12 Steps To Streaming Professional Multi-Camera Productions To Facebook Live With Wirecast
By Jim Bask
Did you know that Facebook generates 8 billion video views per day and that people spend 3x more time watching live video than pre-recorded video? It seems that live video such as Facebook Live is here to stay.
There are several ways to stream live video to Facebook. But lots of brands and companies want a stream that allows for more sophisticated production capabilities such as multiple cameras, adding graphics or titles, using a green screen, or even adding a live scoreboard.
One great way to do that is to use Wirecast live streaming production software, which has an easy integration for streaming to Facebook Live. With Wirecast, you can even stream live to your group, pages or events; or stream another brand’s content with the aim of monetizing that content.
If you’ve been contemplating taking your streams to Facebook Live, what are you waiting for? Here are 12 easy steps to get a professional stream on Facebook Live with Wirecast!
1a. Test your upload speed If your upload speed is below 4-5 mbps you likely do not have enough bandwidth to stream to Facebook live, at least not consistently. Try testing out your upload speed by going to testmy.net on the computer you intend to stream with to make sure you are good to go!
- Get your content ready All good content creation starts with a plan. Open Wirecast and configure all of your shots. Add titles, cameras and audio sources well in advance of your live show date to ensure you’re ready and to reduce stress before you go live.
- Select your streaming destination Navigate to the “Output Settings” menu in Wirecast and select “Facebook Live”.
- Login to your Facebook account from Wirecast Once you’ve selected “Facebook Live” as your destination, click “Authenticate” and enter your Facebook username and password.
- Enter a title and description and choose where to stream Keep the title of your stream short and to the point. Go into more detail for the description of your stream, as the first few lines will appear in the feed above your live video. Now choose the Page, Group or Event you would like to stream live to using the dropdown box below the “Post To” section.
- Configure your stream’s privacy settings and add a location if you wish Your Privacy, by default, is set to public. But you can restrict your broadcasts to be available only to your friends or to yourself. You don’t have to enter a location in the “Place” field. But if you do, the possible advantage is that this will allow your broadcast to appear on the Facebook Live Map.
- Choose your stream type You can choose between a “Regular” stream or a “Continuous” stream. A “Regular” stream will not allow you to stream consecutively for more than 4 hours, but it will record a copy of your video to your timeline for your followers to view on-demand. A “Continuous” stream allows you to stream for an unlimited amount of time, however a copy of your stream will not be recorded for on-demand viewing.
- Select your encoding settings In most cases, Wirecast’s default encoding settings are sufficient for a Facebook Live stream. However, if you’d like more information about what changing the encoding settings can do for your stream, please look for more information, here.
- Click the “Create button” Now that you have all of your settings configured, you’re ready to click “Create”. Once Facebook receives all of this information they will send you an RTMP address that will be appear at the bottom of the “Output Settings” window.
- Set up an optional recording If you’d like to record a local copy of the stream to your desktop, now is the time to set that up! To record a local copy, click the “Add” button on the bottom left of the Output Settings. Then, choose “Record to Disk – MP4” from the destination dropdown.
- “Click Okay” Nice work! You’ve successfully set up all of your stream’s settings. Now, let’s get to the fun part!
- Save, stream and record We highly recommend you save your Wirecast document at this point. Wirecast has crash recovery, but it never hurts to be safe. Once you’ve saved it’s time to begin your live production. Click the “Record” button at the top of Wirecast. This will start your recording (if you added one). Then click “Stream” button, and you will begin streaming to Facebook — Get that smile ready!
- Watch your output metrics One of the best things about Wirecast is that it gives you a wealth of information on how your stream is performing, how your computer is performing, and even, how many people are watching, commenting, and liking it on Facebook!
If you run into any trouble with your live stream, please contact our support team. They are here to help! Phew, thanks for sticking with us through this written tutorial! If you’d like to see these steps in action, check out the video we’ve made, here. You can also read our extended tutorial on streaming to Facebook Live, here. There you have it, folks. How to stream to Facebook Live in 12 easy steps. Happy streaming!