How to Stream to Facebook Live

Facebook added Live Streams to their Facebook Pages. So if you own a page you can from now on start streaming on Facebook. (It might not be unlocked for everyone right away. And you might need to have a certain number of likes. I could not find exact info about this.)
There are a few limitations though (see here or read on) and as mentioned, you need a Facebook PAGE:

• Video Resolution: maximum 720p (1280 x 720) resolution, at 30 frames per second.
• Key-Frame Interval of 1 every 2 seconds
• Max bit rate 4000Kbps
• 240 minute maximum length except for continuous streams

To start a stream you can click on "Live Video" up top on the Facebook page, or if you have a Page you want to Livestream on you can click on "Live" in the right sidebar:

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The background will turn dark and a popup will appear that might try to use your webcam right away if you have one connected to your computer. If not you will see this picture:

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Click on "Connect" as marked in red. Now we are presented with the information we need for our streaming software:

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Copy the Streamkey and paste it into the Streamkey section in the settings of OBS:

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Important: The Stream Key can only be used for a single Live preview/post connection. You must use the same URL and key to preview and post. That is, you cannot preview, stop the stream, and then resume at a later time. The URL and Key also expire 24 hours after creation.

Make sure all your settings (Audio especially) are ready. Scenes and sources configuration should be done before you start going live. If you accidentally stop your stream you will need to create a new live video and copy over the new stream key into the OBS settings. When ready, start streaming in OBS. The stream will only be visible to you on the Facebook Page until you click on "Go Live".
After a few seconds you should see the following message:

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You can enter a Post message, give the Video a title, add tags and even tag people before going live. And you can also start the Stream in your Software and it should appear in the Popup Window:

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There are some more options available in the settings, like allow embedding, activate continuous video or automatic unpublishing after the video ended.

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After you entered everything and if your stream is online, the "Go Live" button will be blue as you can see in this example, which means you are now ready to go live. Click on "Go Live" to do so or click on Schedule to setup a starting time. If you go Live the Page will change to a preview of your Livestream. (See the red timer in the top left). Make sure to mute the preview so there is no looping audio:

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You can also see comments here and of course comment yourself. After you are done with your Stream you can click on "Finish" to stop being Live on Facebook. The video will be saved and should soon appear in your Video Library of your Facebook Page:

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That's about it. You can now stream your content to Facebook and publish it on your Facebook Page. Remember, the next time you start a Facebook stream you have to update your Stream Key.


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