Live stream a video meeting

This feature is available with the G Suite Enterprise, G Suite Enterprise for Education editions and is coming soon to G Suite Enterprise Essentials. For details, see Compare G Suite editions.

On 30 September 2020, all G Suite customers have free access to advanced Google Meet video conference features, such as larger meetings (up to 250 participants), live streaming and recording. After 30 September, Google Meet feature availability will be determined by the customer's G Suite license agreement. However, recorded meetings will stay in the respective owner’s Drive. 

Tip: If you’re a G Suite administrator who manages Google Meet for your organisation, first allow live streaming.

If you use Google Meet and Google Calendar for work or school, you can add view-only live streaming to an event for up to 100,000 people.

Who can view a live stream 

Only guests in your organisation can view a live stream. All participants in your organisation can stop and start the stream during the meeting and record the event. Guests who join as 'view-only' can’t participate in the meeting or control streaming and recording.

Supported Meet browsers

You can use these browsers to view live stream meetings:

  • Chrome Browser
  • Microsoft® Edge®
  • Mozilla® Firefox®
  • Opera®
  • Apple® Safari®

What you can share via live-stream with Meet

 

  • Real-time employee and staff training
  • Academic information with students 
  • Conference materials that can’t be shared in person.
  • Organisation-wide presentations with multiple presenters
    • Guests may be designated as view-only

Set up a live stream

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Part 1: Create a live stream event

  1. Open Google Calendar.
  2. Click PlusCreate and then More options.
  3. Add the event details, such as date, time and description.
  4. Add the guests and rooms that can fully participate in the video meeting. 
    • All guests added to this event can be seen, heard and present their screen. 
    • People from other organisations can be added but only people in your organisation can record and control streaming.
    • For example, use this event to invite the speakers for your organisation’s all-hands meeting. 
  5. Select Add conferencing and then Hangouts Meet to add the video meeting.
  6. Next to Join Hangouts Meet, click the down arrowDown Arrowand thenAdd live stream.
  7. To invite view-only guests, select an option:
    • Click Copy Copy and share the live-stream URL in an email or chat message. 
    • Continue to Part 2: Create an additional event for view-only guests.

      Note: Only guests within your organisation can view the live stream.
  8. Click Save.
  9. During the meeting, select MoreMoreand thenStart streaming. Streaming doesn't automatically start.

Part 2: Create an additional event for view-only guests

To invite specific people to the view-only live stream, create a view-only event. The event is added to their Calendar and includes the link for view-only guests.

People invited to this event aren't seen or heard in the meeting and cannot present, record or control streaming.

  1. Open Google Calendar and click the live stream event.
  2. Single-click the live stream event you previously created and click Edit .
  3. Click More actions and thenCreate view-only event.
  4. Add guests or rooms for view-only access and other details such as a description.
  5. Click Save.

Remove a live stream from an event

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  1. Open Google Calendar.
  2. Single-click the live stream event and click Edit Edit.
  3. Next to Join Hangouts Meet, click the down arrowDown Arrowand thenRemove live stream.
  4. Click Save.

Note: The meeting link changes when you add or remove live streaming. Be sure that you share the updated link with your guests.

Start and stop a live stream

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You can start or stop the live stream if you are in the same organisation as the meeting organiser and joined as a full participant. Guests who join to view-only cannot control the live stream.

  1. Open Google Calendar and join the video meeting.
  2. Select MoreMoreand thenStart streaming.
  3. Confirm that you want to start streaming.
    When streaming is on, at the top left, you’ll see Live. View-only guests can now watch the meeting using the stream URL.
  4. Select MoreMoreand thenStop streaming to stop streaming.
  5. Confirm that you want to stop streaming.

Record a live-stream event

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Full participants from the same organisation as the meeting organiser can record the live stream so that people can watch the event after the meeting ends. Live-stream events aren't automatically recorded, so you must manually start and stop recording. Learn how to Record a video meeting.

Guests who join to view-only cannot control recording.

Watch a live-stream event

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Tip: People using the live-stream link cannot interact with the meeting participants or others in the live stream.

To watch a live-stream event, guests can:

  • Click the live-stream link in the Calendar event or an email.
  • Watch from a meeting room that is added to the event and set up with Chromebox or Chromebase for meetings.

When you watch a live-stream event, you can:

  • Stop and start the live playback.
  • Set the playback speed and video quality.
  • Play the video on a TV.
  • Switch to full-screen mode.
Tip: To watch the event later, ask the meeting organiser if a recording is available. The live stream can only be viewed while being broadcast live.

Related topics:

 

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