Now that you've completed your OBS setup, you are ready to stream on Volume.com. If you have not completed OBS setup, please refer to ‘OBS Setup Guide’ or other streaming platform guides

You can also take a look at the ‘Livestreaming Basics’ to get a high level overview

There are two options to stream on Volume.com - “Start Streaming Now” or “Start a Scheduled Show”. Note that when live streaming in any form, we are creating a recording for you that will be available shortly after the stream has ended in your “Manage Videos” page.

Start Streaming Now

This option is for starting a livestream at any time.

Setting up the Stream

Start by going to the the Livestream Dashboard. To get there, click on your icon in the upper right corner, then from the drop down choose the "Creator Dashboard" button from the menu.

 

 

Enter a title for your stream in the “Name your livestream” field, if you like. This will display on your stage page.

 

 

Once you are ready, hit the “Set Up Stream”. This will send you to the Livestream Broadcast page.

 

Once on the Livestream Broadcast page, notice the status bar on top of the video container. By default, it will say “no input”.

 

Below the stream status is the video player with the picture-in- picture(pip) video input that displays when your stage page viewers see a different view than your input. There will be an overlay automatically set on your stage page saying “Show is starting soon” while you continue to setup the stream. This allows you to check your video input and audio without the audience seeing. It also opens the chat so viewers can start messaging each other.

It is time to get your input setup now. In OBS or your streaming software with stream key setup, “start streaming”. Give it a few seconds to establish a connection, and once connected the status will update to “stream connected”. The “start show” button will become enabled. Your input will display in the video player. Take this time to check video and audio. Users are still not able to see your video or hear your audio at this point. They will only be able to see and hear when you click the “start show” button.

Notify your followers (optional) - once you are ready to go live, hit the “notify followers” button to send an email to all users that “follow” your account that you are doing a livestream. Make sure you are ready, you can only do this once every 6 hours.

 

Once you ready to go live, hit the “Start Show” button. You are now live!

The overlay will automatically be removed from your stage and viewers will now be able to see your video and hear your audio (they might need to unmute). The status will update to “Live Now”. The stream preview toggle will flip to “off” position. Anytime you want to see or hide your input, you can toggle stream preview “on” or “off” by clicking on the “Input Preview” toggle.

 

During the stream

Title of Livestream

At any point during the livestream, you can name the stream by using the “Title of Livestream” field. Simply add your title in there and hit “update title” button. There will be a stylized message sent in chat informing of the title update and the title will update on your stage.

If you do not input a title, there will be a default title of “{your username}'s Livestream”.

 

Activity Panel

There is a panel on your broadcast page entitled ”Activity” that serves a few purposes.

Help text - when setting up, during, and ending a stream there are messages that appear here to help you get going or troubleshoot issues.

Actions - There are actions in the chat that display as stylized “events”, including:

• tips / donations from viewers

• Stream title updates

These events are also shown in your activity panel, so you can clearly see users engaging in tipping/donating without having to dig through the chat history.

 

Live Chat

There is a panel on your broadcast page entitled ”Live chat”. This is where you can message with viewers. This chat is also displayed on your stage page. You, as the streamer will appear in the chat with a unique icon to indicate that you are the streamer.

There are a few actions you can take to manage the users in your chat.

Chat menu - click on the three dots to open the chat menu. Here you can access:

• User list - click on “Show User List” option in the dropdown. A list of viewers currently on your stage will display with their usernames.

• Manage Bans and Silences - You view and remove a ban or a silence placed on one or more users.

• Ignored Users - You view and lift an ignore on one or more users.

User menu - click on individual usernames to open the user menu for each user. Here, dependent on your permissions, you will be able to take a number of actions:

• Promote - Makes a user a moderator in the chat. This action will place an icon next to this users username in the chat to indicate they are a moderator. This will also allow this user access to silence and band other users. To remove a moderator, click on their username and hit “demote”. This will remove the icon and moderator permissions immediately.

• Ignore - Will hide this user’s messages to you only. The rest of the viewers in the chat will continue to receive this users messages. You can manage ignored users in the chat menu.

• Silence - Will hide this user’s messages to all other viewers. The user that has been silenced will not know that they have been silenced and will continue to see their own messages in the chat. You nor any other viewer will receive them. You can manage silenced users in the chat menu.

• Ban - This will immediately kick the user out of your stage page and they no longer will be able to see your profile for a number of hours. You can manage banned users in the chat menu.

 

Embed this chat in your livestream

There is a button that says “Embed this chat in your live stream.” Click on this button to get a URL to place in your media source in your Broadcast software to display chat on your video for your livestream.

 

Overlay Message

There is a dropdown called “overlay message” where you can select from a few messages to display on your stage if you need to pause what you are doing but want the show to continue. Simply select the message you want, then hit the “update” button. You will see the pip display on your video input container with an indicator that “viewers see this”. The input from your streaming software will still be seen by you, but again the audience will only see the overlay.

To remove the overlay, select the “none” option in the dropdown and hit “update” button. The pip will go away and once again both you and your viewers will be able to see your streaming software input.

 

Ending the stream

When you are ready to end you stream, there are a few options. You may simply “End Show” or you can “Rush” to bring your users to another stage.

End Show

Click on the “End Show” button to end your stream. Your stage page will show an overlay message indicating that “This show has ended”. The chat will remain open for a little while so users may hang around and continue chatting.

Disconnect your streaming software as per how you end a stream on it.

Do note that simply disconnecting your streaming software will not end your stream. The “end show” button must be clicked to cut the input from reaching your stage.

 

Rush

To use the Rush feature, click on the “Rush” button. A pop up will appear that will let you know if there are other streamers available to rush your viewers to. If there are no other active streams, rush will not be an option and you should just end your stream.

If there are streamers in the list, pick a stage and hit “rush”. Your stream will immediately end, and your viewers will be redirected to the stage of the user you selected. Once that is done, disconnect your streaming software and you are done!

 

Recordings - Manage Videos

Your livestream is being recorded and will be available within minutes of you ending your stream. Head over to “Manage Videos” page and you will see your recording on this page.

The default visibility of this recording is set to “only me”, though you have the option to change that in Accounts > broadcasting settings > “Replay visibility”.

 

Start a Scheduled Show

Creating a show gives the option to require users to buy or claim a ticket to view your livestream! See guides for setting up a show here.

Setting up the Show Stream

Start by going to the the Livestream Dashboard. To get there, click on the "Go Live" link at the top of the Volume homepage or in the User menu.

Your show will display on the right hand column when it is within 24 hours of the Show’s scheduled start date and time.

When it is showtime and you are ready to start the show, hit the “Setup Show Now” button. This will send you to the Livestream Broadcast page. Your stream title will automatically update to the name of your show.

Once on the Livestream Broadcast page, notice the status bar on top of the video container. By default, it will say “no input”.

Below the stream status is the video player with the picture-in- picture(pip) video input that displays when your stage page viewers see a different view than your input. There will be an overlay automatically set on your stage page saying “Show is starting soon” while you continue to setup the stream. This allows you to check your video input and audio without the audience seeing. It also opens the chat so viewers can start messaging each other.

 

It is time to get your input setup now. In OBS or your streaming software with stream key setup, “start streaming”. Give it a few seconds to establish a connection, and once connected the status will update to “stream connected”. The “start show” button will become enabled. Your input will display in the video player. Take this time to check video and audio. Users are still not able to see your video or hear your audio at this point. They will only be able to see and hear when you click the “start show” button.

Notify your followers (optional) - once you are ready to go live, hit the “notify followers” button to send an email to all users that “follow” your account that you are doing a livestream. Make sure you are ready, you can only do this once every 6 hours.

 

Once you ready to go live, hit the “Start Show” button. This will trigger the overlay to automatically be removed from your stage and viewers will now be able to see your video and hear your audio (they might need to unmute). Any user with or without a ticket can see your stream at this time.

The status will update to “Live Now”. The stream preview toggle will flip to “off” position. Anytime you want to see or hide your input, you can toggle stream preview “on” or “off” by clicking on the “Input Preview” toggle.

Require Tickets

If you would like to have the stream be only visible to users that have tickets, you will need to enforce it. To do so, click on the “Require Tickets” button. Confirm you want to restrict access to the stream by clicking on the “Activate Ticket Gate” button.

An overlay with ticket claim/purchase information will now display on the stream for users that do not have a ticket.

For users who already have a ticket, they will simply continue to be able to view the stream.

If you would like to remove this restriction, you have click on the “Don’t Require Tickets” button and the stream will once again be available to all users regardless of if they have tickets or not.

During the stream

If you would like to read about other functions available during the stream, they are the same as streaming without a ticketed show. Please refer to the “During the Stream” section above .

Ending the Show

Ending the show is the same as ending an unscheduled livestream.

Please refer to the “Ending the stream” section above.