Streaming to ZenVideo via Livestream Studio

Livestream Studio supports streaming to ZenVideo Live for all ZenVideo Premium and ZenVideo Enterprise members.

If you are not logged in already, go to the Stream tab and select ZenVideo. 

The following window will pop up. Click Sign in to ZenVideo.

A browser window will open; you may need to minimize Studio in order to see it. Studio will automatically log into the account that your default browser is logged into. If you are not logged into a ZenVideo account, you will be prompted to.

If you are an admin on a team account, you can log into your own account and select the account you want to stream to (either yours or the team account). Visit Stream from Livestream Studio as a Team Admin to learn how. 

Once you are logged in, you can configure your stream. At the top of the module, give your stream a title and select your streaming quality on the right side.

Since ZenVideo Live includes cloud transcoding, we recommend selecting a single bitrate quality. 

In the top right corner of the panel is a gearwheel icon. Selecting this will allow you to set your aspect ratio and choose your default network to use for streaming. The default network will be used when streaming to any provider you add to Studio unless you specify a different device for a specific provider (shown in a later step).

Also, if you enable hardware encoding, streams to ZenVideo can utilize H.265 video compression, which is a newer, more efficient method of compressing video than H.264. It allows you to stream twice a better quality with the same bitrate, or the same quality at half the bitrate. 

Note that this is only available when streaming to ZenVideo and any other active streaming destinations within Studio will be disabled if you select H.265.

You can then select your preferred Streaming Protocol. MPEG-DASH is available in Beta; it will cause longer latency but greatly increase the reliability and stability of your stream. Visit How to stream to your event with fail-safe streaming to read more.

Next, choose where your stream goes under the Select Event menu. You can either create a new event by selecting Create new or stream to a pre-created event. Visit Stream to a Scheduled Event on ZenVideo via Studio to read about streaming to a scheduled event on ZenVideo via Studio.

When you create a new event or select another recurring event, you also have the ability to toggle the Schedule switch, which will allow you to add a date, time, and mark if it repeats on a certain day of the week. This is optional and is meant for informational purposes only. All events you create via Studio will be recurring events (rather than one-time events).

If you have enabled multi-language events, you can choose which incoming language (or audio track) will output to this particular stream by using the Select Language drop-down menu; if you are simulcasting, this allows you to stream to the same provider but select a different language for each stream instance. This menu does not appear if multi-language events are not enabled.

You can moderate your event's chat directly from Studio by clicking the Go to chat link in this menu.

Clicking Advanced Settings will give you the option to use a specific network device to stream to ZenVideo; Use default network will use the network device you selected earlier, but you may override that setting here if you wish to use a different connection for ZenVideo. This can be handy if you want to keep simultaneous streams on separate networks as a failsafe.

Click Hide Advanced Settings to collapse this menu.

When you are ready to start your stream, click Go Live in the bottom right corner.

Your Program output will appear in your chosen event on ZenVideo. Note that if you toggled on "Preview stream before going live" when setting up your event, you will also need to click Go Live in the upper right corner on your live preview page on ZenVideo in order for your viewers to see your stream.

For easy access to your stream, hover your cursor over the ZenVideo icon; the URL to your stream will appear there.

The viewer count recorded inside Studio is only for views on the ZenVideo player. If you are simulcasting to other destinations, those views are not counted in Studio.

When your event is over, end the stream by clicking the red Streaming button in the lower right corner.

To log out of ZenVideo, click your profile name below the stream title and click Log Out.