because they’ll keep your kit dust-free when you’re not using it.
Price: £40
Our review: Decksaver DJ Gear Covers Review
Buy now: Official Website
Other bits and pieces
Various leads, connectors, adaptors and chargers
I have an Ethernet adaptor to connect the iPad to the router for a more reliable connection if needed (I have not used it so far), and various cables including 1/4” mono jacks to 1/8” stereo jack leads (to connect the DJ gear to the Minirigs), long and short 1/8” minijack to 2 x RCA leads (for connecting the DJ gear to a Mevo camera), and charging leads for all devices (USB-C, micro USB, cable & power brick for Denon DJ Prime Go).
To charge devices, we use car cigarette lighter 12V USB adaptors, but for the Denon DJ Prime GO, I am using the supplied mains cable, using a 240V inverter in the camper van we travel in – I would like to try to source a cable to charge this unit from 12V, but suspect one doesn’t exist as the unit is, I believe, 20V. (Not researched this too much yet, as is evident from this paragraph!)
Price: Varies
Solar panels on the van
Our solar panels can easily keep our leisure batteries charged on our camper van, which in turn keeps all of our cameras, lights, tablets and so on charged, and lets me charge the Denon DJ Prime GO via the inverter.
This means we can be power self-sufficient, which opens us to so many possibilities for livestreaming from wherever. I feel like we’re only currently scratching the surface with what we’re doing.
Price: $70
DJ table
The van has a detachable table built-in to the side door that I can carry anywhere, but it’s meant for sitting at, not standing at, so is not perfect – but it’s what I’m using right now in lieu of a better solution.
I put the Decksaver cover for the Prime GO onto the table, then put the Prime GO on top of that for a bit of extra height, but I would like to find a better way of doing this moving forward. Maybe some kind of foldable box that is 18″ high would do the trick? I am on the look out…
Finally…
This is what is working for me at the moment, and you can see the results in my Balcony Beats livestreams. I’d love to know what you’re using, too, and would be happy to answer any questions about my set-up, or indeed receive tips and advice – this is a constant process of learning and improving!
Read this next: The Ultimate Guide To DJ Livestreaming
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below – and remember, if you want me to teach you how to livestream your DJ sets, Digital DJ Tips has a whole course on it. Check out DJ Livestreaming Made Easy to learn more.
Phil Morse
