You have created an event, added and designed all your scenes, invited your guests, and now it's time to go live to your audience. I'll take you through the steps of going live and you'll be entertaining your viewers in no time.
Connecting Stream Destinations
The first thing to do is make sure you've connected the platforms you'd like to stream to. To do this you will click the Destinations icon at the top right of Stage.
This will open a flyout with all the platforms you've already connected to. Open the "Add new channels" dropdown to connect additional platforms.
If you would like to connect to a new platform, like YouTube, simply click the logo and follow the steps to authorize. Once complete, you will see your channel name with a green toggle next to it - indicating the channel is connected.
You will also notice the platform icon pop up next to the stream destinations icon at the top of the studio, showing you which platforms you've connected.
Once you connect a platform you will see a space to fill in options like Event Title, Description, and more. These will be what gets shown to your viewers on those platforms.
📝 You can add as many channels for the same platform as you'd like. For example, if you want to stream to multiple YouTube channels, you will follow the same steps as above but choose a different account to authorize into.
For now, there is no limit on how many platforms you can connect and stream to. The more platforms you connect the wider audience you'll reach.
Going Live
Effi allows you to go live two ways, either directly from our Studio or with other streaming software (OBS, Wirecast, vMIx, etc.). Regardless of which way you'd like to stream, the steps above will not change. You will always connect your platforms the exact way.
Going Live with Studio
At the top of the Destinations menu it will ask you how you want to stream. Make sure "With Studio" is selected.
Next, select the scene you want the audience to see first, likely your first scene. You can send that scene live , as you will throughout your broadcast, by clicking "Show Scene."
Now that you have chosen your scene the only thing left to do is click the "Start Streaming" button on the top right corner and you are all set. You are officially live!
Going Live with Other Streaming Software
If you'd rather go live using streaming software like OBS or vMix then when you open the destinations menu, you need to select "Other Streaming Software" for how you want to stream.
When you do that, if you've already connected a platform, then you will see an RTMP URL and stream key.
You will need to copy and paste the RTMP URL and stream key into your streaming software. Depending on what you are using it will look a little different, but they will usually be pasted into your output or stream settings. Here's what it looks like in OBS:
This will let Effi know when you've started streaming in your software and allow us to send the stream out to all the platforms you've connected.
Before we go back to the streaming software for another step, at this point you should make select the scene you want the audience to see first and send that scene live by clicking "Show Scene." Same as if you were streaming with Studio.
It's important to do that step now because next we're going to take a look at how to show all the Effi elements and guests in your stream and if you don't have a scene live then you won't be able to see it in your streaming software.
Finally, head back to the destinations menu and copy the Event URL.
This will be pasted into your preferred streaming software as a browser or web source.
📌 If you want Effi to take up the whoel screen, make sure that the size you enter for your browser source matches both your resolution in Effi and your video settings in your streaming software. Otherwise, you can resize it on your own within your software as needed.
Once your RTMP credentials and Event URL are in your streaming software all that's left to do is start streaming from your streaming software. As mentioned above, Effi will detect when you go live and send your stream out to all the platforms you connected. To learn more about streaming with streaming software be sure to check out all of our help center articles on the subject.