Summary

One of the easiest ways to engage your audience virtually is to pre-record a video and play it back during the live virtual event. A community foundation using EventStream is doing just that. By working with a local production company, the organization is taking appropriate time to outline the video contents, record interviews, find compelling music and edit together a finalized video that can be started once the event begins. This allows the charity to remove any concern of timing or production expenses of running a live event on-camera.

How Does it Work

To play your video back to your bidders during the event, you simply use the freely available OBS software. You can download a copy here. 

Once you open OBS, go to your preferences and click on Stream. Then, choose Custom and enter in your RTMP Publish Path and Stream Key. These two pieces of information are located in your ClickBid Admin under Event Central > Live Broadcast.

Next, create a new Scene by pressing the + sign below the Scenes area (lower left) in OBS. Title it “Video” or something that reminds you what you’re adding here.

Then, in the Sources box next to the Scenes, press the + icon and choose Media Source. Locate the MP4 or video file that was produced and press Open and then Ok. You will be able to click and drag to position your video. 

PRO TIP: In the first scene that was already created, you can add a graphic that tells your audience that the program will begin soon. Or, you can use the text tool and background color.

When you’re ready to send your video to your bidders, make sure you click on the first scene which should be either a “starting soon” graphic or some text and then press Start Streaming. This will begin the streaming of your event to your bidders. At the appropriate time, click on the 2nd scene you created that has your video. This will start your video. At this point, don’t touch anything. The video will play and stream to your bidders. 

That’s it! I recommend that you test it out using our “Dry Run” feature located on the Event Central > Live Broadcast page. This will let you test it and see that it works.