If you are using live streaming as part of your communications, you may have wondered if your live stream always has to be live, or can you live stream a pre-recorded video? Over the years, we have seen this tactic being used for webinars where people can watch an ‘evergreen’ webinar that was previously recorded. It is actually a way many webinar mareters grow their email list.
During a livestream you might have considered sharing pre-recorded content as part of your live stream – this option is possible using a number of third party live streaming tools.
But what if you want the whole of your live stream to be a replay of a pre-recorded video?
Some time ago, I registered to learn about a new tool that would allow you to live stream pre-recorded video on Facebook, Periscope or YouTube and I have now had the opportunity to test it out when it was released this week.
The platform is called OneStream.live and below you will find a tutorial on how to get started with the tool. At the bottom of the article you will also find other tools you can use to live stream pre-recorded content.
How To Broadcast Or Schedule A Live Stream Of A Pre-Recorded Video Using OneStream.live
The first thing I noticed when trying to register for an account with OneStream.live is that you need to work on Chrome – I initially tried using Firefox, my faviourite browser, but unfortunately it did not work.
Once you create an account (I used the free option to test the platform), you will find the dashboard which provides you with a siummary of your livestreams in the last seven days.
On the left hand side bar you will find the ‘Accounts’ area which allow you to add your live streaming destinations.
As I was testing OneStream.live using the free option which allows you to live stream for just 5 minutes, you can also only add one account. For Facebook this means connecting one Page or a Group you have admin rights to, one YouTube channel or on Periscope channel.
Once you have connected your account you are ready to create a new live stream. Find this option on the left had side bar in the tab called ‘New Stream’.
First you need to upload a video file – if the video you are live streaming is longer than the duration your account allows, (this depends on the subscription plan you sign up for on OnseStream.live), you will find that your live stream wll end part way through the video.
Once you have uploaded the video you are ready to add the details for the live stream.
In the screen shot below you will see the interface for your live stream set up:
1 – add a compelling title
2 – add a description for the live stream (include hashtags if relevant to the platform you are streaming to and add a link if you want to include one)
3 – you can stream immediately, or as I did, you can schedule your live stream by adding the date and time of the event
4 – if you have multiple accounts connected to OneStream.live you then select where you want to stream to
5 – once you are ready you can then create your stream.
NOTE: Check the guidelines for the live stream platform you are streaming to check they permit the broadcast of pre-recorded content – these terms can change from time to time.
At the time of writing this tutorial checking the Facebook Developers questions about live streaming you will note that they say:
Can I add pre-recorded video into a live post? We encourage all live broadcasts to exclusively contain live content so as to preserve the integrity of a viewer’s experience. However, there are unique cases in which cutting to a pre-recorded clip makes sense, similar to how a news show might show previously recorded content on live TV.
Good practice would be to disclose in your description and potentially the video that this is a pre-recorded content. This is increasingly important in an era of fake news where we have seen rogue Facebook pages post pre-recorded content.
Learn more about Facebook Live best practices here.
At the time of your live stream you will be able to see it live in the left navigation bar and if you click on that link you will see that it indicates the live stream that is ‘live now’. You can also stop the stream from there if you realise you need to do so for any reason.
I took the opportunity to head to Facebook to see the live stream in real time – I recieved a notification on Facebook that my page was live streaming.
Here is an example of what the live stream looks like on Facebook.
As OneStream.live does not allow you to see comments, you will need to navigate to whatever platform you are streaming to to see and interact with comments from people watching your live stream of your pre-recorded video.
Overall I was impressed with OneStream.live and it has some features that differentiate it from other platforms that allow you to stream pre-recorded content. It was certainly easy to use. You can see the details of theri pricing below.
I do think the integration of being able to view and comment on the stream directly from the OnseStream.live dashboard would be a really helpful adition to the tool so that you can engage your audience in real time especially as trying to manage multiple platforms at the same time on different devices is challenging.
Learn More About This Live Stream Software From The OneStream.live team
I did have some problems initially creating my account but the support team were quite responsive. I also asked them a few questions to learn a little more about the tool.
What inspired you to create the platform?
We have been managing many social media accounts for some time now. We felt the requirement to live stream our professionally created videos to social but the only solution was installing third party softwares like OBS or Wirecast to our computers. And we still could not schedule our live streams.
The second issue was, we were not able to continue our work from any computer, but only from the one that had the live streaming software installed. That inspired us to create a cloud solution which can be used by marketing and advertising agencies as well as individuals.
(Note from Krishna: there are a number of live stream tools available that work in the browser such as BlueJeans which also allows you to share pre-recorded video content).
How many are there in your team?
We are a startup and a team of 5 strong.
Where are you based?
We are based in snowy and beautiful Finland.
Once a stream has finished what happens to the video I uploaded – can I go somewhere to delete it?
Due to strict user privacy that we follow, after the video is streamed from our server, it is deleted automatically from OneStream.live servers after the time it is no more required by any other features.
Can I delete my Facebook Page and connect to another channel if I want to use it on YouTube and Periscope?
Yes, you can disconnect and connect any social account from OneStream and then connect another in your OneStream.live dashboard.
Are you planning to make the service available so that we can see comments and be able to reply to them from your platform?
In the Live Streams section, links to all your current live streams are provided.
The user will be redirected to the live stream on Facebook, YouTube or Periscope by clicking the link, and reply to viewers’ comments directly.
We currently do not have plans to integrate commenting directly from OneStream.live as we think commenting is best handled by the destination social platforms themselves.
Is there going to be a feature where we can take over the live stream with our own voice or even extend it if people want to ask questions?
Yes, we have development plans to implement exactly what you have referred to. In addition, we plan to introduce live screen sharing features to empower the user to conduct live webinars.
It would be good if you had a trial period e.g. for 14 days so people could test out the full service with a stream across all social networks. Is that something you will consider in the future?
Yes your suggestion regarding a free trial is on our plan as well as yearly plans which will be introduced soon.
What features are in your plan for roll out?
The main features that we are going to introduce in the near future will be:
> Team management where teams can collaborate easily with roles like social account editors and video conttent contributors
>Screen sharing for webinars and for online multiplayer gamers
>Advanced analytics for live streams.
Update 28 January 2018: Regarding Firefox, the developers advise that they have fixed the issue so you should be able to use the platform on Firefox (I have not personally checked this since writing my origitnal review). They have also released advanced live analytics for paid users which includes the number of live viewers on each platform, relative viewers on Facebook and YouTube, total live viewers for all the ongoing streams, live viewers for each stream separately.
Additional Tools To Live Stream Pre-Recorded Video
Using the platform Livereacting.com you can schedule pre-recorded live streams to Facebook Live.
ReStream.io have a feature called Scheduler which allows you to broadcast and schedule pre-recorded video to multiple live streaming platforms – their free platform allows you to store two videos and stream up to 30 minutes of content. You can also simulcast to multiple channels. Note that if you want to stream to Facebook Live this will mean you need to invest in a paid subscription on ReStream.io. Learn how to use this feature in my recent tutorial.
You can use platforms such as Switcher Studio and even their iPhone app Switcher Go to stream pre recorded video.
BlueJeans is a paid platform I use for my Facebook Live streams and you can upload pre-recorded video to share in your live stream – however it only works for Facebook Live and you can not schedule a live stream.
If you use live stream platforms such as Wirecast, vMix (PC only), Ecamm Live (Mac only) or the free platform OBS you can stream pre recorded video to the channels you choose. A helpful tutorial on streaming pre-recorded video to Facebook Live using the free live streaming software OBS is available here.
Additional Resources And Live Streaming Tips
If you want to learn more about integrating live streaming into your communications, here are some resources to assist you:
> Read my extensive collection of tutorials about live streaming here.
> Watch my weekly Live Stream Insiders Show where I cover live stream technologies, news and case studies every week – find the replays on YouTube where you can subscribe to get notifications when they are available alongside the resources for each episode (remember to click the little bell if you want notifications not only on YouTube but also sent to your email) or watch live on Facebook Live every Sunday at 7pm (2pm ET).
> Schedule a free consultation with me to explore your live stream questions.
Are you considering using OneStream.live or another tool to schedule and broadcast pre-recorded content? What use cases do you think this is helpful for?
From some early experiments of using OneStream.live and some other tools, it has certainly got me thinking about the benefits of using pre-recorded content in my live streams – some of my results have been a positive surprise!
