Start Streaming to Facebook Live With ClearCaster

 

Over the past few months, Facebook has seen record demand for its services. While most of the world remains in lockdown, users are consuming more content online — especially through live video and messaging. According to Fidji Simo, who heads up Facebook’s main social network, the number of people in the U.S. watching live streams via Facebook Live has risen by 50% since January. And these increases make sense. With more people stuck at home or limited in their travels, online content consumption and social engagement offer the next closest thing for anyone looking to connect.

In order to answer worldwide demands, Facebook made a major announcement with the launch of Live Producer. The updated, cleaner dashboard for managing live broadcasts provides tools for easily streaming live via third-party capture tools and cameras, as well as connecting via the Facebook Live API. Once your stream is connected, broadcasters have a new, simplified range of options to improve their live streams.

Below, we’ve highlighted a few of the new feature capabilities, which can be directly integrated when going live to Facebook with your Wowza ClearCaster.

 

Comment Moderation

Facebook has added a new set of comment moderation settings to facilitate better discussion within a broadcast.

 

The options, as outlined above, are:

• Slow — Commenters can only comment once every 10 seconds.
• Discussion — Your chat will only show comments with at least 100 characters in them.
• Follower — Only your followers can comment.
• Restricted — Viewers must have accounts that are at least 2 weeks old to comment.
• Protected — Viewers must follow the streamer for at least 15 minutes before they can comment.

 

Clipping

Facebook added a helpful new ‘Create a Clip’ option, which allows you to create a separate video clip of the most recent 60 seconds of your broadcast while live — without stopping or disrupting the stream. You can then share the clip to promote your stream and boost interest.

 

 

Graphics (Currently in Beta)

By providing creators with a simple way to add visual overlays to their live broadcasts, the graphics feature helps improve broadcast quality and boost audience engagement. It allows publishers to highlight and add viewer comments directly on top of their video stream or send polls to their audiences and display the results in real time. The feature also includes a variety of overlays that publishers can create before going live or on the fly — including names, tickers, and full-screen introductions.

 

 

Fundraising

This feature provides new options for fundraising, accepting donations, and managing charity streams. Live broadcasters are able to generate toll-free telephone numbers and/or donation buttons within their broadcast, so that viewers can call in or click to contribute to the stream.