How to schedule and automatically start a prerecorded live event

This feature requires an Advanced or Premium plan, or an Enterprise account with the Events feature added.

Prerecorded live events allow you to pre-produce your entire virtual event without the stress of being live. Your content will play at a scheduled time without you needing to be there to start the event. This also removes the hassle of scheduling events with multiple guest speakers and allows you to host multiple events at once.

Note: The number of concurrent events varies with the subscription plan. Read more at  Simulcast concurrent events to different destinations.

In this article:

• How prerecorded events work
• Schedule and set up a prerecorded event or webinar
• Switch a scheduled prerecorded event back to manual control
• Limitations

How prerecorded events work

When creating a virtual event or webinar on ZenVideo, you can compile your pre-recorded videos into a set of scenes and set the event to start playing your selected content in the live player automatically at a scheduled time. Note that any videos you add here will playback in their entirety, so be sure to make any edits or trims needed before your event starts.

You also have the option to add live scenes after your precorded live scenes have ended, such as for a live Q&A session at the end of your event.

While your event is in prerecorded mode, you can still use audience engagement features such as chat, polls, and Q&A by adding them to a scene. 

⚠️Note: You’ll need to add these interactivity tools to a scene and then manually enable them before or during the Simulated live (or Live) scenes in order for them to appear.

The chat and Q&A can be enabled before the event goes live without a host being there during simulative, but polls need to be manually activated even during simulative as the timing of this will be important for those who want to launch polls.

💡Tip: In addition to adding any videos already on your ZenVideo account, you can start with Recording only mode to produce your prerecorded event without needing any external applications or equipment, and then configure it to go live per the instructions below.

Schedule and set up a prerecorded event or webinar

To schedule and set up a prerecorded event:

1. Create a live broadcast or select one of your live events from the events library.
   
2. In the upper right corner, open the dropdown next to Go live and select Prerecorded event.
   
3. A modal will appear prompting you to select videos for your event.
4. Select the video(s) you want to stream, then click the Add button. This will add the selected video to the event as a new scene in the Simulated live segment.
   ⚠️Note: If you click Cancel, the Simulated live segment will have an empty scene. You will have to add a video manually.
5. If you haven't already, go to Settings > Schedule and add the Start date and Time to schedule the live event to go live automatically at the set time.
6. If you want to include a live portion at the end of the simulated live event, add scenes and the desired source content to the Live segment below the player.
7. In the upper right corner, you can see a timer counting down to the scheduled time when the event will go live.
8. Prior to the start time, or during your event, you can add other features to your simulated live scenes, such as polls, and Q&A. Just as with manual events, you will need to manually show and hide these features’ overlays during your simulated live event.
9. Once live, the videos in the prerecorded live segment will play and auto-transition to the following scenes, located to the right.
   • Video scenes in a prerecorded event have the same volume and playback controls as playing back videos in a manual event.
   • If you added scenes to the Live segment, your stream will auto-transition to the first Live scene and switch your event into manual mode. You will then need to take control of your event and click End event to stop streaming.
   • If you did not add scenes to the Live segment, the event will end automatically when the video in the final scene in the prerecorded segment reaches the end.

Switch a scheduled prerecorded event back to manual control

If you planned on simulating your live event or webinar, but you end up needing to do your entire production live instead, you can always switch an event or webinar back to manual mode.

1. Click on your event in the events library.
2. In the upper right corner of the web-based production tool, click on the dropdown next to the scheduled date to open the production mode menu.
3. Select Live production.
   
4. The Prerecorded segments and Live scenes will remain in the same order but now display in a single unified section, which you will need to switch manually.
5. Your event will not start until you click the Go live button.

Limitations

• Precorded live events as described in this article are only supported when streaming via the web-based production tool, not external encoders.
• All audience engagement features such as chat, polls, and Q&A can be added at any time during the scheduled live event. 
• The prerecorded event feature is currently available only for live events and webinars. This feature is not available for venues.
• All video scenes in the prerecorded segment will auto-transition; this cannot be changed.  
• If you select the start time of the scheduled live event that is under 1 minute, the scheduled live event/webinar will not work.
• The time zone on the Event settings is displayed according to the event creator's browser’s timezone information.
  • Viewers who see the live event before the start of the broadcast will see the start time automatically converted into their local timezone based on their browser's timezone information.