How to host and stream paid online events?

In terms of quarantine, there was a transformation of many people’s activities into online mode. First of all, it is distant work and learning, besides, it is the online consultations of specialists in different fields, from doctors to lawyers. Everyone transfers their business online if possible. It was the reason why we decided to help our clients to arrange their events to be broadcast online. So for a short period of time, we developed an opportunity of holding online events.

Which types of events can online broadcasts be suitable for?

It seems to us that online events are suitable for many of our clients but not to all, of course. It‘s difficult to imagine an online rock concert because of its atmosphere created by the fans. But we fully rely on event organizers who can decide which event can be held online.

Speaking about concerts, we can easily imagine online stand up comedies, jazz concerts or performances of small theatre groups. Apart from concerts and performances, seminars and consultations can also be held online.

Is it difficult to arrange an online broadcast of the event?

During the development of this new functionality, we conducted several dozens of test broadcasts and made sure that their organizing was not difficult. You can even broadcast the event online from your smartphone by installing a special application. Of course, the quality of such a broadcast depends on the capabilities of your smartphone and the speed of your Internet connection. Setting up an application on your smartphone or computer program with which you can broadcast online consists in copying two parameters that you can get in our system. Be sure that it takes you no more than 2 minutes. Below we will give a detailed description of online broadcast settings with examples.

What is the procedure of tickets selling for the event online broadcast?

The process of ordinary online ticket buying differs only in one thing: instead of PDF file containing tickets, the buyer gets links which he can use later to watch the online broadcast of the event. Before the broadcast beginning, the buyer follows a link to the page where the countdown to the event is displayed. Thus when the broadcast starts, a video window automatically appears on the page, which the user must launch to start viewing. If the buyer decides to send the link to someone else, our system will recognize it and finishes broadcast for this person, as the video is available to watch only for one person, and it will be the one who is the last to open the page with the video. The buyer is warned about it via a message that he sees on the video page.

What will the preparation for the event online broadcast start with?

To start with you should register on mux.com service which provides you with all the necessary tools for working with streaming video. We have chosen this very service for holding online broadcasts as it provides good quality of the image and is very easy to set up. In addition, this service allows five minutes of free test broadcasts, which is very important in order to properly configure the broadcasts and make sure that the viewers will receive quality content.

After registration, you should get test keys, which can be used for setting up and testing online broadcasts. This process is described on page https://docs.mux.com/docs. After getting the keys, they should be entered on the video settings page of our online ticket selling system.

On this stage settings are done, you may pass to creating an online event.

How to create an online event?

After this in the event list there will appear a new button that allows getting the parameters for holding the broadcast. 

While pushing the icon with a video camera you appear to be on the page where you can copy 2 parameters necessary for starting video broadcast.

The first parameter is the address the video will be transmitted to, and the second one is the secret key for video transferring. They should be copied and pasted into the program that will hold broadcast.

What programs and applications can be installed for the online broadcast of the event?

We can recommend a program called OBS Studio for broadcasting from your computer. Besides being cross-platform and free, this program is also very easy to set up. To start the broadcast you should go to the settings and enter the two parameters we wrote above, namely the server address and the broadcast key.

You can start the test broadcast after that.

How to check the broadcast quality?

To check the quality of the broadcast you can go to mux.com, login and watch your own online broadcast there. To watch the test video on the event page, just like a ticket buyer will see it, you should make a test order, transfer it to the paid status and receive an email with a link to watch the video broadcast of your event. To get the links, you should insert the tag {VIDEO_LINK} in the e-mail template that the user receives after the successful payment of the order. This tag will be automatically replaced by a list of links, depending on how many tickets the user bought. After clicking on the link, you will see the video of your test broadcast.

What else should you know before starting the online broadcast of your event?

1. To make the broadcast better you should use the most powerful computer you have at your disposal. Broadcasts from outdated computers and smartphones can be quite poor.
2. Take care of the high-speed internet. Broadcasts from your smartphone over mobile Internet are possible, but you need to be sure that the Internet signal is stable and you have enough battery power.
3. Warn users to apply the most advanced gadgets whenever possible, this will reduce the possibility of broadcast problems and provide good image and sound quality.
4. When the broadcast is complete, go to the event list and click the End Broadcast button on the Video Management page. That allows you to notify users that the broadcast is finished.

Can I get advice and assistance with online broadcast settings?

You can contact our support team for getting advice on how to set up an online broadcast of your events. If necessary, we can set up online broadcasts ourselves, with the exception of setting up video equipment that must be at the venue.