To broadcast a Microsoft Teams meeting or webinar to Workvivo, you will need to have a paid Microsoft 365 account that has the option to allow live streaming of meetings and/or webinars enabled, and the Customised Streaming Preview app enabled for your account. Contact your Microsoft 365 administrator if you are unsure of whether this option is enabled for your account.
Please note that Microsoft Teams has the following limitations for RTMPS broadcasting (as of July 2023):
- Live events are not supported (only meetings and webinars)
- Only the meeting organizer can go live
- Only Admins can broadcast, extra permissions needed
- Only scheduled meetings are supported - you can’t broadcast from an instant meeting
- Meeting registration must be enabled for the Teams meeting or you won’t be able to broadcast to an RTMPS feed
- If you share your screen, only the shared screen will be visible in the broadcasted stream - no video cameras will be displayed until screen sharing is stopped
Note: Microsoft Teams support for broadcasting meetings to livestreams is currently in preview in Microsoft Teams itself and as such is not recommended for important broadcasts.
We recommend using Zoom, or another app such as OBS or Wirecast for any important streams.
Device(s): Desktop only to broadcast the livestream
Roles / Permissions: Livestreamer
Going live on Workvivo from Microsoft Teams
To go live on Microsoft Teams, make sure the meeting in question falls into the criteria above. If it does, you should see an “Apps” option in your Teams meeting.
Click the “Apps” button and search for “Customised Streaming” as shown in the following screenshot:
If you don’t see this option, it means one of many things:
- That the Customised Streaming app is not enabled for your account, OR
- Livestreaming is disabled for your organization, OR
- You are not the meeting organizer, OR
- You are in a live event, not a meeting or webinar, OR
- The meeting is an instant meeting, not a scheduled one, OR
- Registration was not enabled for the meeting.
If you’re sure the issue is not related to any of the above, please contact your Microsoft 365 administrator for further assistance.
After clicking on “Customised Streaming”, add it to the meeting by pressing the “Save” button in the dialog that appears.
Now, enter the following details from Workvivo:
- Add the RTMPS URL from Workvivo and enter it into the “Stream URL” field
- Add the Stream Key from Workvivo and enter it into the “Stream key” field
- Note: Do not close this window until your broadcast has commenced, otherwise you will cancel the livestream
When you are ready to go live, press the “Start streaming” button. Press “Allow” in the dialog that asks to confirm streaming meeting content and your stream will be live within a few moments.
Please note that it is not uncommon for Microsoft Teams to present the error “Something went wrong, please try again.” when you try to livestream.
It is unclear why this happens but is likely due to the fact that the feature is in preview in Microsoft Teams. Again, we highly recommend using a different platform to broadcast important meetings on Workvivo.
If you get this error, you may need to leave the Teams meeting and start it again and retry the steps above.
Ending the Stream
To end the stream, press the "Stop streaming" button in Microsoft Teams, or end the call.
This will automatically end the Workvivo livestream. You can also use the “End Stream” button in the host view of the livestream on Workvivo. Note that stopping the stream from Workvivo will likely result in an error message “Something went wrong, please try again” displaying in the Customised Streaming window in Microsoft Teams. You can safely ignore this, it just means that the meeting is no longer being broadcast to Workvivo.
Livestream Playback Experience
Please note: The following immersive playback experience only applies to RTMPS Livestreams. It does not apply to mobile playback, livestreams attached to events, or any Native livestreams.
When your Livestream ends, the playback recording will be posted to the activity feed and will be visible to everyone in your original Livestream audience. As shown below, you can clearly see a count of ‘Live Reactions’ and ‘Live Chat Messages’ on the activity feed item. These counts refer to engagement during the actual livestream itself, as opposed to reactions and comments on the activity feed item that come in after the livestream has ended. You can also easily access Livestream analytics via the ‘Analytics’ button (more on analytics below).
Click on the preview thumbnail to open the full livestream player experience shown below. This URL is the same as the URL from when the stream was live, so if a user clicks on a notification after the livestream has ended they will be brought straight into the playback experience. You can also see the livestream title, description, and quick action ‘copy URL’ button within the playback experience. Reactions appear in sync with the live event itself, at the exact same time they would have appeared in the live event itself. This gives a more real-time feel when watching the livestream recording.
The messaging on the right hand side is split into ‘Livestream Chat’ and ‘Comments’. ‘Livestream Chat’ contains all the messages that were posted during the live event. ‘Comments’ contains all the comments that were posted on the Livestream after it ended, either via the activity feed update or within this new messaging panel.
Similar to reactions, the Livestream Chat messages appear in sync with the live event itself. This gives the user more context into what livestream chat messages were referring to within the stream itself. Users also have the option to view a flat list of all livestream chat messages by disabling the ‘replay chat in sync with livestream’ toggle. We also now automatically hyperlink any URLs that have been posed in the livestream chat.
The ‘Comments’ section within the playback experience now supports images, GIFs, Replies/Threading, Likes, @ Mentions, Delete (for comment author), and Reporting.
Livestream Analytics
Analytics are available on third-party livestream recordings. Simply click the ‘View Livestream Analytics’ button below the Livestream recording on the activity feed to access the analytics modal.
The following metrics are provided in Livestream Analytics;
- Livestream Duration: The total length of time the livestream was broadcasted.
- Unique Viewers: The count of individual viewers who watched the livestream at least once.
- Peak Viewers: The highest number of concurrent viewers reached during the livestream.
- Peak Time: The specific moment during the livestream when it had the highest number of concurrent viewers.
- Total View Time: The cumulative amount of time viewers spent watching the livestream.
- Avg. View Time: The average duration that each viewer spent watching the livestream.
- Reactions: The total number of reactions sent by viewers during the livestream.
- Chat Messages: The total number of chat message sent by viewers during the livestream.
- Unique Chatters: The count of individual viewers who sent a chat message at least once during the livestream.
- Avg. Framerate: The average frames per second (fps) of the video stream.
- Avg. Video Bitrate: The average data rate at which video content was transmitted in megabits per second (Mbps).
- Avg. Audio Bitrate: The average data rate at which audio content was transmitted in kilobits per second (Kbps).
- Concurrent Views: The total number of viewers watching the livestream simultaneously at any given moment.
- Live Delivered Time: The total duration of the livestream that was successfully delivered to viewers in real-time.
- Live Delivered Time by Country: The distribution of live delivered time among different countries.
- Ingest Framerate: The average frames per second (fps) of the video input source before encoding and transmission.
- Ingest Audio Bitrate: The average data rate (kbps) at which the audio input source was transmitted before encoding.
- Ingest Video Bitrate: The average data rate (Mbps) at which the video input source was transmitted before encoding.
- Keyframe Interval: The interval at which keyframes (complete video frames) are sent in the video stream, which affects video quality and compression efficiency.
- Live Input Time: The total duration of the livestream from its inception to its completion, including any pre-stream setup or delays.
- Recorded Time: The duration for which the livestream was recorded for on-demand viewing after the live broadcast ended.
Learn about best practices for Setting up and Hosting a Livestream