How To Stream Live Videos To Your WordPress Site

How To Stream Live Videos To Your WordPress Site

Do you want to stream live videos to your WordPress website? WordPress live streaming is gaining popularity nowadays. It is not just a good marketing platform but also a strong way to strengthen the bond with your audiences. But how to live stream videos in WordPress is still a question for many. In this article, we will show you how to stream live videos to your WordPress site with step by step instruction.

What is live streaming?

WordPress live streaming is the process of broadcasting live videos to audiences over the internet. It is an easy process. All you need to have for this is an internet-enabled device like laptop, smartphone or tablet. Nowadays many people are running live video channels on their site with good response. You can also do it via live video chat on one on one basis. The unique feature of live streaming is, since not pre-recorded and edited, the videos are not censored. So, you need some extra caution while running live streaming.

Live Streaming

What are the benefits of live streaming? 

  • Real-time content viewing. In other words, people view your content in your time and not in their free time
  • It has a global reach so you address a wide range of people at a time 
  • Cheap and affordable platform for anybody as it is cheap 
  • Takes less time as you record and broadcast in real-time    

We have categorized the process of live streaming into three parts here to give you a complete picture. 

In general, whenever there is a live event upcoming, you’ll see a lot of promotion going around. Next during the event also there are a lot of things to take care of. And once the event is complete, you hear talks about the event which are basically reviews of the event.

So, keeping that in mind, let’s split up live streaming into 3 main parts:

  1. Before the event
  2. During the event
  3. After the event

Before the event 

  •  Must have a strong web host 

Live streaming means transmitting real-time videos through the internet. You need a strong internet connection to host your videos. People want to view uninterrupted content. That is only possible when your web hosting service is very strong. It will allow you to deliver quality content to your target viewers.  

Best Web Hosting - Bluehost

Self-hosted videos consume more bandwidth than embedded ones. Live stream on the WordPress site drives big traffic also. It weighs your site more. Your site has to be fast loading otherwise people will lose their interest in you. For all these reasons, a strong web host is an essential need. Do thorough research before selecting one.     

  • Your theme should be compatible with live streaming 

Make sure the theme you are using for your website is compatible with live streaming. Otherwise, it won’t be possible for you to have live streaming in WordPress. If you are not using any such theme, change it before you go for a WordPress live stream. 

Some WordPress themes are specially designed for live streaming. These come with a readymade interface for this sort of purpose. You can just install the theme and go for live streaming when you wish to. Video Press and Live stream are two such themes. There are some themes which can be made prepared for live streaming with some customization. However,  it is always better to have a theme specially designed for live streaming purpose. 

  • Should be well prepared on what to promote 

While live streaming is a powerful marketing tool, there are some risks in at as well. Your WordPress stream videos go live in realtime. There is no scope for editing or rechecking your content before your viewers watch it. So, be well prepared about what to promote and what to broadcast. A single mistake may cost you

During the event 

  • How to add live streaming in WordPress 

The easiest way to host live videos on your site is to use a plugin. Many WordPress live streaming plugins are available in the market. We have compiled a list of popular WordPress Live Streaming plugins. Learn More.

We will show you how to live stream videos in WordPress using a plugin called WPStream.  

Live Video Streaming Plugin for WordPress by WpStream

Here are the steps you need to follow – 

  • Go to your WordPress dashboard 
  • Install and activate the WP Stream plugin 
  • You will see a new item in your dashboard WPStream. This will work as your streaming control panel. Click on that 
You will see a new item in your dashboard WPStream
  • You can either log with your WordPress account or create a new account with the WP stream. Once you are done, the plugin will be connected to the portal.
WP Stream Credentials
  • Now to add a Live Channel click on the Add new block. Give it a name and set a featured image to make it easily recognizable and click publish.
Add New Block
  • After you publish it you’ll see a broadcast tab to the right. Click on the broadcast to channel.
Broadcast to channel
  • After a few moments, your channel will be ready to be streamed! When you click on the Start browser broadcast, it will open a new window that will ask for permission to use your camera and microphone. 
Ready to stream!
  • And there you go, you are live streaming on your website!

After the event 

After your broadcast is over, these are the things you need to do – 

  • Interact with the audience

Your purpose is to inform your audiences about some new developments or make them aware if you go for live streaming. Whether the message is delivered properly is a major concern. So, you need to interact with your audiences after a live broadcast. It will help you understand whether your purpose is served properly.  

  • Feedback 

Feedback is of great importance for the improvement of your business. It helps you identify your weak points and gives you a chance to correct your mistakes. You come to know in what way you will be able to satisfy your viewers more. So, collect feedback after broadcast. One can directly ask the viewers to leave their feedback in the comment section.  To help you we have listed out six user feedback plugins for WordPress, which can be easily found in the WordPress repository:

  • Mailers having a summary of the live stream 

If your video is useful, people will love to watch it afterward as well. There will be many such people who were interested but missed it. You can send mailers to your audiences after your live streaming is over with a summary of your video content. It will persuade people to watch it. Keep the recorded version on your website. Many new people will also take an interest in it.

Previous Ways Of Live Streaming…

Live video streaming applications like Google Hangouts On Air, Periscope, Meerkat and Blab.im are becoming extremely popular with social media users who enjoy streaming every waking moment of their lives to their followers.

But what if you want to host your live stream on your WordPress site? Well, today I am going to explain to you how to stream live videos on your WordPress site and what are the things you need to take care of.

In general, whenever there is a live event upcoming, you’ll see a lot of promotion going around. Next during the event also there are a lot of things to take care of. And once the event is complete, you hear talks about the event which are basically reviews of the event.

So, keeping that in mind, let’s split up live streaming into 3 main parts:

  1. Before the event
  2. During the event
  3. After the event

Before the event

I just want to say two words for this – Prepare and promote.

Before the event, you should be well prepared on how you’re going to conduct the event. Which platform, product or service should you use, what preparation has to be done for the live streaming. I going to explain this later in the article.

Once, you’ve decided on how you’re going to do it, next big thing is to promote it. Yes, you’d need people to view your live streaming for it to be a success. Promote it on various social media platforms (in fact on all), promote it to your mailing list or you can even have a countdown page.

All these things will help you in generating the required audience for your stream.

During the event

When the event is live, make sure your video stream works. That’s the most important thing.

Apart from that, you can check out ways through which you can stream live videos below.

Here are some ways you can stream live videos to your WordPress site.

1. Add Your Google Hangouts On Air to WordPress

Hangouts On Air allow you to broadcast your Google Hangout to the world via YouTube. It is a public video stream that can be used for many purposes, such as webinars, presentations and Q&A sessions.

According to Google, “You can share products, articles, content, and websites with viewers while in a Hangout On Air with the Showcase app. For example, you can show your audience a product you’re selling, an interesting article about your company or a link to download an app in the Google Play Store. During the broadcast, you can share links with your audience, and they can open the links without interrupting your broadcast.”

Hangouts

You can let people view a Hangout On Air from any website using the embed feature. This feature puts a video player with the Hangout On Air onto any website. Google offers detailed instructions on embedding a Hangout On Air on its website.

  • Go to your Hangout On Air
  • On the bottom right of the video call window, click Links.
  • Copy the video embed code, YouTube page URL, or Event page URL.
  • Go to the website where you’d like to stream or show the Hangout On Air.
  • Paste the code. Follow the website’s instructions on how to embed a live video player or embed another website’s link onto a page.
  • A video player with the Hangout On Air or the website link will now appear on the page.

Also check out Tom Ewer’s detailed article on setting up and embedding a Google Hangout On Air on your WordPress site. Once you setup your Hangout On Air, you can copy the embed code that Google gives you, paste it into a new WordPress post and publish it.

Once you have published your Hangouts On Air post, you can send the link to your social followers and email database announcing where and when your Hangout On Air will be live streamed.

2. Add Your Webcam Live Stream to WordPress

The VideoWhisper Live Streaming software can easily be used to add webcam live video broadcasting to WordPress, live video streams on blog pages and setup membership for accessing or broadcasting live video.

It integrates with BuddyPress and will add a Live Stream tab to the group where users can watch live video and chat real-time. Admins can broadcast anytime from Admin > Live Streaming.

VideoWhisper


The problem with this plugin is that it has special hosting requirements, which means a RTMP host is needed for persistent connections to manage live interactions and streaming.

Real Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) is a protocol for streaming audio, video and data over the Internet, between web-based Adobe Flash player application and a server. Special software is required to run on the server side for accepting and serving the RTMP connections from flash clients.

You might also require a plugin like WP Video Share / Video On Demand (VOD) to allow you to import and show archived video streams for the VideoWhisper Live Streaming channels plugin.

3. Add Free Livestream to WordPress

Using this live video streaming plugin from Hapity, you can broadcast directly across social media from your WordPress website.

You can instantly publish a live stream with just a click and share your message with the world right from your WordPress website. 

With Hapity, you get free video hosting as it hosts all your videos on its cloud storage, and there’s no need to upgrade your WordPress hosting.

Reach every audience as One-click enables you to post links to your live video streams to popular social media networks like Twitter and Facebook.

Hapity - WordPress Livestream plugin

Get started by creating your free Hapity account from their registration page

Next, install the Hapity plugin from the WordPress plugins repository.

Log in to your Hapity account and click on Settings in the top-right corner to find your Auth ID to connect your Hapity account to the plugin on your WordPress site.

Copy the Plugin ID, go to your WordPress site’s dashboard and click on the Hapity option in your WordPress dashboard sidebar.

Then, paste the Plugin ID into the Enter Your Auth ID box and click the Authenticate button. Once you activate the plugin, you should see a new set of options. By default, Hapity is Enabled as soon as you authenticate your Auth ID.

4. Add your NomadCast Live Stream to WordPress

Do you use NomadCast to live stream your videos? Use the NomadCast oEmbed plugin to add NomadCast.com to the available oEmbed providers in WordPress.

NomadCast

This plugin enables NomadCast oEmbed provider so that NomadCast videos can be embedded by just adding their URL. Simply paste a NomadCast.com video URL (either stream or recording) into the content area and the player will be embedded into your post, page or custom post type.

NomadCast Video

After the event

The process doesn’t end here. Once you’re done with the live streaming, you’ve a great opportunity to interact with your audience. Ask them to share their thoughts and thank them for watching the stream.

You may also use this time to announce a new event, probably another live stream or promote your product or service.

So, that’s how you do live streaming on a WordPress website.

This infograph summarize it for you

how-to-stream-live-videos-on-your-wordpress-site

 

Add Periscope On Air Button to your WordPress site

What is Periscope?

Stream Live Videos | Periscope

Periscope is a live video streaming application that was acquired by twitter in 2015. It enables users to stream live videos and also tweet a link to their live video. The person who is streaming the live video is called a scoper.

Twitter added the embed feature of Periscope in its WordPress plugin, which enables you to stream live videos on your WordPress website if you have installed the WordPress Twitter Plugin.

How to add Periscope on air button on WordPress?

You’ll have to first install the Twitter Plugin for WordPress.

After activating the plugin, go to Appearence>Widgets. You’ll find a widget called ‘Periscope On Air’.

Stream Live Videos | Periscope Widget

Enter the title for your widget and then add your Periscope username. You’ll be provided with an option to choose the button size, either small or large. After choosing the button size, click save.

Now go to your website homepage and you’ll see the Periscope On air widget in the sidebar. The button will change its color when you go live on Periscope.

Stream Live Videos | Periscope Button

Adding a Periscope On Air Button will help you convert your site visitors into Periscope subscribers.

How to add Periscope On Air button in your WordPress Post or Page?

You can easily display Periscope On Air button on your WordPress post or page, with this plugin. All you have to do is add you complete Periscope Profile URL and the plugin will automatically change it to a button.

You can also use a shortcode to change the button size.

[periscope_on_air username=”wpekadotcom” size=”small”]

You’ll have to replace the username and choose a button size, either large or small.

Did you like the article? Have you ever done live streaming? How was your experience? Let me know in the comments section below.

Final Thoughts..

The most important aspect of live streaming is it allows you to transmit a live event. Many times you want your community people to have a view of the happenings when some important event takes place. It can be a meeting or a guest lecture or anything. When you can not occupy everyone in the venue, live streaming lets all your community members take part in the event virtually. It is good for online discussion as well.  

The other important aspect of it is it improves viewers’ engagement. No other marketing platform will give you such a level of interaction and involvement with your target group. You can directly address your viewers and collect their feedback in real-time.

Have you live-streamed an event yet? Tell us about your experience in the comment box below…

7 Comments on “How To Stream Live Videos To Your WordPress Site

  1. Is there any way to stream video on blog with full authority in my hand without uploading it to the server? Because I don’t have such hosting where I could upload MBs & GBs of videos. I know it can be done by uploading on Youtube and embed from theme but I don’t want to use Youtube. Is there any possible way that video isn’t shared anywhere except my website?

  2. Hi Priya,
    Thank you for this post…it’s very helpful. Which options have the least amount of lag time or latency? I know Google Hangouts has about a 30-45 sec delay.
    Thanks again,
    Tammy

  3. I am wanting to live stream a HDMI output through StudioExpress on a website. Is there a way to embed the youtube channel?
    What are the up and downsides of that?

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