Engage with the public and stream your Microsoft Teams hosted council meeting live to Youtube. If this is something your council wants to do but is unsure how to do it, then read our online guide below.
Before Covid-19 many council meetings were open for public attendance, since lockdown this has not been possible and will be difficult for some time due to social distancing rules. There are many alternatives for hosting remote council meetings that offer various options to include the public but none compare from a security standpoint to Microsoft Teams and now CloudyIT have devised a simple easy to follow method to stream these meetings live so that the public can attend virtually.
Step 1
If you don’t have one already go and set yourself up with a YouTube channel, you will need to activate the channel for live streaming which can take up to 24hrs so make sure you do this a few days ahead of your first live meeting.
Step 2
Download and install OBS screen capture software, Don’t worry it’s completely free to download and use – www.obsproject.com
Step 3
Set up your audio devices, by default, OBS Studio is set to capture your system default desktop audio device and microphone. You can verify this by looking at the volume meters in the mixer section of the main OBS Studio window and see if they are active. If they aren’t moving, or you suspect the wrong device is being captured, click on Settings -> Audio and select the devices manually.
Step 4
To get started capturing, you need to add a Source. At the bottom of the window is a box called ‘Sources’. Click on the + (or right click inside the box) select the option called display capture, this will enable the software to capture everything you see on your desktop.
Step 5
For this step ensure you are logged in to your Youtube account, Visit https://www.youtube.com/live_dashboard to open your live stream page, scroll to the bottom of the page where you will see your stream key, click reveal and copy the key.
Step 6
Open OBS, and have it start the auto-configuration wizard (Found in the Tools tab) click next on each step until it gets to the “Stream Information” pane, change this to YouTube and then paste in the stream key. Click next and apply settings.
Step 7
Join your Microsoft Teams meeting, when you are ready to go live click start streaming in OBS this will automatically start your live stream on YouTube as long as you are logged in and have the live dashboard window open in your browser, after clicking start ensure the only thing visible on screen is your teams meeting.
Our top tips and things to remember
Run a test – make sure you have everything set up correctly by running a quick test ahead of your first live stream.
What you do on screen is what your audience will see – if you can, use device that does not need to be used for anything else during the meeting.
Your stream will be saved for viewing after the live event, if you want to you can go and delete this via your YouTube studio.
*Faringdon Town Council recently put our method to the test with great results, see how they did here
If you would like assistance to implement this system CloudyIT also offers training and full set up of this extremely useful feature. In fact, this fix can be used by any company using Microsoft Teams that wants to create a live event that will be streamed to YouTube.
For more information please contact us / 01280 830170
