Crowdpurr's Embedded Live Streaming allows you to embed a YouTube Live stream 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) on YouTube Live.
How Embedding YouTube Live Works
Crowdpurr's integration with embedding YouTube Live allows you to simply copy and paste the URL of your YouTube Live stream 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.
This article details the setup process for creating and embedding a YouTube Live stream. For details on managing a live stream's display during your event, please see Adding a Live Stream to Crowdpurr.
Getting Started with YouTube Live
YouTube Live is one of the most robust and universal streaming platforms. It offers multiple features when creating live streams such as scheduling, high audience limits, analytics, follower support, ultra low-latency, channel features, and best of all, it's free!
There is some setup involved with embedding YouTube Live into Crowdpurr. This article explains the process.
Creating a YouTube Account
In order to embed YouTube Live into Crowdpurr, first you must have a YouTube account. If you have a Gmail or Google account, you can create a YouTube account directly from your Gmail or Google account.
If you don't have a YouTube account yet, please visit this article: Create an Account on YouTube.
Creating a Live Stream on YouTube Live
After you've created an account, you'll need to create a live stream on YouTube Live. If you have just created your YouTube account, it may take up to twenty-four hours before you can create your first stream.
If you're just starting out with live streaming on YouTube, be sure to review YouTube's resource page with several helpful articles: Live Stream on YouTube.
Try searching YouTube for helpful videos on how to create your first live stream using YouTube. YouTube itself has a wealth of helpful videos and tutorials.
Specific Settings for Embedding in Crowdpurr
Once you're familiar with how to make a live stream, there are some specific settings that you'll need to enable for the best performance when embedding in Crowdpurr.
Create A New Stream
After logging into YouTube, click on the Go Live option in the dropdown in the upper-right corner after clicking on the Camera icon with the + symbol.
Set YouTube Studio Mode to Stream
After creating a new stream, YouTube will default to creating a new Webcam mode live stream. You can stream using your webcam if desired. If you plan to use Zoom, OBS, or another streaming encoder, click on the Stream mode button in the upper-left column. This will set your live stream into Stream mode.
YouTube Studio will then update to the Stream mode interface, which offers several additional settings which are useful for embedding in Crowdpurr. Please review the following settings below.
Title
Edit the Title of your stream to something that relates to your event. For example, Live Virtual Trivia. This title will be viewable when your live stream loads in Crowdpurr's Mobile View. To edit the Title, click on the Edit button.
Privacy/Visibility
Make sure that the Privacy setting is set to either Unlisted or Public. Your stream cannot be set to Private or else it will not load on Crowdpurr's Mobile View. To edit the Privacy, click on the Edit button. This setting is called Visibility in the pop-up.
You can set the Privacy setting to Unlisted if you don't want the stream to be viewable outside of Crowdpurr. This will make sure the live stream is not listed in YouTube's public search results.
Using the Unlisted setting for a stream's Privacy on YouTube Live will ensure that the general public cannot view the stream. This is great for testing as only you will know the URL to your live stream and it will not be discoverable by the general public or listed on your YouTube channel.
Ultra Low-Latency Streaming
Set the Stream Latency setting to Ultra Low-Latency. This delivers your live stream with as little latency as possible to keep your stream's performance in sync with Crowdpurr, which runs in real-time. YouTube's Ultra Low-Latency setting reduces latency to only a few seconds, which is great for running real-time virtual events. This setting makes YouTube Live one of the best streaming solutions available.
Enabling Stream Embedding
The most important step of all, is enabling the Allow Embedding setting on your stream. Click on the Edit button.
In the pop-up window, scroll down to the very bottom. The Allow Embedding checkbox must be checked in order for YouTube to allow Crowdpurr's Mobile View to embed the live stream on participant devices. Click on Save to save the settings.
If you're trying to enable Allow Embedding and the stream displays errors that it's unable to save, this is due to the YouTube requirements to enable Allow Embedding. If you don't have permission to enable Allow Embedding, YouTube will return an error saying it "Cannot Save Video" when trying to save with Allow Embedding enabled.
Unfortunately, the Allow Embedding setting requires that a Google Ads account be created and connected to your YouTube account. This requirement is due to YouTube's policy on monetization and embedding of live streams.
You can create a free Google Ads account by following this article Sign Up for Google Ads. Once created, follow this article on how to connect it to your YouTube account: Link Google Ads and YouTube Accounts. Once the connection is approved by YouTube, you should be able to enable Allow Embedding.
If you cannot enable Allow Embedding, embedding a YouTube Live stream will not work in Crowdpurr. YouTube will not allow the stream to be displayed when embedded.
Connect An Encoder or Webcam
Once the above settings are confirmed, you're now ready to connect an encoder (or content source) to your YouTube Live stream, or use your webcam for a Webcam mode YouTube Live Stream. Your content source is what actually gets streamed. For example, a live virtual host narrating a virtual trivia game.
For encoders, you can use software like the free Open Broadcast Software (OBS), vMix, or even connect a live Zoom Meeting. For connecting Zoom to YouTube, please see our article Embed a Live Zoom Meeting.
To learn more about streaming with an encoder using YouTube Live, see the article Create a Live Stream with An Encoder
To learn more about streaming with a webcam using YouTube Live, see the article Create a Live Stream via Webcam.
Copy the URL to your Stream for Crowdpurr
Lastly, after you've created, configured, and connected your content to your YouTube Live stream, it's time to paste its URL (or link) into Crowdpurr.
To get your stream's URL from YouTube, click on the arrow icon Share button in the upper right-corner of the YouTube studio interface. A pop-up will open with options for sharing. Click the copy button to the right of the Video Link at the bottom of the pop-up.
Paste the YouTube Live URL Into Crowdpurr
You're now ready to paste the URL to your 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.
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.
Next Steps
You've now successfully embedded a YouTube Live stream into Crowdpurr. You're now ready to read our 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.
Comments
8 comments
There is no Livestream Tab under Experiences
Live streaming services have a delay of anywhere from 10-15 seconds; has this been factored in when embedding into a game? If I'm reacting to the guesses at the end of a multiple choice question, will the players be watching me stare at the camera for 15-30 seconds at the end of the question before seeing me start talking, even though I actually began as the question timer ran out?
Followed the directions to the letter. Linked my Google ads account to YouTube and vice versa. Approved on both ends. Clicked "enable embedding." Verified that my videos aren't age-restricted. Everything is set up just fine but YouTube live streams cannot be added to the game. Fix it, please.
If you have created a new Youtube account (since the beginning of October I believe) to use this feature (as I did), it will not work. In addition to following the steps listed above, YouTube now requires you to have 1,000 followers before your stream can be embedded.
Older accounts are grandfathered in.
No, Dan Deibert. You are wrong. I created a couple of new Google/YouTube accounts about 2 weeks ago (in December 2020). They work fine. I can embed them, but I don't think you can do it from the webcam option. I tried a couple of times that way, and it would not allow me to edit the stream to include embedding. I believe that you must use the Stream option and then connect a source like OBS or Xsplit.
Unfortunately, this leaves out StreamYard as well because there is no way to send the embedding command. Too bad for StreamYard. They are going to be left behind, in my opinion. "Virtual" sources that rely on a browser just don't seem to work. You have to use a dedicated Stream-Source application in order to control the encoder that way (ie use the embedding switch).
Hope this helps
I've actually confirmed this with Youtube/Google.
The only way for new accts to embed a live stream is to be part of the Partners program.
The entry requirement for the Partners Program is 1000 followers or 4000 watched hours in the previous year.
As you suggested, I tried to create a live video with a 3rd party program (Wirecast) and it will not allow you to create a video with the "embed" option selected. It returns an error saying that you can't do it.
I CAN embed a live stream on my older, personal YT account which is my workaround. On my account that I created mid-December, it can't be done. Again, I confirmed this with Google/Youtube. I was directed to try and join the partners program once I had 1000 followers.
Thanks for the clarification, Dan.
I didn't stop to think that, even though the channel that I created 2 weeks ago is new, it is tied to my regular user name (which is several years old).
I stand corrected.
Great comments everyone. We're aware of the problematic issues of embedding YouTube and their requirements to enabled Allow Embedding. In 2021, we'll be working on "rolling our own" native embedding solution, directly in Crowdpurr.
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