This feature requires an Advanced or Premium plan, or an Enterprise account with the Events feature added.
To stream live video in up to 1080p HD using Vimeo, you need a camera, microphone, and an Advanced or Enterprise plan on Vimeo. This article will take you through setting up an event and going live on Vimeo.
The Advanced plan allows you to stream up to two (2) events concurrently. If you need more than two concurrent streams, please contact our sales team.
In this article:
- Create your event on Vimeo
- How to reuse settings for a live event
- Event settings
- Player settings
- Stream with your browser
- Stream with an encoder
- Live features
- What is the expected latency?
- Ending your stream
Create your event on Vimeo
To go live, you will first need to create an event on Vimeo. To get started, follow the instructions below:
- Go to your Library and select Create event from the New video dropdown.
- You will be redirected to a new page where you can choose your event type. Choose Live broadcast to get started.
- For a new event, choose Set up from scratch to get started. If you have already created an event you can choose to Reuse settings to save time.
- On the next page you can configure your event’s broadcast method (encoder or browser), latency, and other optional features (chat and automatic closed captions).
- Select Next to move on to your event details. Enter a title, description, and event start and end times.
💡Tip: A countdown will automatically appear on the player 60 minutes prior to the scheduled start time. -
If your event will repeat in the future, toggle on Recurring event and select which days of the week if applicable.
- Choose the privacy settings for your event link and embed privacy.
- Select Create to save your event. From here you can get the stream key if needed.
⚠️Note: Scheduling your live event for a specific date and time is optional and meant to be informational for your viewers; there is currently no way to automatically start your stream at a scheduled time. If you want to stream pre-recorded videos at a specific time, you can schedule it for a later date and time as explained in the Simulated live events article.
How to reuse settings for a live event
Instead of starting from scratch each time you make a new event, you have the option to Reuse settings from any existing event in your Library.
Go to your Library and select Create event from the New video dropdown and then Reuse settings.
A modal will appear where you can choose from your existing events and review their settings:
Once you have chosen which event you would like to copy, you can edit the settings as needed. Select Next and then Create to complete your event setup.
Event settings
After you have created your event, you can access all settings on the event page. See below if you are streaming with an encoder or visit How to navigate the web-based production tool to learn more about streaming from your browser.
Select the gear icon on the left of the screen to open the Settings panel. Within Settings, you will find the following:
Basics
- Edit the title of your event
- Edit the description of your event
Privacy
- Select the overall privacy setting for your event
- Choose where your event can be embedded and add specific domains
- Select a content rating
- Indicate if your event includes an advertisement
Schedule
- Edit event start and end dates and times
- Indicate whether your event is recurring and set dates for it to recur
Production
- Choose the broadcast method of your event
- Choose latency for your event
- Toggle on and off Automatic closed captions
- Add keywords in advance to assist in automatic speech detection (i.e. products, names, and terms that will be mentioned during your event)
- Toggle on and off Simulated live and add videos
Destination
- Choose simulcasting destinations for your event
Player settings
Select the Player button from the lefthand panel and then Customize player to access appearance settings and determine what plays before your event.
Stream with your browser
When you select Stream with your browser, your camera will be activated and automatically added to a scene, allowing you to begin streaming directly from your desktop browser provided it supports WebRTC protocol (we recommend Chrome 58+, but both Firefox 56+ and Safari 12+ support WebRTC as well).
When streaming via this method, you can also invite guests to join with their webcams and share their screens, playback videos from your account in your stream, and create and switch to other scenes, among most other features available with RTMP with some exceptions:
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- While you can monitor your connection, more specific real-time stream metrics are currently only available when streaming via RTMP.
- Live analytics are currently not shown while streaming.
- Simulcast destinations can only be configured before your event goes live.
- Learn more about navigating our web-based production tool.
When you’re ready to go live, click Go live in the upper right corner. Your stream will be live.
Note: When you go to a live event go past the events settings and enter the events manage production side, an ingest streaming session is provisioned for the user to stream to. You have 30 minutes to stream to the event before this provision of the streaming session expires.
If you sit on the event’s production management page and do not stream to the event there will be a pop-up that asks if you are still there at the 30-minute mark. If you say yes, there will be a provision for another streaming session for the user to stream to for the event.
Stream with an encoder
If you are using an external encoder, you’ll be brought to the live preview page, where you can get the stream URL and key for your encoder and monitor your stream on Vimeo.
Note that there is also a Preview toggle; selecting this will send a low-latency stream to a preview player first allowing you to confirm your stream’s health before pushing your event live to your audience. This is off by default and would need to be configured for each event.
Copy and paste the RTMPS URL and Stream Key into the corresponding fields in your broadcast encoder.
Note: If your encoder does not support RTMPS, click Copy RTMP URL below the RTMPS field instead to copy the standard RTMP URL.
When your event is ready to start, begin streaming from your encoder (if you enabled preview, you will then need to click Go Live on the live preview page).
Your stream signal will be broadcast live to your viewers, regardless of the status of your webcam and the browser encoder. We recommend starting a local recording of your stream from within your encoder at this point as well, just in case of any problems with your internet connection.
Live features
Here’s an overview of what you’ll be able to manage before and during your stream, regardless of your streaming method.
Chat
The Chat panel on the right is where you can enable, disable, and monitor your event's live chat. You can post messages and emojis during the stream from the Chat option. You can also disable it or export a transcript as a .txt file. Chat transcripts are available to download for 30 days.
If you are streaming via the browser to a recurring event or webinar, there is also a Speakers chat panel where you can interact with your guest speakers internally.
Auto CC
The Auto CC tab allows you to enable automatic closed captioning for your event, making it more accessible to a wider audience. You can also input custom words such as people's names or technical jargon to ensure they are captioned correctly.
Polls
You can create a poll for your viewers to vote on with the option of a correct answer.
Q&A
In addition to Chat and Polls, you can host a Q&A on your event when viewers can post questions and vote for questions they like. Note that moderating questions–that is, approving which questions get displayed for your audience–are available with an Enterprise plan.
Graphics
Create basic graphics overlays for your stream directly from the live preview page including lower thirds, full screens, and logos.
Stream health
Once you’re broadcasting, you can monitor the stability of your stream.
What is the expected latency?
Stream latency varies greatly depending on network connection speed and stream health (bitrate, resolution, etc.). Learn more about available latency options at About latency for live broadcasts.
Ending your stream
To end a stream, click End on the top right corner of the Live Preview or web-based production tool on Vimeo. Ending your stream will trigger the final stages of the video archiving process. You can then end the stream from your external encoder if you are using one.
When your stream ends, your live settings page also changes to the post-live version. The indicator at the top changes to Offline and your video preview will now link to your archived video’s settings page.
Once your video has gone through the archival process, it appears in your video manager like any other video.
Additional notes
- Ending stream via external encoder: If you’re streaming via an external encoder and you end the stream from your encoder first, this will trigger our 5-minute reconnection window which is meant to allow users to reconnect to the same event if the stream is interrupted. If you wish to start a new stream to the same recurring event, be sure to click that End event button before starting a new stream. Alternatively, wait 5 minutes before starting a new stream from your encoder.
- 4K video in archive: While we do not ingest 4K video, you can replace the Vimeo archive of your broadcast with your higher-resolution version (e.g. 2K or 4K) once it's been archived. You can replace the video anytime without impacting your analytics, so feel free to edit the video file before replacing it on Vimeo.
- Ending recurring events: When you stream to a recurring event the first time, the next start date will automatically adjust to when the previous stream ended. Unfortunately, there is no way to manually change this at this time; consider editing your title to include your broadcast date instead.