This guide will walk you thru the steps to configure live streaming to Facebook using CaptureCast.

CONFIGURATION VIA FACEBOOK:    PART 1  

  1. Go to www.facebook.com and login using your credentials.
  2. Navigate to where you would create a post and click on the More Option button and click on the Live Video option.
  3. Click on the Connect button on the top center of the page to access the information you'll need to stream using a hardware encoder.
  4. Follow the on-screen instructions:
    1. Choose where you want to post your broadcast on the pane to the right hand side of the page.
    2. Select the Stream Keyoption and adjust any other settings to your preference.
      • Leave this window open as you'll need to copy over the Server URL and Stream Key to the CaptureCast unit in the following steps.



CONFIGURATION VIA CAPTURECAST

  1. Login to your CaptureCast UI and go to Templates page.
  2. Here you'll need to either Edit an existing Template or Create a new Template then move onto step 3 of this section. 
    • Edit an existing Template:    Hover on the More Options button and select Edit. You can click on Step 5 Live Streaming on the left pane.
    • Creating a new Template:    Click on the +Add template button. You will need to complete steps 1-4 in our template creation wizard before you can configure Live streaming.
  3. Select Facebook from the list to open up the configuration form.
    • Input:    Select which video input you would like to stream out.
    • Server URL:    Refer to the information from Step 4 in the Facebook section above to fill in the following fields.
    • Stream Key:    Refer to the information from Step 4 in the Facebook section above to fill in the following fields.
    • Preset:    A preset is a collection of options that will provide a certain encoding speed to compression ratio. A slower preset will provide better compression (compression determines quality for a given filesize). This means that, for constant quality encoding, you will save bitrate by choosing a slower preset. Using a slower preset will increase CPU resources and could impact performance. The available presets in descending order of speed are: ultrafast, superfast, veryfast, faster, fast, medium and slow. We recommend you use preset of fast and above. Most customers find that ultrafast meets their needs.
    • Tune:    You can apply a tune preset to your video source to match a specific type of media.
      1. film:    Use for high quality movie content. Lowers deblocking.
      2. animation:    Good for cartoons. Uses higher deblocking and more reference frames.
      3. grain:    Preserves the grain structure in old, grainy film material.
      4. stillimage:    Good for slideshow-like content.
      5. fastdecode:    Allows faster decoding by disabling certain filters.
      6. zerolatency:    Good for fast encoding and low-latency streaming.
      7. psnr:    This tune can be ignored as it is only used for codec development.
      8. ssim:    This tune can be ignored as it is only used for codec development.
    • Rate Control:    
      1. Variable Bitrate (VBR):    By default our system will use this rate control. VBR works by attempting to target the optimal bitrate for the content being received.
        1. Bitrate (kbps):    You can set a value here that you want our system to target.
        2. Keyframe Interval (# keyframes = keyframe interval / fps):      This value determines how often a keyframe is generated during a capture session. Most customers will use the value of 250.
      2. Constant Rate Factor (CRF):    Unlike Variable Bitrate (VBR) this rate control targets a quality level instead of optimal bitrate.
        1. Keyframe Interval (# keyframes = keyframe interval / fps):      This value determines how often a keyframe is generated during a capture session. Most customers will use the value of 250.
        2. Constant Rate Factor (0=lossless, 18=ideal max, 23=default, 28=ideal min, 51=worst):   Ideally you want to set your CRF between 18 and 28. The lower the CRF the bigger the file-size will become and vice-versa.


  4. CaptureCast is now configured to be able to stream to your Facebook account. However, before you save the Template you should confirm what resolution, framerate and other variables you want to be using when outputting to Facebook. Follow the steps below to adjust settings.
    1. Click on Step 2 Input/Output of the Template wizard. 
    2. Click on the cogwheel next to the video device you will be streaming out to Facebook.
    3. Adjust the resolution size.
    4. Adjust your frames per second.
    5. Save your template.


    6. Either start a Quick Capture (manual start/stop) from the Dashboard to start streaming right away or Schedule your capture using the Template you just created. You will need to start streaming from the CaptureCast unit before Facebook will allow you to go Live.


CONFIGURATION VIA FACEBOOK:    PART 2

  1. Go back to the Facebook page from section Part 1 above and you should see the page update to show your live stream after a few seconds. You'll be able to see broadcast stats below and then finally click the Go Live button.