In this article I show you how to broadcast to Facebook Live from your computer to your Facebook Profile, Pages AND groups using Wirecast UPDATE: Wirecast now supports broadcasting live videos to Facebook groups directly from the tool I wrote an article recently on using the free software. This free software works really well, runs on Macs, PCs and under Linux and you can stream to your Facebook page, profile and groups. However, there is another tool on the market that is highly recommended, and that is from. I'll be giving a full comparison of and soon, but for now I wanted to walk you through how to broadcast from your computer to Facebook Live using Wirecast. Many marketers are choosing Wirecast as their main tool including , , , and. Going Live from your Computer? Facebook Live launched last year with a feature to stream live video from your phone. It started rolling out to verified users first, and then to iOS users and Android users have begun to receive access to Facebook Live on their profiles recently. It's also possible to go live to groups and pages from your smartphone. But, Mark Zuckerberg has his sights on something much bigger. At the recent , Mark Zuckerberg displayed drones, 360 cameras, studio set ups and more - all of which integrate with Facebook Live. Combine that with and the future of Facebook Live is very exciting! You can now broadcast live from your computer, using multiple cameras, webcams, share your screen, apps and even your smartphone to all your friends, group members and business page fans. You can do this for free using OBS Studio or using the professional software Wirecast here. I highly recommend trying both Wirecast and OBS Studio to see which one is going to best for you. In fact, Wirecast has more varied scene transitions than OBS. Wirecast in some ways is a little easier to set up than OBS Studio, as you can just click a button to connect to Facebook as opposed to fiddling with stream keys. Until recently, Wirecast did not allow you to broadcast live video to your Facebook groups. In a recent update, however, Wirecast allow you to broadcast live video to your Facebook groups as well as your pages and profile. However, I've kept the alternative way of broadcasting to Facebook Live using the RTMP protocol because it does allow a bit more flexibility. If that means nothing you don't worry, just choose the easy option! Go Live with your Profile, group or Page... You can connect your Facebook account with Wirecast directly. I recommend sharing only with yourself while you are testing, so you can watch later, just to make sure everything is working properly: Click Refresh, then click OK. Once you've set up your webcam or screen sharing you are ready to go live. Skip to 3 Alternative way... There is a different way to stream to Facebook Live from Wirecast. In this you can create the post on Facebook directly and mention other profiles and pages. This uses a similar method that I outlined in my previous article on. We're going to connect with Facebook using the Facebook Live Video API. Where do you get the streaming url and key? All you need to do is click the button at the top of this article. Then, you need to select where you want to post the live video - your own timeline, a friend's timeline, a group or a page you manage: If you chose a group or a page, start typing the name of the page or group, click to select, and then click next: A pop-up window should appear. If it does not, you'll need to check your pop-up settings in your browser to allow pop-ups. In the pop-up, enter your update text and video information: You can't go live yet, since you'll need to enter the stream url and key into Wirecast and start your stream so that Facebook can receive it. Now we need to give Wirecast the correct settings so that it can connect with Facebook. Once you've set up your webcam or screen sharing you are ready to go live! You are now live! For going to live using the RTMP method, it's a little different... You should see a preview of the stream Facebook is receiving from Wirecast: Enter your update text and the video title and optionally some video tags. Now, it's your moment of glory. About Ian is a Confident Live Marketing Coach and founder of Seriously Social. He has a passion for making the techno-babble of live video and social media marketing easy to understand. Ian is co-founder of — a family run web agency. As well as being a geek, husband, and dad to two kids, Ian is also a professional singer and lives near Manchester in the UK. The Seriously Social Community What do you think? Ian, We just started using Wirecast to take our Sunday Services live on Facebook. If you have any suggestions, we would be grateful. Hi Tammy, great to hear from you. Does this work through Facebook messenger? Or even better if this is possible , use a Facebook messenger bot — and say that people can find out more about donating by using a trigger word. If they use that word in the comment, they will be sent more information and a link by Facebook messenger. Hope Ian, thank you so much for taking the time to reply. You can totally add a Donate button into your live video from inside Facebook , but you have to do it before you go live, which is where the conundrum comes in. I was hoping you might now if Wirecast has that functionality. I wrote their tech support but never heard back. From looking through the documentation, it looks like this is only available from mobile — Android or iOS. And that means you have to broadcast from mobile too. So no Wirecast or any other software. Hi David, I may not be understanding you correctly, so please do give me more details so I can help. But, you can technically stream multiple streams to Facebook — to the same page or different pages at the same time. Hi Bob, thanks for your comment. There is often a slight delay at the start of the stream. I often start with a pre-show slot — with a countdown timer. But another way would be to start with an animated graphic for a couple of seconds and then play the video. And remember, you can always change the thumbnail for your replay viewers afterwards — just by editing the video on Facebook. Then Facebook kept the window open to allow us to view information about the broadcast and the ability to end the broadcast. However, I noticed a few weeks before Christmas, it reverted back to the old way. It is frustrating because you have to go to the live video post and edit it and then stop the broadcast. You are the second person to let me know about this. Whereas with the RTMP setting you can reconnect to the existing post. Seems like a flaw, should people stick with RTMP? Are there any advantages besides convenience for using the FB setting? Hi Rich, Yes, using the integrated Facebook feature in Wirecast is a lot easier. But there are a few advantages in using RTMP. One is the flexibility you have — you can reconnect to the existing post like you say. Also, you can more easily start streaming 20-30mins beforehand and check the preview, and even start broadcasting earlier if you like. They are all connected to a mixer for controlling the sound. Thanks, Elinor Hi, Elinor. I have learnt that from experience! I usually just use USB connected microphones. Use an XLR input. You could even use a wireless transmitter hooked up to your camera The source from the main camera is set as your Wirecast audio source when switching. Any switching from camera to camera will only output the main camera audio. The most important consideration is, can you display the image of the camera on your computer, either as a device or in a window. Hope that makes sense. Unfortunately, this can happen. Something is blocking your connection. Can you check your upload speed? It should be at least 5Mbps UPLOAD speed, but ideally a lot higher than that. Or, I have used a different connection or a VPN service like Private Internet Access. I wish I could be more helpful, but hopefully that does help! Verify the server is reachable at the given address. How can I debug the OS X issue since this is just affecting a single machine? I have also tried with and without VPN, and multiple locations on VPN too. Something else is causing this issue on Mac. Hi Mike, That is very frustrating. I could never get to the bottom of it. It sometimes worked on my PC and not my Mac and then the other way round. The same when comparing OBS Studio and Wirecast and with a VPN and not. At the end of the day I have a feeling that the issue is with certain FB servers. Some of them allow connection without any issues, and some servers are being picky. Have you tried contacting Wirecast support? I would like to be able to stream from desktop to my FB group. I see now that wire cast does this directly which sounds great! I am fooling around with OBS. It possible to stream to a group with OBS? So sorry I totally missed your comment. Wirecast does make it easy to connect with Facebook, but you can do it with OBS Studio with a bit of work. For your profile or group, you need to use the button on my post. Are you using the button on this page, or are you authenticating with Facebook using Wirecast? However, the advantage in using the button on this page is to stream to multiple destinations or customise your post by mentioning other profiles or pages. Check your browser, and make sure it is accepting pop ups from iag,me HI, I am using wirecast to stream to facebook live, I set everything up in wirecast and authenticate through the wirecast gui, no adding stream keys, I only have wirecast open on that machine, While I am streaming, how can I get an idea of how many users are looking at my stream and how can I interact with them if the only thing I have open is wirecast? UPDATE: There is now! If you still want to read the comments you will still need to open a browser or another device, but the new tally counter is a great way to keep track of how much engagement your stream is getting. Hi Hadyl, it sounds like potentially a bandwidth problem. What is your upload limit? Otherwise it will be subject to dropping or stopping. If you have a lower internet connection speed, you can always stream a still image or a tiny video box of yourself in front of slides. I think you are right, Ian. You can set the stream to whatever size you want, including SD sizes like 480p. I have started doing a lot of Facebook live streaming to chat with friends all over the world and it can be so cumbersome using my iPhone or iPad. Being able to do this right from my desktop makes life a breeze. At least 3Mbps UPLOAD speed, but preferably 4Mbps+. A good download speed is useful, but it is the upload speed that is important. Check your upload speed with the speedtest tool. Your computer needs to encode the video before sending it over to Facebook. Encoding video requires a fast processor. If you have a dedicated graphics card that helps too — as will a good bit of memory. To help things, it is best to close as many apps running in the background as possible — so that OBS Studio can have as many resources as possible to encode the video. Usually the first pop-up will open, but once that closes, a 2nd pop-up should open. Your firewall, router and ISP all need to allow RTMP. I have seriously downscaled mine via RTMP because I only have a 1mbit upload here in Cape Town, RSA. Tonight I tested it, and it worked very well. For a normal web broadcast, this is a godsend, because 2mbit on a 1mbit upload is only feasible with no moving image. Oh no, sorry to hear that. The problem is Facebook takes copyright very seriously. Unless you own the copyright or own a licence and can prove it, Facebook can take down the video or ban you from using Facebook Live. You could try and appeal or show them you have a licence or own the copyright. Hi James, do you get any error messages? Could you try the alternative method RTMP I listed in this article and see if you get the same issue. If you have a full version of Wirecast perhaps try their support. If you get anywhere with this let me know. So, do you want to record your video, and then stream that video to Facebook Live using Wirecast? If so, you just need to add the video as a media file in a scene and then stream that Facebook Live. I was thinking incorrectly that I would somehow record the video in wirecast. Thank you so much! Hi, do you know why the windows closes when I try to stream live from some pages? It sounds like your ISP or something else is blocking the connection. I know this has happened to a number of people using OBS Studio and I am pretty sure the same can happen in Wirecast. Some ISPs are blocking the connection. Then you can view your camera on your desktop and get Wirecast to capture that. However I have tried it and it does allow you to have more cameras by using your old smartphones! Ian Hi Luke, great question. Facebook are continuing to develop their Facebook Live platform. This includes the way they display comments and allow the broadcaster to interact with the comments. For the time being you have a number of options. First of all, you could have a smartphone or tablet next to your computer. When you go live you can navigate to your live video and see the comments there. The other option is to have a dual monitor set up and have the Facebook Live post on the 2nd monitor. You can see the comments come through while you broadcast. If you have someone else who can type the replies while you are speaking then that is great. Otherwise you can verbally reply to people during the broadcast. Do treat your broadcast as a piece of evergreen content as well. It may be live, but once the broadcast has finished it will … Read more » Hi Katie. Yes, you can do this. You could use a service like Zoom, Appear. Then you could control what the audience sees and change scenes. Hope that makes sense! However, as long as it sends the video into a computer running Wirecast using a capture card, then Wirecast can encode and stream it to Facebook. Ian Hi Ian, I want to start a Live Web TV which will also available on Smartphones through Apps and integrated with social media like Live on Facebook etc. I need your expertise on complete setup in affordable cost. I think Wirecast solutions with which you are much familiar will be economical as well as effective. Anyways you are expert of this line and will like your consultancy in this project. I want to start the stream very early for an event so I can troubleshoot. Please tell us how to check the stream, and then PAUSE the stream. Rick Flowe I was wondering, does broadcasting via wirecast allows you to overpass the limit of 90 minutes that Facebook Live imposes usually? Also, will the format remain square as Facebook live usually does, or will it take the usual rectangular proportion that we know for videos? Unfortunately the 90 minute limit cannot be bypassed. It is what it is, at least for the time being. If you broadcast from your computer, then the video is widescreen — not square. There will be some compression, but if you have a good camera, a fast computer and a good internet connection the quality of video should be very good. Afrikaans Albanian Arabic Armenian Azerbaijan Basque Belarusian Bosnian Bulgarian Catalan Chinese Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Estonian Finish French Galician Georgian German Greek Haitian Creole Hungarian Icelandic Indonesian Irish Italian Japanese Kazakh Korean Kyrgyz Latin Latvian Lithuanian Macedonian Malagasy Malay Maltese Mongolian Norwegian Persian Polish Portuguese Romanian Russian Serbian Slovakian Slovenian Spanish Swahili Swedish Tagalog Tajik Tatar Thai Turkish Ukrainian Uzbek Vietnamese Welsh Yiddish.
