In the article on Configuring a Live Stream , we covered how you set up a live stream inside the SparqFest platform. That, however, is only half the equation. The other half is pointing your live streaming source to your streaming platform so viewers can watch it.

The details differ from tool-to-tool, but the basics are the same. You take the RTMP URL and RTMP key from your streaming platform and enter it into the streaming tool. This article shows how to configure several common tools for SparqFest as the streaming platform. This basic approach is the similar, however, for streaming tools not listed as well as other streaming platforms.

Tool Configuration

We cover Zoom, OBS, and the ATM Mini Pro in this article. Other tools should operate in a similar fashion.

Zoom

The free Zoom account does not allow direct live streaming. You need some other software or hardware to make that happen. If, however, you have the right paid version of Zoom and all you want to do is send the Zoom session as your live stream, then all you need is Zoom.

First, you must enable live streaming of your meetings in Zoom.

In Zoom, click on your profile and select "Settings" and look for the "In Meeting (Advanced)" configuration option. You need to set "Allow Live Streaming Meetings" to on and check all of the boxes associated with it.

Now that you can live stream, you need to point Zoom to SparqFest. After the Zoom meeting starts, go into the meeting control panel, click "More", and select "Live on Custom Live Streaming Service". Zoom will then ask you for a streaming URL and streaming key. That is what we call an RTMP URL and RTMP key, respectively. Enter those values from the SparqFest live stream into their corresponding Zoom fields and save.

OBS

The rest of this section is going to seem a little redundant. In OBS, you will click on the "Settings" button and select "Stream" on the left side of the settings panel. 

You will select "Custom" as the service and enter your SparqFest RTMP URL and RTMP key into the "Server" and "Stream" key fields.

Once you've done that, you can click "OK" on the settings panel and begin streaming.

In our experience, OBS can hang if you accidentally enter the wrong information. If that happens, quit out of OBS and try again.

ATEM Mini Pro

Our recommendation for live streaming is the ATEM Mini Pro because a) it works just like a TV master control setup and b) its resources are dedicated 100% to live streaming your event (unlike your laptop or desktop). Unfortunately, it requires a little bit of editing XML files to get configured.

To configure the ATEM Mini Pro, you hook it up to your laptop and use the ATEM Software Control app to set up the live stream configuration. Before you do this, however, you will have to edit the "Streaming.xml" file in your Blackmagic directory. We strongly suggest making a backup copy before editing that file.

MacOS: /Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/Switchers/Streaming.xml

Windows: C:\Program Files (x86)\Blackmagic Design\Blackmagic ATEM Switchers\ATEM Software Control\Streaming.xml

Find a space between two <service> entries and add this one:

<service>
	<name>SparqFest</name>
	<servers>
		<server>
			<name>Default</name>
			<url>rtmp://rtmp-url-from-sparqfest</url>
		</server>
	</servers>
	<profiles>
		<profile>
			<name>Streaming High</name>
			<config resolution="1080p" fps="60">
				<!-- profile used for 1080p50/59/60 -->
				<bitrate>9000000</bitrate>
				<!-- video bitrate in bits per second -->
				<audio-bitrate>128000</audio-bitrate>
				<!-- audio bitrate in bits per second -->
			</config>
			<config resolution="1080p" fps="30">
				<!-- profile used for 1080p23/24/25/29/30 -->
				<bitrate>6000000</bitrate>
				<audio-bitrate>128000</audio-bitrate>
			</config>
		</profile>
		<profile>
			<name>Streaming Medium</name>
			<config resolution="1080p" fps="60"> 
				<bitrate>7000000</bitrate>
				<audio-bitrate>128000</audio-bitrate>
			</config>
			<config resolution="1080p" fps="30"> 
				<bitrate>4500000</bitrate>
				<audio-bitrate>128000</audio-bitrate>
			</config>
		</profile>
		<profile>
			<name>Streaming Low</name>
			<config resolution="1080p" fps="60"> 
				<bitrate>4000000</bitrate>
				<audio-bitrate>128000</audio-bitrate>
			</config>
			<config resolution="1080p" fps="30"> 
				<bitrate>3000000</bitrate>
				<audio-bitrate>128000</audio-bitrate>
			</config>
		</profile>
	</profiles>
</service>

Obviously, you should enter the RTMP URL from the SparqFest platform in this code in place of the placeholder.

Now, start up the control software. Once in the software, select the "Live Stream" panel under "Output" on the right hand side. You should now see a SparqFest option in your "Platform" list. Select SparqFest and enter your RTMP key where it says "Key". When you are ready to start broadcasting, click the "On Air button.

Which Tool Should You Use?

There's a strong tendency to try to live stream cheaply and assume that the core issue is bandwidth. Though bandwidth matters, the thing that will kill you is the power of your CPU. Our recommendation is to use dedicated hardware like a Blackmagic ATEM Mini rather than trying to use software on your laptop or desktop.

While a core components of your live streaming strategy is likely to be Zoom, that does not mean that Zoom is the software you use for live streaming. Make sense? You see, you can either directly from Zoom, or use other tools that will make your Zoom meeting just one of many inputs that they will stream. In other words, just because you have a Zoom meeting does not mean you have to (or even should) use Zoom for streaming.

Zoom works best only if you have the paid version of Zoom and you are looking to use SparqFest as a gatekeeper for the general public. If you want to mix in any other content, you should use something else. OBS is a great, free software option. The downside of OBS is that it has a learning curve to it and is very resource-intensive. You need a powerful machine to succeed with it.

In our festivals, we use an ATEM Mini. Specifically, the ATEM Mini Pro ISO.