Friday, February 21, 2014

Live Streaming

Have you ever wanted or needed to create a live stream for your classroom? It's actually very easy to do and there are two simple options. The easiest way is to use Google Hangouts On Air. The tool allows you to create a hangout, and broadcast the live feed through your YouTube channel. If viewers are not part of the live session, you can share the public YouTube link and they can view the entire session. To create a Google Hangout On Air, log into your Google Plus account, open the menu in the top left, and click on hangouts, then click the  button at the top that says "Start a Hangout On Air." Google will walk you through the rest.



YouTube also supports creating live streaming events. It is a bit more complicated, but offers higher quality streaming.  First, you have to enable the Live Event setting in your YouTube account. Once enabled, in your video manager section there will be a new option for Live Events. Click Live Events to make an event. This is where it can be complicated. The easy way is to use the backdoor to create a Google Hangout On Air. If you have other encoder tools that allow for better streaming quality, you can select those instead of the Google Hangouts. This option really allows you to provide better streaming quality, and a better real-time feed, if you have appropriate software installed on the host machine.


Enjoy streaming your lessons.

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