Schedule and produce a live event in Viva Engage using an external app or device

Step 1: Schedule your live event using an external app or device

1. In Viva Engage, go to the community in which you want to host the event.

2. On the Events tab, select Create a Live Event.

   Note: If you don't see a Create a Live Event link, your network, account, or community doesn't meet the requirements listed in Organize a live event in Viva Engage. Contact your IT admin for help.

3. Fill in the title, start and end times, and description for the event.

4. In the Presenters box, add the names of people who have permission to start or stop the meeting. For information about roles in live events, see Roles.

5. Select if this is a test event. Test events will not be promoted in the community or home feed. Click Next to choose the event production type and finish scheduling.

6. Select External App or Device.

7. Click Create. This takes you right to the event in Viva Engage.

Step 2: Share this event with attendees

1. On the event card, click Share to get links in Viva Engage that you can share.

2. Share the links in Viva Engage, Teams, calendar invites, and Outlook, wherever people in your organization are likely to see them. Consider sending out reminders with the links right before the event.

Step 3: Produce your live event

1. When you're ready to produce your live event, and have your external encoder set up, return to the event page.

   • In the Viva Engage community, go to the Events tab, and click the link for the event.

2. Select Start setup on the video player and wait for setup to finish.

3. Before your event goes live, you must connect to your external encoder. Copy the necessary information to connect your encoder to send the live encoder feed.

   • Server ingest URL: In your encoder, this may be called URL or Address.

   • Secondary server ingest URL: If supported by your encoder, use this URL to double push to improve durability and resiliency.

     • This outputs a redundant stream from your encoder, which means it requires double bandwidth. Make sure that you have the required bandwidth capacity to support this.

   • Use the Secure Connection (SSL) toggle to switch between RMTP or RTMPS protocols for the ingest URLs. Note that to use RTMPS, your encoder must support it.

   Important: It's important to set up your encoder with the correct configuration and specify both audio and video for playback. See Recommended encoder settings for more information.

4. Start streaming from the encoder to the server ingest point.

   You'll see the producer preview update in Viva Engage.

   Note: Attendees won't see the preview stream. They'll see an automatically generated slate.

5. After you're satisfied with your setup and can see the preview, select Start event.

   • After the event starts, audience members can see the event.

   • If you're just testing before the event, select Disconnect instead.

   Tip: To decide which encoder to use, review Recommended external encoders.

6. Moderate the event from the event page.

   For more information about this step, see the Roles section below.

7. End your event:

   • At the end of your event, on the producer controls, select End event. This ends the event and makes the content immediately available for video-on-demand.

   Important: Be sure to end the event before you stop your encoder. If you do this in the reverse order, attendees will see an error.

Step 4: Follow up afterwards

Especially for large meetings across multiple time zones, people will go to your live event page after it happens.

• Be sure to monitor the discussion and answer all questions you promised to follow up on.

• Review the automated transcript created for the video, and edit it if needed.

• Share links to the event so that people who missed it can watch the video.

Roles in live events produced with an external app or device

There are three roles in Viva Engage, each with different permissions. In addition, there are functional roles in your organization that should be assigned as needed.

Live event roles in Viva Engage

• Organizer: The person producing the event.

  • Produce the event (configure the event stream)

  • Cancel the event

  • Edit the event

  • Share the event with others

• Presenters: The people who are presenting during the event. (You can have up to 10 presenters at a time.)

  • Produce the event (configure the event stream)

  • Share the event with others

• Attendees: Everyone attending the event, either before, during, or after the broadcast.

  • Participate! Comment, ask questions, or answer questions.

  • Stay organized. Follow a post or bookmark specific questions or comments you want to follow up on.

  • Share the event with others by sending a link to it.

Additional responsibilities

• AV staff: The people who do all the AV logistics for the event, including supplying the information from the external encoder to connect it to Viva Engage. AV staff do not have to use Viva Engage.

• Moderator: The moderator is responsible for monitoring and responding to posts from attendees.

  Tip: This task is best done by someone with the Viva Engage community admin role. A community admin can mark the best answer for questions and delete posts that violate company policy.

  Tasks may include:

  • Adding comments, questions, polls or behind the scenes pictures before the event to stimulate engagement.

  • Responding to posts as needed. Acknowledging questions that need follow-up.

  • Deleting posts that violate company policy.

  • Commenting, asking questions, or adding polls that stimulate discussion.

  • Organizing the posts by tagging a post with a #topic.

  • Mark the best answer to questions posed in the group.

  • Helping the presenter manage time.

  Keep your team organized

  • For a large team, it can be helpful to have a private Viva Engage community or Teams group to communicate about the event before, during, and after it.

  • Be sure to have a conversation in advance about who does what, including who handles problems that may occur such as a presenter talking too long or inappropriate posts.

Recommended encoder settings

Ingest protocols

• Single bitrate RTMPS or RTMP

Video format

• Codec: H.264

• Profile: High (Level 4.0)

• Bitrate: Up to 5Mbps (5000 kbps)

• Strict Constant Bitrate (CBR)

• Keyframe/GOP: 2 seconds

  • There must be an IDR frame at the beginning of each GOP.

  • Frame Rate: 29.97 or 30fps

  • Resolution: 1280 x 720 (720P)

  • Interlace Mode: Progressive

• Pixel Aspect Ratio (PAR): Square

Audio format

• Codec: AAC (LC)

• Bitrate: 192 kbps

• Sample Rate: 48 kHz or 44.1 kHz (recommend 48 kHz)

Playback requirements

• Both an audio and video stream must be present in order to play back content.

Configuration tips

• Whenever possible, use a hardwired internet connection.

• A good rule of thumb when determining bandwidth requirements is to double the streaming bitrates. While this is not a mandatory requirement, it will help mitigate the impact of network congestion.

• When using software-based encoders, close any unnecessary programs.

• Don't change your encoder configuration after it has started pushing. It has negative effects on the event and can cause the event to be unstable. If you want to do this before the event has started, you must disconnect using the producer controls and start setup again.

• If the encoder is disconnected during the live event, reconnect it keeping the same timestamps of continuing process. Note that any discontinuity may cause audio or video issues on certain browsers and devices.

• Give yourself ample time to set up your event. For high-scale events, we recommend starting the setup an hour before your event.

See Also

Drive engagement in a Viva Engage live event

Organize a live event in Viva Engage

Schedule and produce a live event in Viva Engage

Attend a live event in Teams