Sometimes an article or slideshow just won't cut it. Live streaming is one solution to cover news and sports that gives your viewers a more familiar, easy-to-digest representation of what you have to say. Currently there aren't a ton of free options out there, but we've tested a few and have listed them below. Give each a shot and find the one that works for you!
- YouTube Live Stream and Event Schedule is a trusted way to broadcast your events. It does take some setup and some savvy, so if you're committed and have some time, it's a great option. You'll first need a YouTube channel. Once you've setup your channel it'll need to be verified. Then, enable live streaming from Creator Studio tools --> Live Streaming. Once enabled, you have two options to start live streaming on YouTube. The most straightforward method is to just copy and paste the embed code like you would a normal YouTube video.
- YouTube has an easy, instant way to start streaming now. Start sending content - they'll automatically start and stop the stream for you. This is the embed code method.
- You can also schedule a live event. Preview before going live, change privacy settings, setup a backup for redundancy and manually start & stop. Here's the YouTube Live Streaming setup page where you can follow all the steps along the right to set up your options. To learn more you can also review their FAQ.Finally, you can also use a plugin to help integrate your streams called YouTube Live Stream Auto Embed. This plugin provides a shortcode to automatically embed the latest video or current live stream of a specified YouTube channel including Google Hangouts OnAir.
- The Cube (formerly SchoolCube) makes it super easy to record events LIVE to the cloud and share instantly, especially by using their app where all you need to do is Tap, Stream and Share. The first step in setup is registering your account, which you can do by installing the app on your iPhone or Android device. You can also click here to register through their main site. Once registered you get access to more features and a personalized experience of events that matter to you. Once you've registered and installed the app you can begin to record your events or stories. Each video will be shareable and you'll want to look for the embed code, which you can then place on your site just like any other embed. Here's their help site and FAQ.
- Periscope is a Twitter owned mobile-based live streaming service that broadcasts temporary videos to your followers for a 24-hour time period. There's not a lot of integration for WordPress sites as of yet, but we've found a couple of options to get people viewing. First you'll want to download the app to your smartphone for iOS or Android. You'll need a Twitter account to setup your Periscope account. Follow the steps to create your account, login, and begin broadcasting your video.The two options for integrating Periscope into your WordPress site are: 1. Displaying an On-Air button or link on your site indicating that you're live. You can do this using the Twitter plugin solution, which you can learn about here. Or using shortcodes, which you can learn about here. 2. Using the Twitter feed option to embed your videos in your Twitter stream. You'll want to have embedded your Twitter feed somewhere on your site for this to work. Once you have a new video, share it on your Twitter and it'll show up on your site with the video. Click here to learn more about this option.