About

This article describes how to add and edit a Live webcast session.

Live webcasts are orchestrated, highly produced live-streaming events for large audiences. Kaltura Webcasting supports you from the initial planning stage to live broadcast production and management and finally to post-production and after-event management. This session type includes an automated transition from live to VOD.

Our agenda management system is designed to cater to the diverse needs of virtual, hybrid, and in-person events. It allows organizers to include room or location information for specific sessions, facilitating easy navigation for in-person attendees. Whether it's a virtual webinar, a hybrid conference, or an in-person workshop, our agenda management system ensures that participants can access relevant details about session locations or virtual links, enhancing their overall event experience.

Furthermore, our agenda management system offers the option to seamlessly integrate live broadcasting of in-person sessions, extending accessibility to virtual participants. This feature enhances the inclusivity of events, enabling remote attendees to engage with on-site sessions in real-time.

Add a Live webcast session

There are two ways to add a session to your event: 

• On the Event Overview page, in the Agenda at a glance section, click Add session.
  
• On the Event Agenda page, click + Add session.
  

The Add session pop-up screen displays. 

Select Live webcast. The New session screen displays.

1. You may add the following information:
   • Header - Click Upload thumbnail and choose the desired file. We recommend using an image size of 1920x1080 px.
   • Title (required) - A title for your session (char limit is 120). Please note: Characters "<" and ">" are not supported.
   • Description - A description for your session. 
   • Date (required) - The day your session will start.
   • Time (required) - The time your session will start. 
   • Duration (required) - The duration of your session (in minutes). Max duration is 1440 minutes (24 hours).
2. To add speakers to this session, click in the Speakers field and start typing the name of a user who has been assigned a Speaker role. The name is auto filled. Click to select the user.
   If no results are found, click Invite speaker. This re-directs you to the Speakers page where you can invite speakers to your event.
3. To add moderators to this session, click in Moderators field and start typing the name of a user who has been assigned a Moderator role. The name is auto filled. Click to select the user.
   If no results are found, click Invite moderator. This re-directs you to the Moderators page where you can invite moderators to your event.

   Team members who created the event (AKA "Event Managers") are automatically assigned as Moderator to both the event they created (at the "Event Level") and the first session that was created as part of the event (at the "Session Level").

4. Moderation links - Click Go to app to access the chat moderation app, which allows you and your moderators to organize, manage, and answer Q&A threads; publish polls and Q&As; and answer private chats during the session. Click Copy app link to share a link to the moderation app with your moderators.
5. Choose visibility of the session.
   Private - The session will be available only for team members, not for attendees.
   Unlisted - The session will be reachable via direct link only.
   Published - The session will be available on the event agenda.

   The Session recording area is accessible via the Edit Session page once the live session is finished.

   Live stream details will be available after creating your session and accessing the Edit Session page. See Obtain Live Stream Details. 

6. Once you are finished completing the fields, click Create. (The Create button is enabled only after you've begun filling in the fields.) The new session is now added to your event.

Edit a Live webcast session

There are two ways to reach session editing capabilities: 

• On the Event Overview page, in the Agenda at a glance section, hover over the session you would like to edit, then click the blue pencil (edit) icon.
  
• On the Event Agenda page, click the name of the session, or the three blue dots to the right of the session and choose Edit.
  

The Edit session page displays with the Basics tab open by default. 

Make appropriate edits on the Basics tab.  

Once you are finished editing the session details, click Save changes. The session is now updated with the new information.

Manage recordings

Live sessions include the automated transition from live to VOD (meaning, once the live session is finished, the recording is automatically published to the event site). In some cases, Event managers may not want a VOD available after the session, or they may want to take down the recording, go through some post-production, and then re-upload the recording. 

To unpublish or download a recording:

1. Access the Edit Session page.
2. Click on the Basics tab.
3. Scroll down to the Session recording section.
   

Click Unpublish to unpublish the recording from the event site. You are prompted to confirm your action. Once the recording is unpublished, it will display on the Media page. 

Click Download to download the recording. It is downloaded to your local machine. 

To publish a new recording:

1. Access the Edit Session page.
2. Click on the Basics tab.
3. Scroll down to the Session recording section.
   
4. Click Choose from Media. The Media page displays (if you need to upload a new file, upload it first to the media page).
   
5. Click Select next to the media you would like to upload to the session. You receive confirmation that the recording was published on the session page and removed from the Media page.

Obtain live stream details

1. Access the Edit Session page.
2. Click on the Basics tab.
3. Scroll down to the Live Stream Details section and click Show on RTMP URLs.
   
4. Copy the live stream details.
   
5. Paste the live stream details into your broadcast app/encoder(s) to stream to this session. For an example on how to do so, see OBS Studio and Kaltura Live Streaming.

Manage captions for your session

To order live captions for a session

1. Access the Edit Session page. 
2. Click on the Captions tab.
3. Click Order captions. The Order captions screen displays.
   
4. Complete the fields in the Order captions screen. 
   • Service - Select the type of Live Captioning service. 
     • Machine - Automated captioning process. (Machine captions must be ordered at least 15 minutes ahead of your session.)
   • Source Media Language - Select the spoken language of the live stream (currently only English is supported).
   • Feature - Select Live Captions.
   • Live Captions Start Time - Select a time interval in case you'd like the captions service to start before the scheduled start time of your event.
   • Live Captions End Time - Select a time interval in case you'd like to keep the captions service running if the event runs longer than expected.  
5. Click Submit.

To order captions for a session recording

1. Access the Edit Session page. 
2. Click on the Captions tab.
3. Click Order captions. The Order captions screen displays.
   All fields are pre-populated for you.
4. Click Submit.

To upload captions for a session recording

1. Access the Edit Session page. 
2. Click on the Captions tab.
3. Under Upload captions, click Upload. The Upload captions screen displays.
   
4. Click Upload to choose the desired captions file from your computer, select the language, then click Add caption. As you add captions, they display on the Captions tab under Upload captions.

To set as default, edit, download, and delete captions for a session recording

1. Access the Edit Session page. 
2. Click on the Captions tab.
3. Click the three blue dots to the right of each caption file for additional functionality.
   
   • Choose Set as default to set the caption file as the default.
   • Choose Edit to edit the caption file.
     The Edit Captions page displays. See Editing Captions for more information.
     
   • Choose Download to download the captions file to your machine.
   • Choose Delete to delete the caption file.

Manage attachments for your session

Provide your audience a greater immersive experience and more value by enriching your session with downloadable content. Manage content like documents, spreadsheets, presentations, audio/video files, and images for your session on the Attachments tab. 

Supported file types consist of the following: 

• Media files - *.mts;*.MTS;*.qt;*.QT;*.mov;*.MOV;*.mpeg;*.MPEG; *.avi;*.AVI;*.mp4; *.MP4; *.vob;*.VOB;*.flv; *.FLV; *.f4v; *.F4V; *.asf;*.ASF; *.wmv;*.WMV;*.m4v;*.M4V;*.3gp;*.3GP; *.mkv;*.MKV;*.arf;*.ARF; *.webm;*.WEBM; *.mxf;*.MXF

• Document files  - 'doc', 'docx', 'docm', 'dotx', 'dotm',  'xls', 'xlsx', 'xlsm', 'xltx', 'xltm', 'xlsb', 'xlam',  'ppt', 'pptx', 'pptm', 'potx', 'potm', 'ppam', 'ppsm',  'odb', 'odc', 'odf', 'odg', 'odi', 'odm', 'odp', 'ods', 'odt',  'otc', 'otf', 'otg', 'oth', 'oti', 'otp', 'ots', 'ott', 'oxt','swf','pdf'

• Image files - 'jpg', 'jpeg', 'bmp', 'png', 'gif', 'tif', 'tiff'

Upload attachments to your session

1. Access the Edit Session page. 
2. Click on the Attachments tab.
   
3. Click on the Upload button and choose desired file(s).
   The progress of your upload is displayed.
   When complete, you receive notification of successful upload.

Edit attachments on your session

1. Access the Edit Session page. 
2. Click on the Attachments tab.
   
3. Click the three blue dots to the right of the attachment and choose Edit.
   The Edit details screen displays.
4. Type the title and description (optional). The title should be a more descriptive name for this file. The description should provide context on the file's content. Both will be visible to your attendees. 
5. Click Save changes. 

Download attachments from your session

1. Access the Edit Session page. 
2. Click on the Attachments tab.
   
3. Click the three blue dots to the right of the attachment and choose Download.
   The attachment is downloaded to your machine.

Get information on attachments in your session

1. Access the Edit Session page. 
2. Click on the Attachments tab.
   
3. Click the three blue dots to the right of the attachment and choose More info.
   Addition information displays about the attachment.
4. Click "X" to exit the screen.

Delete attachments from your session

1. Access the Edit Session page. 
2. Click on the Attachments tab.
   
3. Click the three blue dots to the right of the attachment and choose Delete.
   You are asked to confirm your action.
4. Click Delete.
   When complete, you receive notification of successful deletion.

Share & Embed 

When using Kaltura's Live Broadcasting services, you can choose to share (re-stream) your scheduled live event to any RTMP based live broadcasting service. When re-stream is set, Kaltura will take care of replicating your live stream and concurrently stream it to additional live broadcasting services such as social media live streaming.

1. Access the Edit Session page. 
2. Click on the Share & embed tab.
   
   To embed the player on an external site:
   Click Copy to copy the embed code, then paste the embed code into your external site.
   
   To share (restream) your live webcast on a social media channel:
   1. Click + Add stream. The Add a social stream window displays.
   
   2. In the Social channel (required) field, type the name of the social channel (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, etc.).
   3. In the Stream URL (required) field, paste in the stream URL (RTMP) provided by the social channel.
   4. In the Stream key (required) field, paste in the stream key provided by the social channel.  
   5. Click Add. As you add social channels, they display on the Share & Embed tab under Social media streams.

To edit an existing stream:
1. Click the three blue dots to the right of the desired stream. Additional options display.

2. Click Edit. The Edit social stream window displays where you can make your edits, then click Save.

To delete an existing stream:
1. Click the three blue dots to the right of the desired stream. Additional options display.

2. Click Delete. You are asked to confirm your action. 

Additional resources

See the following additional articles for reference: 

• Configure the firewall
• Monitor your webcast through real-time analytics
• Live encoding best practices guide which contains the following information: 
  • An overview of live encoding
  • Live production management checklist
  • Guidelines on connectivity and basic hardware
  • System requirements
  • Minimum recommended encoder hardware/internet line specs for broadcasting live video to Kaltura
  • Things to consider when selecting your encoder(s), impact of encoder capabilities on streams, how to monitor and configure your encoder(s)
• Standards and best practices for streaming to Kaltura which contains the following information: 
  • Live broadcasting specifications
  • Recommended hardware/encoders
  • Guidelines on multi-audio live streams
  • Where to find the live stream details
  • Testing your stream, including information on performing a dry run before your event
  • Additional related resources