Broadcast to Facebook Live from Your Mac or PC
Facebook Live is certainly the leader among live video broadcast apps. Yet, many times I’d much rather broadcast from my desktop computer. The picture from my HD Webcams is just better and I prefer the experience to using the smaller iPhone and iPad screens.
Until recently, the only way to live stream to Facebook was via the Facebook app. But with the creation of new third-party tools, you may now broadcast live to Facebook from your desktop or laptop computer. Instead of being stuck with a mobile experience in the standard Facebook square, you are now free to experiement with possibilities to create shows which use multiple cameras, titles, transitions and more! It’s great fun and the learning curve is not that challenging. You simply need to follow these steps.
Step 1 – Get the software
While I and many others have paid $500 for Telestream’s Wirecast studio software, there are other options. One easy way to go live on your Mac is with an app called Ecamm Live. Another paid service is Belive.tv, which allows you to do talk-show style interviews from your browser.
But if you want to go with a free open-source alternative, I recommend OBS Studio. I consider it the poor man’s Wirecast. But it’s actually pretty powerful and is feature-rich even though it is free. You can download for Mac, Windows or Linux operating systems.
Step 2 – Configure the Settings for Your Live Stream
You can launch the OBS software once you have it installed, but in order to configure it properly you need to follow a few easy steps.
To get started, click the button below that says “Create live stream to Facebook”. Go ahead. It won’t bite. (Special shoutout to my friend Ian Anderson Gray for walking me through the steps to create that button as a Facebook app!)
Now you’ve got choices of where you want your stream to appear.
You may select from your personal timeline, a friends’ timeline, a group you belong to or a page that you manage. Personally, I like to stream to my personal profile as that’s where I receive the greatest engagement.
Now pay attention to the fields titled Server URL and Stream Key. Both of us these are essential in order to configure your stream in OBS. Leave this window open.
Go back to OBS and click SETTINGS in the bottom right corner.
This panel will appear. Click the STREAM icon on the left side.
On the pulldown menu, select Custom Streaming Server.
Then, remember the Server URL and Stream Key I just talked about two sentences ago? Copy and paste each of those to the fields in the OBS Stream Settings.
Them click the “Use authentication” checkbox. This is where you will enter your Facebook username and password. It will allow OBS to post your live video to the Facebook location of your choice.
Click “Save” and you are almost there.
Now click “Start Streaming” in the bottom right corner of OBS.
OBS will now talk to Facebook and you should see an image from your webcam in the Facebook window where we discovered the Server URL and Stream Key. Do you see it?
Now it’s time to enter text for the post which will accompany your Facebook Live video stream. Feel free to assign a title for your video and type in some video tags.
And now the moment you have been waiting for!
Click GO LIVE in the bottom right corner of this window. Pull up the page where your video is set to broadcast on Facebook to confirm that you are live. It should take just a few seconds for it to show up.
Then SMILE because you are broadcasting LIVE on Facebook from your webcam!
If you’d like to learn more about how to use OBS Studio to create your live streams, check out my online training at The Live Video Revolution.
I am able to download OBS just fine, but when I click “stream life to facebook” and hit next, it gives me an error message? Is FB live not available to windows 10 users? Thanks
Joel,
I go the system to work with the exception that the video speed on the obs is fine but when streaming to facebook there is a bout a 4 to 5 second delay on the video feed of facebook. How may I correct this. Please reply asap. I need to go live
on 11/08/16. Thanks Charlie
Joel,
Also I do not know how to choose where to post video. The button you have on the website does not work in firefox.
Other than the button how may I do this.
Thanks
Charlie
to call OBS a poormans wirecast is a bit far fetched. OBS can do a lot more than Wirecast AND its free. If any of you have OBS questions for any platform, feel free to DM me on twitter @SinthesisML
Thanks for putting this together — this has made it so much easier for me to stream to a specific secret group!
I just spent a half a week trying to get this to work.
Please update your instructions warning users to disable popup and flash blockers or their feed will remain “Offline” while waiting for OBS to connect.
I toggled settings non stop for an embarrassingly long time.
Eric, Where do you change flash blocker settings? I have pop ups turned off. but I am having the same problem as you are.
I’ve followed each step however get a offline message and am unable to ho live. please help!
Do you know how to do a two-way interview using Facebook live with obs? I have seen people do it, but I’m not sure how.
i cant install OBS software on my Windows 8.1 laptop
Hey Joel!
Great and very helpful article, but I must ask… can you see the comments like it would on mobile?
Hope that question made sense… Anyway, thank you in advance!(if you ever reply)
How do I get the app for myself? Or do I have to access your page every time?
I downloaded and everything thing is working except for my camera wont turn on. I have a MacBook Air. I could hear myself clicking and making noises just can’t see myself. Any advice?
This works just as instructed states. I’m able to stream live to Facebook and use OBS to change scenes and use different inputs. May need to experiment a little bit more with the upstream and encoding options.
When I press your button ” Creat Live stream To Facebook” nothing happend. I don’t see URL and stream key. It’s NOT WORKING.
Cant get the program to open on my MacBook Pro with the 10.12.2 version of Sierra. Just never opens. Not sure why. Anyone have a workaround??
Great tutorial but doesn’t work for me: https://youtu.be/RJ79vCFD6C0 (1m39s)
“Create Live Stream To Facebook” – only gives me the stream URL.
No option to select server.
Maybe something have changed, all the FB Live and 360 is relatively new and “work in progress”.
Due to popularity you are number 1st page in Google 🙂
Joe this is absolutely phenomenal.. Everything work great.. How can I get the Create Live Stream Button/Facebook App? Do I have to access this page everytime?
stopped working as of today, any workaround possible?
Trying to use this with my built in MAC camera but all I get is a black screen. Do you have to have an external HD camera to use this?
Works great in Chrome, but Can’t get it to work in Safari… Any reason why?
I’ve been searching high and low for a live desktop build I promised my friends. You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.
Thanks Joel…
Hi your create live stream button does give the options and creates an fb live URL, but it only gives a popup and it is not possible to go to the next screen to fetch the key and go live. Any suggestions? thanks kind regards
Totally cool, thank you so much. Just about to do my first ever Facebook live to a private group. This is diamond info. Really appreciate it ♥
Hi,I log on to your blog named “Broadcast to Facebook Live from Your Mac or PC – Joel Comm by Joel Comm” on a regular basis.Your story-telling style is witty, keep it up!
Anyone else having the button suddenly stop working when you try and stream to a group? It’s been working fine for months now and today it’s not working.
https://www.facebook.com/help/587160588142067
You go to https://www.facebook.com/live/create , press on the Create live stream, choose where do you want to get live, get your server url and streamkey, go to OBS, go to settings, stream, stream type, custom streaming server, enter the url and the stream key, add sources from where obs should broadcast from the main screen and press start streaming. The facebook live stream will show a preview, it has 5 seconds delay, and when you’re satisfied you go live
Any idea why video is not showing? I get audio with no problem, but no video. 🙁
How can I put that code on my webpage to start a Facebook live?
Have gone through every single step one by one. However, all I get is a black screen for the video. Everything is working properly so I know there’s no camera issues. Also, there is no where to hit SAVE after setting everything is settings, there’s OK and a greyed out APPLY that’s it. It appears to be doing a video but its just black so I don’t get it. Very frustrated at this point since I’ve been trying to do this for days!
Link to Livestream does not work anymore …
Works for me!
It stopped working for me as well. After choosing where to post the stream nothing happens.
i can get this to work on my public figure/fan pages but I want it to work on my personal page too. Advise?
I keep getting this error message when trying to create Live stream to Facebook
“Can’t Load URL: The domain of this URL isn’t included in the app’s domains. To be able to load this URL, add all domains and subdomains of your app to the App Domains field in your app settings.”
Exactly the same with me! I’ve tried Google but nothing.
Thank you so much for this!
I was able to do everything, except I wasn’t able to see anything in real time. So, I made the video, people were commenting, but I couldn’t see the video or the comments until I hit “stop streaming” and then I saw it post on FB. Suggestions?