Restream account
Go to restream.io/login and set up your account. Restream offers a free plan to start streaming your webinars to social media, which is an excellent option to start with.
Download OBS
Once you have set up your Restream account, you need to connect it to OBS, a free streaming encoder. If you’re new to OBS, we advise you to check out this article first. You can download OBS for free here.
Connecting Restream to OBS
Follow these steps to connect Restream to OBS:
In OBS, go to 'Settings'
Navigate to 'Stream' > 'Service.
Select 'Restream.io' from the drop down menu.
4. Here you will find the options ‘Connect Account (recommended)’ or ‘Use Stream Key’.
5. Select ‘Connect Account’ and log in to your Restream account on the next screen. Make sure that the server is set to ‘Autodetect’.
6. Press ‘OK’.
You will now see 3 new windows pop up in OBS. We can now start adding channels.
Adding channels to Restream
Go to Restream and login to your account. You’ll see a few options to start streaming on the left of your Restream dashboard. Follow the steps:
To stream your webinar to social media, select: ‘Setup For OBS, Zoom, etc.’
Next, you will enter the streaming dashboard. This is where you can add all the social media channels you want to stream to.
On the left side of the screen, you’ll see your streaming details. On the right side, you can see how to add ‘Destinations’ (social media platforms).
Think about what kind of webinar content you want to stream to social media. Learn more about what content to stream to which channel in this blog post.
2. Click on ‘+ Add Channel’ under ‘Destinations’ to add social media channels.
3. Click on the social media channel logos to add the channel to your stream destination and log in to your social media channel to activate the connection.
4. Once you have added a channel a toggle will appear on the right. This toggle enables the streaming to that channel so make sure that it’s on.
5. Allow Restream to access your channel.
Make sure an event has already been created if you are going to stream on LinkedIn or Facebook, enabling you to stream live in the right event. This also allows you to advertise the stream in advance.
Don’t forget to fill in a proper title for your stream back in Restream, otherwise the stream won’t load.
Adding custom RTMP channel
Please note! Custom RTMP is a premium function in Restream, you need a Standard subscription for this. To use RTMP in WebinarGeek, you’ll need a Premium plan + (RTMP) add-on or have an Enterprise plan.
To add a custom RTMP channel, follow the steps:
Press ‘Add channel’ and click on ‘Custom RTMP’ at the bottom left.
2. Insert the RTMP URL and stream key from your webinar in WebinarGeek and select ‘Use authentication’.
3. Fill in the username and password fields and click on ‘Add Channel’.
Please note! Once your toggles are activated and you’re ready to stream, make sure to check if your webinar has started in WebinarGeek as well. Since you connected WebinarGeek with Restream via Custom RTMP, this should be the case. If not, start the webinar in WebinarGeek.
You are now ready to livestream your webinar to all your social media platforms simultaneously. Make sure you select the ‘OBS Virtual Cam’ in your WebinarGeek live environment in order to do so.
In OBS, click on ‘Start Virtual Camera’ and you’ll see that your webinar is live on the channels that you toggled on.
Finally, a few things to think about when streaming your webinar content to social media:
Moderators
You are streaming the content in OBS to social media. That means that your audience on social media will not see the chat messages that are sent during the live webinar in WebinarGeek. Make sure your moderator also engages in the chat and/or comments section of the event on social media.
Video injection and interactions
As mentioned, the audience on social media will only see the content and camera input from OBS. Video injections and interactions will therefore not be visible on social media. We advise to load videos as separate scenes in OBS.