Crowdpurr's Embedded Live Streaming allows you to embed a live Zoom Meeting directly onto the participant's mobile device. Your crowd can now follow along with a live virtual host that is embedded directly into Crowdpurr's Mobile View. No need for a second screen!
This allows you to create cool virtual events such as live game shows, trivia contests, fundraisers, all hosted live by you (or your host) through everyone's favorite video teleconferencing software - Zoom.
You can even invite guests to join your Zoom Meeting and have their participation shared on the live stream. This works great for collaboration, or inviting "celebrity guests" to call into your Zoom meeting and co-host or participate in various segments of programming on the live stream.
How Embedding a Live Zoom Meeting Works
Crowdpurr's integration with embedding Zoom works by connecting your Zoom Meeting to a third party streaming service, which can either be YouTube Live (recommended by Crowdpurr) or Twitch.
Zoom's Live Streaming for Meetings functionality is a premium feature and requires an upgraded account with Zoom. Using this feature, Zoom becomes a stream encoder that connects to a third party streaming service like YouTube Live or Twitch. Zoom then streams your meeting through YouTube Live or Twitch. You then simply embed the YouTube Live or Twitch stream using Crowdpurr's functionality for embedding those two platforms.
No, streaming a live Zoom Meeting requires configuring Zoom to be a stream encoder, which is a premium feature and not available on free, non-upgraded Zoom accounts.
Once you've connected Zoom to YouTube Live or Twitch, you simply copy and paste the URL to your live stream into into Crowdpurr's Experience Dashboard. Crowdpurr then handles the rest, embedding your live stream directly on the Mobile View. Crowdpurr offers multiple features for managing your live stream's display during your actual event.
Zoom Broadcast Is One-Way
Embedding a live Zoom Meeting is a one-way stream. Your Crowdpurr participants are not joining the Zoom meeting or interacting with the host (or other connected Zoom participants). Zoom is simply used as a broadcast tool to ultimately connect the meeting to either a stream via either YouTube Live or Twitch.
Why Use Zoom?
Using Zoom's functionality is still quite effective and important as it allows you to host a virtual meeting in a software environment you're familiar with. It allows additional participants and "celebrity guests" to join in and co-host or host individual segments. Lastly, it allows easy sharing of the computer's desktop for sharing images, videos, websites, music, and sound effects.
This article details the setup process for creating and embedding a live Zoom meeting. For details on managing a live stream's display during your event, please see Adding a Live Stream to Crowdpurr.
Getting Started with Zoom
Zoom is the gold-standard of virtual meetings. Users find its familiar interface easy to use once they're familiar with how it works. Because Zoom is designed for video teleconferencing, it's a fantastic way to connect multiple participants into a single stream for broadcasting.
With Zoom's live streaming integration with third-party services, it becomes a content encoder for publishing to YouTube Live or Twitch.
Creating a Zoom Account
In order to embed a live Zoom meeting stream into Crowdpurr, you must have an upgraded Zoom account.
If you don't yet have a Zoom account, please see this article Sign Up with Zoom.
Upgrading your Zoom Account
In order to connect Zoom to third-party streaming services, you need to upgrade your Zoom account to either Pro, Business, Education, or Enterprise. To review Zoom's plans and pricing and upgrade your account, please see Zoom Pricing.
Enabling Live Streaming for Meetings
After you've upgraded your Zoom account, you'll need to enable the Live Streaming for Meetings on your Zoom account.
Enable Custom Live Streaming For Your Zoom Account
To enable this setting, please follow the Zoom article Live Streaming Meetings Using a Custom Service. Follow the sub-section titled Meetings under the Enabling Custom Live Streaming Service (Admin) section. This permits custom live streaming across your Zoom Account.
Learning Zoom Basics, Connecting Co-Hosts, and Sharing Your Desktop
If you're just starting out with Zoom, be sure to review Zoom's Help Center. It contains multiple helpful articles such as Getting Started on Windows and Mac.
Zoom's Help Center will assist you in connecting additional participants or co-hosts into your Zoom meeting, sharing your desktop in order to show images, movies, and play music and sound effects.
Try searching YouTube for helpful videos on how to create a Zoom meeting and invite others to join. YouTube has a wealth of helpful videos and tutorials.
Specific Settings for Configuring Zoom for Crowdpurr
Creating a New Zoom Meeting
Once you've enabled the Custom Live Streaming Service on your Zoom account, you can create a new Zoom meeting that takes advantage of this setting.
Sign into the Zoom web portal. Click Meetings. Then click Schedule a Meeting.
Save New Meeting
A new meeting form will display. Complete the information fields for your meeting. Then click Save.
After saving, scroll down to the bottom of the page. Under the Live Streaming box, click on the blue configure live stream settings link.
Entering Live Stream Service Settings
A popup will open that allows you to enter your live stream settings. These settings can be gathered from either YouTube Live or Twitch.
Connecting YouTube Live (Recommended)
For connecting your Zoom meeting to YouTube Live, you'll need to have a YouTube account and you'll need to create a new live stream. To accomplish this, follow our article Embed a YouTube Live Stream. Make sure to enable all required settings in YouTube Live.
Copy Settings from YouTube Live Stream
Once you've created a YouTube Live stream to connect to Zoom, copy the following settings into Zoom's popup module above.
From the YouTube Studio page for the new live stream:
- Copy the Stream Key into Zoom's "Stream key" input
- Copy the Stream URL into Zoom's "Stream URL" input
- Copy the Video Link URL (found in the popup after clicking the arrow Share button) into Zoom's "Live streaming page URL" input
Click Save on the Zoom Add Live Stream Service popup.
Starting the Zoom Meeting
After saving the Zoom's Add Live Stream Service settings, click on the Start this Meeting button. The Zoom software will open and your Zoom meeting will start.
Turning on Live Streaming from the Zoom Meeting
Once your Zoom meeting has started, from within Zoom, on the lower horizontal menu, click on More and then click Live on Custom Live Streaming Service.
Select Live on Custom Live Streaming Service so Zoom takes advantage of the specific settings we enabled in YouTube Live like Ultra Low-Latency. If you choose Live on YouTube from Zoom's menu, it will use default YouTube Live settings. So always choose Live on Custom Live Streaming Service.
After turning on Custom Live Streaming Service in Zoom, your Zoom meeting will show a Live on Custom Streaming Service in the upper-right corner.
Additionally, the YouTube Creator Studio will show that the Zoom meeting is connected and streaming to YouTube Live. If your YouTube Live stream is not already live, you can click the red Go Live button to start broadcasting your Zoom meeting on YouTube Live.
Paste the YouTube Live URL into Crowdpurr
You're now ready to paste the URL to the YouTube Live stream into Crowdpurr's embedded streaming pop-up. Go to the Live Streaming tab on the Experience Dashboard, and click on YouTube Live under the Embed Live Stream section.
Even though our streaming encoder (or content) is a Zoom meeting, it is being streamed through YouTube Live. So we need to embed the YouTube Live URL.
Paste your URL into the input. Click on the green Search button. Your stream should be found and displayed. Click on the Add Stream button.
Connecting Zoom to Twitch
For connecting your Zoom Meeting to Twitch, you'll need to have a Twitch account and you'll need to create a new live stream. To accomplish this, follow our article Embed a Twitch Stream. Make sure to enable all required settings in Twitch.
Similar to YouTube Live, you'll need to copy some streaming settings from Twitch to your Zoom meeting.
You can start the process over of creating a new Zoom meeting from the Zoom web portal, click on Schedule Meeting, complete the new meeting form, then click Save, then under the Live Streaming box, click on the blue configure live stream settings link.
Copy Settings From Twitch Channel
From the Twitch homepage, click on the Account button in the upper-right corner. In the menu, click on Creator Dashboard to access your channel's settings.
From the Creator Dashboard, click the hamburger Menu icon in the upper-left corner. Then click on the Preferences option, then click on the Channel option.
From the Twitch → Preferences → Channel page:
- Copy the Primary Stream Key into Zoom's "Stream key" input
- Paste the URL rtmp://live.twitch.tv/app/ into Zoom's "Stream URL" input (this URL is always the same in Twitch)
- Copy the URL to your Twitch channel into Zoom's "Live streaming page URL" input. Your Twitch URL can be found by clicking on the upper-right Account button, then clicking on Channel, then copying the URL in the browser. This is the URL to your live stream, which is simply the URL to your Twitch channel.
Click Save on the Zoom Add Live Stream Service popup.
Turning on Live Streaming from the Zoom Meeting
Once your Zoom meeting has started, from within Zoom, on the lower horizontal menu, click on More and then click Live on Custom Live Streaming Service.
After turning on Custom Live Streaming Service in Zoom, your Zoom meeting will show a Live on Custom Streaming Service in the upper-right corner.
Additionally, your Twitch channel will show that the Zoom meeting is connected and streaming. You're now streaming a Zoom meeting live on Twitch!
Paste the Twitch URL Into Crowdpurr
You're now ready to paste the URL to your Twitch channel into Crowdpurr's embedded streaming pop-up. Go to the Live Streaming tab on the Experience Dashboard, and click on Twitch under the Embed Live Stream section.
Even though our streaming encoder (or content) is a Zoom meeting, it is being streamed through Twitch. So we need to embed the Twitch URL.
Paste your URL into the input. Click on the green Search button. Your stream should be found and displayed. Click on the Add Stream button. You can also simply paste the name of your Twitch channel.
Ending Your Live Stream and Zoom Meeting
Finishing the Zoom Meeting
No matter if you're connecting Zoom to YouTube Live or Twitch, when your meeting is over, simply click the red End → End Meeting For All button in the lower right-hand corner of Zoom. This will disconnect Zoom from your streaming service.
Finishing the YouTube Live Stream
For YouTube Live, you must click the red End Stream button in the upper right-hand corner to stop the live stream on YouTube Live.
Finishing the Twitch Stream
For Twitch, simply ending the Zoom meeting will also stop your Twitch channel's live stream.
Next Steps
You've now successfully embedded a live Zoom Meeting stream (via YouTube Live or Twitch) into Crowdpurr. You're now ready to read the next article that explains how to manage an embedded live stream during your event. Please see the Help Center article Adding a Live Stream to Crowdpurr.
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