How to Broadcast to Facebook Live from Your Mac or PC
Facebook Live is certainly the leader among live video broadcast apps. Yet, many times I’d much rather broadcast from my desktop computer. The picture from my HD Webcams is just better and I prefer the experience to using the smaller iPhone and iPad screens.
Until recently, the only way to live stream to Facebook was via the Facebook app. But with the creation of new third-party tools, you may now broadcast live to Facebook from your desktop or laptop computer. Instead of being stuck with a mobile experience in the standard Facebook square, you are now free to experiement with possibilities to create shows which use multiple cameras, titles, transitions and more! It’s great fun and the learning curve is not that challenging. You simply need to follow these steps.
Step 1 – Get the software
While I and many others have paid $500 for Telestream’s Wirecast studio software, I recently discovered a free open-source alternative. Called OBS Studio, I consider it the poor man’s Wirecast. But it’s actually pretty powerful and is feature-rich even though it is free. You can download for Mac, Windows or Linux operating systems.
Step 2 – Configure the Settings for Your Live Stream
You can launch the OBS software once you have it installed, but in order to configure it properly you need to follow a few easy steps.
To get started, click the button on this site that says “Create live stream to Facebook”. Go ahead. It won’t bite. (Special shoutout to my friend Ian Anderson Gray for creating this button as an app!)
Now you’ve got choices of where you want your stream to appear.
You may select from your personal timeline, a friends’ timeline, a group you belong to or a page that you manage. Personally, I like to stream to my personal profile as that’s where I receive the greatest engagement.
Now pay attention to the fields titled Server URL and Stream Key. Both of us these are essential in order to configure your stream in OBS. Leave this window open.
Go back to OBS and click SETTINGS in the bottom right corner.
This panel will appear. Click the STREAM icon on the left side.
On the pulldown menu, select Custom Streaming Server.
Then, remember the Server URL and Stream Key I just talked about two sentences ago? Copy and paste each of those to the fields in the OBS Stream Settings.
Them click the “Use authentication” checkbox. This is where you will enter your Facebook username and password. It will allow OBS to post your live video to the Facebook location of your choice.
Click “Save” and you are almost there.
Now click “Start Streaming” in the bottom right corner of OBS.
OBS will now talk to Facebook and you should see an image from your webcam in the Facebook window where we discovered the Server URL and Stream Key. Do you see it?
Now it’s time to enter text for the post which will accompany your Facebook Live video stream. Feel free to assign a title for your video and type in some video tags.
And now the moment you have been waiting for!
Click GO LIVE in the bottom right corner of this window. Pull up the page where your video is set to broadcast on Facebook to confirm that you are live. It should take just a few seconds for it to show up.
Then SMILE because you are broadcasting LIVE on Facebook from your webcam!
If you’d like to learn more about how to use OBS Studio to create your live streams, check out my online training at The Live Video Revolution and join my LinkedIn Group, The Live Video Revolution.
Associate at WISDOM
6 年There is a reason why I bought a Mac, it was not to be one of the cool kids that wanted the best of the best. No it was because of the music production I do on it. Hours and hours sitting in front of my Mac copying, pasting, moving, deleting, hour after hour just beating on my Mac in a endless assault to get my work done. That is the key part, my work. I work from home, it is great, but even if it is from home it is still work and it still needs to get done. So my Mac, I have it because it is fast, gets the job done and comes back for more. But what happens when it doesn't want to do those things anymore? I move around massive amounts of information and yes even on the almighty Mac this can cause a problem after a while. Things fragment, programs get corrupted issues come up. My light speed Mac slows down to a crawl and all of the sudden I simply can not get any work done. Because I work from home there is no IT guy to call and ask to come fix it. No instead I have to figure out what is wrong. I am lucky, I did, but not after trying everything under the sun first and wasting countless hours looking for one program that can do what I needed instead of ten programs. One program to lead them all….okay that was a lame Lord of the rings reference, but that program was/is Detox My Mac. A simple to use program that did not just fix my issues, it put my Mac on overdrive again. A few clicks and my Mac was clean and ready to rock and roll again. Read more here:- https://detox-my-mac.com?duhhf9265hskfhf98346
Strategy Consultant | Relationship Management | Marketing | Brand | Operational Excellence l Startup Acceleration | Passionate about supporting Women in Work & Life
7 年So I followed all the instructions but can't see the video in the block where I got the stream key. It's just black. On the OBS app too...?
Heartland Newsfeed Editor-In-Chief | Ambush Sports Associate Editor; Wrestling, STL Sports, MLS Departmental Editor | Notary Public
7 年So this will only work on OBS? I usually use XSplit Broadcaster.
Sales Trainer -Coach Specializing in Accelerating Revenues-Getting to Yes Faster for BIZ Owners & Sales Professionals.
7 年do you need a webcam for this to work or will it use the camera in the PC