At the end of February 2020, Facebook has released several tools to help creators on the platform. Two of them were Facebook Creator Studio App for Mobile and Facebook Live Producer, additionally, Facebook has launched the Messenger for Desktop this week.
Both the tools are intended to give more power to creators. In this post, I will be discussing Facebook’s Live Producer tool.
“Live is definitely exploding right now,” Fidji Simo, Head of the Facebook App
Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-27/facebook-covid-19-response-product-roadmap-changes-livestreaming
Contents
- 1 What is Facebook’s Live Producer?
- 2 Why Facebook Live Producer?
- 3 What is the objective of Live Producer?
- 4 Can I broadcast LIVE on Facebook Profile & Facebook Groups?
- 5 How to use Facebook Live Producer?
What is Facebook’s Live Producer?
Facebook defines it as, Live Producer combines all of the features from the previous experience with a simplified view to help you be more in control of your live streams.
On 20th February 2020, Facebook introduced Live Producer in its Journalism Community.
Why Facebook Live Producer?
Check the statement of Fidji Simo, it will clarify why Facebook has introduced Live Producer from business point of view.
Head of the Facebook App, Fidji Simo stated in Bloomberg “Messaging and voice calls from Facebook’s Messenger and WhatsApp services have jumped more than 50% in some of the regions hit hardest by the response to COVID-19. The number of people in the U.S. watching livestreams on the Facebook Live video feature has increased by 50% since January”.
This statement make it very clear that Facebook is very serious about is “Facebook Live” Product. Facebook has promoted gaming on the platform, which can be attributed to why Facebook Live users have increased.
With Facebook’s Live Producer tool the platform will give more power to the users in going LIVE, on contrary to it in May 2019 after Christchurch Mosque attacks, Facebook announced several restrictions on the Facebook Live product.
What is the objective of Live Producer?
As stated earlier Facebook is taking “Facebook Live” seriously, here is an announcement that Facebook has made on the 20th of February 2020 in their official community for Journalists “News, Media & Publishing on Facebook”.
Just a reminder, you can also join our Facebook Community:
With Live Producer tool, Facebook wants to give a push to Live Videos and broadcasting on the platform.
Previously, broadcasting can primarily be done by Pages under publishing tools and with help of APIs users were able to live-stream in the groups and on their profile to some extent but it was limited and was quite a tedious task.
With this new tool, Facebook has improved the way you used to live-stream videos on the platform with some new options that you will love and now the live-streaming is far easier.
Can I broadcast LIVE on Facebook Profile & Facebook Groups?
As Facebook announced in the private community, the new Live Producer includes all the functionalities from previous version of Facebook Live dashboard and is now more reliable and easy to use.
With this new tool, you can easily broadcast the content on:
- Profiles
- Groups
- and obviously, Pages
Now let’s discuss about the usage of this new tool and how you can make your Live videos more engaging.
How to use Facebook Live Producer?
In the earlier version, if you have to broadcast any video on your Page, you used to follow the below step:
- Go to the Page
- Publishing Tools
- Video Library
- Go Live
And you used to see a screen similar to the below:
Let’s us take you into detail of how to use the Live Producer tool:
1: Access Live Producer
To access your Facebook Live Producer visit – https://www.facebook.com/live/producer/10217150286973234.
2: Set up your LIVE Post
A. Want to Go Live or Schedule Live Video
First of you have to decide, whether you want to go Live Now or wanted to Schedule it.
B. Where you want to Go Live?
Now the second step in setting up your LIVE post is to choose where you want to post the video?
- You can share it on your Timeline
- You can share it on your Page
- You can share it on the groups you have joined
C. Enter Post Details
Enter your Video Title & Video description, that will be visible to your viewers.
D. Choose, if you Want to Crosspost the Live video
Then choose if you want do crosspost this video on any other pages. This option will not be available in case you want to go LIVE on your profile or any group.
E. Define Audience Settings
You can also choose your audience if you are going LIVE from a Page. You can choose the age group, with the options: 15+, 18+, 21+ & 25+ for now. You can also allow your LIVE to be telecasted on particular locations and you can also filter out the locations where you do not want to telecast your content.
F. Test Telecast
Now choose if you want to test this telecast, check if you want to. This is primarily used for Gaming.
If you want to go LIVE with other sources or if you want to broadcast any recorded video as LIVE then you need to set up the stream accordingly.
Facebook provides you three options for streaming the content i.e. Camera, Stream Keys & Paired Encoder.
3: Stream Setup
This option lets you choose, how you want to create your LIVE video. Let’s discuss each one of them:
A. Stream Keys
To use this option, you would need a specific app/software, called Streaming Softwares. Some suggested software are:
- OBS Studio
- Streamlabs OBS
- Nvidia Shadowplay
- Xsplit Gamecaster
- Player.me and many other
I use OBS Studio or Streamlabs OBS since both of them work on Macbook.
Now you need to insert these LIVE APIs in the software that you are using and choose the media source, it can be a web page, a video on your system, an image and again your system camera.
There are two options that you can see while using Stream Keys:
Use a Persistent Stream Key:
You can enable a persistent stream key if you want to continue to use the same stream key for each broadcast. To enable a persistent stream key (PSK) you can select the box in the settings box. This stream key can be used every time you go live. If you don’t use the Persistent Stream Key option, the stream key will change every-time you choose to go LIVE.
Use a Backup Steam:
You can choose to use a backup stream if you want to add a level of redundancy to your live stream. Clicking the box next to Use a Backup Stream will generate a Backup Stream Key that you can use with a backup encoder. If your first encoder fails during your broadcast this backup stream will take over. Once selected, it can not be unselected. (It will not affect your stream if you choose not to use it.)
We generally choose the Backup Stream option when we are broadcasting any even to be on the safer side. This option is available if you choose live-streaming via Paired Encoders.
B. Paired Encoders
To use this option you need to pair encoders, and to pair them you need to create Facebook App and your Facebook Live is managed accordingly.
C. Camera
If you choose the camera, you have limited options, as shown in below screenshot:
In Camera settings, firstly you have to choose your camera and microphone options. If you want to share your screen, then click ‘Share Screen’, a pop will open up, where you can choose to share your:
- Entire screen
- Application Window
- or a Particular Tab
Some Common Stream Settings
You have some common stream settings in Live Producer, once you go LIVE, you cannot change these settings. They are:
Streaming Settings
a. End Live Video if stream stops: If you choose this option, your video will end as and when it stops receiving data and is usually not recommended if you have poor internet connectivity. If you choose Backup Stream option, then you cannot choose this option.
b. Allow embedding: This option allows you to embed your live video on your website.
c. Unpublish after Live Video Ends: If you have chosen this option then your video will not be visible publicly after your video ends. Although it will be visible to the admin of the Page.
View Settings
Allow viewers to rewind: This option allows your viewers to rewind the video, but please note that videos more than 8 hours cannot be rewound.
New Features on Live Producer
Stream Health
This is a new option, earlier Facebook used to show only event longs, but now it shows you the stream health on different parameters.
Obviously, Stream Health is visible once you go LIVE.
Polls
Live Producer lets you add Polls to the LIVE video. You can add more than 1 polls to a LIVE video, only 1 will be working at a time and the previous poll gets ended.
You can also show Poll results during the live stream.
Questions
With this Questions option, you can ask your Live viewers to ask questions. It actually opens a dialogue box, where users can directly enter their questions and you will see these questions in Live Producer Dashboard.
Video Clip
This option lets you create a clip that is actually a short video of the last 60 seconds of your LIVE video. This option helps you share the clip without interrupting the Live video.
Comments
Once a stream is initiated, the left-hand column will display your Live post’s comments, giving you the ability to moderate the discussion while also monitoring the live stream. A dropdown gives you the option to apply the following settings to more easily manage comments. More than one setting can be applied at a time. They 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.
That’s all on Live Producer. I will keep updating this post as per the new updates and findings.
Now next time when you go LIVE try to implement these options to make more engaging LIVE Session.
If you have any questions, you can comment below or can join our Facebook Community, below is the link:
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