As a reader of this blog, you will be aware that I have been testing a new product for live streaming to Facebook Live from BlueJeans over the last few months. This was a beta product and BlueJeans has now launched their product for live video streaming to Facebook Live called onSocial. I am hoping that the naming of the product to onSocial might lay the way open for the platform to provide for live streaming to other social networks such as YouTube, Twitter and Periscope in the future!
In this article I share screen shots for hosts of live streams using BlueJeans onSocial Personal, the new product for small businesses, that I hope will help you get started either transitioning from the beta product or if you are new to the platform. If you want to know what the experience is like for people you invite to your live stream then you can read this article (written for the Primetime product but the joining experience is the same for guests.
Learn how to use BlueJeans onSocial for live video streaming to Facebook LiveClick To TweetHow To Use BlueJeans onSocial Personal for Facebook Live
Once you have logged into BlueJeans onSocial you will see the opportunity to schedule a meeting.
Before you do anything further you can update your personal meeting room details and the default for your meetings such as muting people when they enter the meeting room and creating a personalised url for you general meeting room that you can use any time without having to schedule a meeting.
You can choose to auto record the meeting – this means that the whole meeting will be recorded, not just that part of the meeting when you go live to Facebook Live. Alternatively you can start and stop the recording when in the meeting.
A nice feature that was not available on BlueJeans for Facebook Live as a beta product was the audio notification to participants that the meeting is being recorded.
You can customise your settings for BlueJeans onSocial including the phone numbers that you want to appear in the email invitation to participants – this means that you could even invite people into your live stream on Facebook Live by phoning into the event. If you do not make this change the default phone number will be a US number but there will be a link to other countries in the email invitation for attendees to check out.
You can also change default of the video format you want for your live stream – I chose ‘Constant Presence’ which means that all participants whose video is made visible (it can be turned off) will appear on screen with a maximum of 9 people at the same time. As the moderator/host, you will be able to change this during the course of a meeting or live stream to Facebook and will be able to mute and unmute participants and turn their video on and off.
You will then be ready to schedule your meetings including sending invitations to participants. Start and end times for meetings are every 15 minutes. Every meeting will have a unique meeting room ID for people to use – make sure you do not share your moderator code however.
As a moderator or host of the meeting I highly recommend that you use the BlueJeans app on desktop as it gives you lots of additional controls.
Once you are ready to start your meeting you will need to log into BlueJeans, navigate to your scheduled meetings and then choose you meeting to start. Before you join the meeting in the BlueJeans app you can check your mic and camera. Check that you sleect the ones you wish to use.
If you are finding you have issues during a meeting you will be able to check your settings for your video and audio when in the meeting using the BlueJeans app.
You can invite people into your meeting when in the meeting room.
As a host you can not pre-screen people before they come into the meeting room so you need to be ready to navigate to the controls for audio and video for participants. This is a feature request I have previously written about – see my list of suggested features that would make the BlueJeans Facebook Live integration even more effective and useful for hosts of live streams.
You can easily share your screen or an application when using onSocial – for example you share your browser or even a presentation.
You can also share video in your meeting and live stream – you need to upload in advance of the meeting and it needs to be in one of the following formats WMV, MOV, MP4, M4V, AVI, MPEG, MPG, FLV, F4V, OGG, WEBM.
You can share the BlueJeans app in your meeting to help your participants if they are having difficulty navigating the controls.
onSocial from BlueJeans allows you to text chat to your attendees.
When you are in the meeting you can change the layout of what people see on screen such as the main person speaking or for example of you want people to be side by side. This is the one feature I dislike in onSocial – it takes three clicks to change the screen layout and the tool bar comes across the screen for the moderator – I use this feature many times during a live stream so it is not as user friendly as the beta product.
Show all people on screen at the same time using this setting.
When you are ready to go live to Facebook Live you can start the broadcast.
You will then go through the set up on Facebook live so you will be invited to log into Facebook then you can choose the location you want to stream to for example a business page or a Group you manage. Learn more about this part of the process in my previous article.
One thing to be aware of is when you share your screen, the Facebook live logo will appear across your face as you can see in the image below – this is only when you are live streaming. I have raised this with the product manager for the product and as I expected, this is something that is integral to BlueJeans and they are exploring ways to address that – however it is a big issue in relation to engineering so will probably not happen in the next half year.
Trouble shooting Flash: Some people have had a problem when it gets to this stage and they get a message to say they need to install Flash. It may be you have an old version of Flash installed. What has solved it for some people is that BlueJeans Support advised them to download the Firefox version of Flash even though they have flash in the Chrome browser – make sure chrome is shut down completely when trying to downloading so it will install. Remember you can also reach out to support through the BlueJeans website to assist you.
You can go directly to the Adobe Flash Player website to get the most recent version – you will will have to first, select what Operating System they are using (Windows, Mac, Linux). They will then need to select the FP for Firefox-NPAPI of Flash. Once the update is installed. Remember to restart your browser for the changes to take effect.
When using Google Chrome to join your BlueJeans Meeting, the browser may block the pop-up that is used to broadcast to Facebook Live. Allowing the pop-up in the URL Bar will allow the broadcast to reach Facebook Live. Follow the steps below to permanently allow the BlueJeans for Facebook Live pop-up:
1 Open Google Chrome and type the following in your URL Bar: chrome://settings
2 Hit Enter and click on ‘Show advanced options’
3 Under Privacy Settings, click on ‘Content Settings…’
4 Scroll down to Pop-ups and click ‘Manage Exceptions’
5 Add https://bluejeans.com and set the behavior to ‘Allow
6 Click Done.
Once you go live to Facebook Live there will be a helpful countdown timer.
I hope this gives you some assistance in terms of using onSocial from BlueJeans for meetings and live streaming to Facebook.
Note that while Facebook permits you to live stream continuously through the API access that you will be using with onSocial (though you can not record the live stream on Facebook) the maximum duration of a meeting using BlueJeans onSocial personal is four hours.
Four Bonus Features Of onSocial from BlueJeans Which You Might Not Have Expected
If you are interested in live streaming to Facebook Live with onSocial – here are features you might not have expected
1. You will get immediate access to high quality video files after your live stream – note that the onSocial Personal edition only gives you access to 5 hours of video in their library so you will need to download and archive or host it elsewhere
2. Your guests can join you on desktop (recommended browsers are Chrome or Firefox) or using the Android or iOS app – this is a major advantage of the platform and feedback from a CEO I introduced to the platform recently could not believe how simple it was to join. I don;t hear many people talk about the ability to join from iOS and Android but it is frankly a game changer for Facebook Live streams using apps such as this as similar products do not yet have this available.
3. You will have access to a meeting room that you can use 24/7 so if you need to start a meeting immediately you can do so without having to schedule
4. You can use onSocial Personal for your online meetings, not only for Facebook Live -if like me you work with clients online, you will also have incorporated into the video recording the screen capture from any of the attendees – in fact there are several video files you can choose from including and excluding multimedia and videos of the attendees.
Additional Resources For BlueJeans onSocial Streaming To Facebook Live
For those people who had access to the previous product there is a fourteen day trial of onSocial but anyone can register for a free trial on their website. Note that at the time of the product being launched there is no price visible if you are outside the US as their online payment portal is not yet available internationally. Therefore if you are outside the US you have to contact BlueJeans through their website.
BlueJeans has two onSocial products. BlueJeans onSocial Personal is aimed at small businesses and individuals and allows for up to 25 active participants to be in the online meeting room and the introductory promotional price is U$39.95 per month (regular price of US$59.95) – I understand this pricing is for the next 12 months. I am surprised that they have not instigated a fixed price or event a 12 month discounted price for new users as many software platforms do including one of my favourite visual marketing tools which I was a beta user of before they launched just as with BlueJeans.
Larger organisations can purchase onSocial Studio, previously known as BlueJeans for Facebook Live (the product that people have had access to in the beta period) through BlueJeans representative which allows for 100 participants in the meeting room. Remember if you are primarily using onSocial for live streaming to Facebook the number of participants may not be important for you.
Find an FAQ about BlueJeans onSocial on their website here.
Still Need Help With Live Streaming For Your Organisation?
Read my previous live streaming articles here
Schedule a meeting with me to talk about your live video questions and how we can work together from live stream training, mentoring or even production.
Read my previous articles about Blue Jeans for live streaming to Facebook Live
These articles were written about the beta product that I trialled for Facebook Live using BlueJeans for Facebook Live wich was also referred to as the Primetime product – the interface is different for onSocial but the key tips and information I shared about the product are still relevant if you are interested in investing in BlueJeans for live streaming.
- An introduction to BlueJeans Primetime for Facebook Live
- How to join a live stream on BlueJeans Primetime as a guest or attendee on your desktop or mobile
- Learn how to get started as a moderator of a Facebook Live show using BlueJeans Primetime
- Fifteen reasons you should consider using BlueJeans Primetime for Facebook Live
- 30 features that would make BlueJeans Primetime a more powerful platform for live streaming.
