Live stream a video meeting

In-house live streaming is available with G Suite Enterprise and G Suite Enterprise for Education editions. Compare G Suite editions. 

Want to use Google Meet with your team? G Suite Essentials is free through September 30th. Try it today

From March through September of 2020, all G Suite customers have had access to advanced Google Meet video conferencing features. These features include larger meetings, the ability to record meetings, and in-domain live streaming.

After September 30, 2020, access to advanced Meet features is determined by your G Suite account and edition. 

Tip: If you’re a G Suite administrator who manages Google Meet for your organization, first allow live streaming.

If you use Google Meet for work or school, you can add view-only live streaming to an event for up to 100,000 people.

Who can view a live stream 

Only guests in your organization can view a live stream. All participants in your organization can stop and start the stream during the meeting, and record the event. Guests who join as “view-only” can’t participate in the meeting or control streaming and recording.

Supported Meet browsers

You can use these browsers to view live stream meetings:

  • Chrome Browser
  • Microsoft® Edge®
  • Mozilla® Firefox®
  • Opera®
  • Apple® Safari®

What you can share via live-stream with Meet

 

  • Real-time employee and staff training
  • Academic information with students 
  • Conference materials that can’t be shared in person.
  • Organization-wide presentations with multiple presenters
  • Guests may be designated as view-only

Set up a live stream with Google Calendar

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Part 1: Create a live stream event

  1. Open Google Calendar.
  2. Click Plus Create and then More options.
  3. Add the event details, such as date, time, and description.
  4. Add the guests that can fully participate in the video meeting. 
    • You can add up to 250 participants. All guests added to this event can be seen, heard, and present their screen.
    • People from other organizations can be added. Only people in your organization can record and control streaming. For example, use this event to invite the speakers for your organization’s meeting. 
  5. Next to Join with Google Meet, click Down arrow ""and then Add live stream.
  6. To invite view-only guests, select an option:
    • Click Copy Copy and then share the live stream URL in an email or chat message. 
    • Continue to Part 2: Create an additional event for view-only guests.
      • Tip: Only guests within your organization can view the live stream. You can add up to 100,000 view-only guests.
  7. Click Save.
  8. Streaming does not automatically start. During the meeting, select More ""and then Start streaming.

Part 2: Create an additional event for view-only guests

To invite specific people to the view-only live stream, create a view-only event. The event is added to their Calendar and includes the link for view-only guests. You can add up to 100,000 view-only guests.

People invited to this event are not seen or heard in the meeting, and can’t present, record, or control streaming.

  1. Open Google Calendar.
  2. Click the live stream event you created and then Edit "".
  3. At the top, click More actions and then Create view-only event.
  4. Add guests or rooms for view-only access, and other details such as a description.
  5. Click Save and then Send.

Remove a live stream from a Google Calendar Event

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  1. Open Google Calendar.
  2. Click the live stream event and then Edit Edit.
  3. Next to Join with Google Meet, click the Down arrow ""and then Remove live stream.
  4. Click Save.

Tip: The meeting link changes when you add or remove live streaming. Be sure to share the updated link with your guests.

Start a live stream with Google Meet

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  1. Go to meet.google.com and click Join or start a meeting, and then click Continue. From the following screen, click Join now. 
  2. Once inside the meeting, click Copy Copy, to copy the meeting details.
  3. Send your meeting details to people you’d like to interactively participate in the meeting. Paste the details you copied in a scheduled invite, email, or some other method to send invites to participants.

Tip: If you use Microsoft Outlook, you can complete steps 1–3 with the Google Meet Outlook add-in.

  1. Click the meeting URL you just sent in your invite from step 3 or copy and paste it in the address bar of your browser.
  2. In your browser, you’ll see a self-video view. Click the Menu "" and from the drop down, select Add an in house live stream.
  3. A live stream link will display at the bottom-right corner of your screen. You can click on Copy Copy, to copy and share this live stream link with members of your organization that will attend the live stream.
  4. When you’re ready, you can start your live stream. The steps for starting the live stream can be found below.

Start and stop a live stream

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If allowed by a G Suite administrator, any participant in the same organization as the meeting organizer can start or stop the live stream.

Can start or stop a live stream View only, can’t control live stream
Meeting organizer  
You’re in the same organization as live steam organizer Guests who join view-only
You’re allowed in live stream by a G Suite admin  
You’ve joined as a full participant  

 

  1. Open Google Calendar and join the video meeting.
  2. Select More ""and then Start streaming.
  3. Confirm that you want to start streaming. When streaming is on, at the top left, “Live” is indicated. View-only guests can now watch the meeting using the stream URL.
  4. Select More ""and then Stop streaming.
  5. Confirm that you want to stop streaming.

Record a live-stream event

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Full participants from the same organization as the meeting organizer can record the live stream so people can watch the event after the meeting ends. Live-stream events are not automatically recorded, so you must manually start and stop recording. Learn how to Record a video meeting.

Guests who join view-only cannot control recording.

Watch a live-stream event

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Tip: People using the live-stream link cannot interact with the meeting participants or others in the live stream.

To watch a live-stream event, guests can:

  • Click the live-stream link in the Calendar event or an email.
  • Watch from a meeting room that is added to the event and set up with Chromebox or Chromebase for meetings.

When you watch a live-stream event, you can:

  • Stop and start the live playback.
  • Set the playback speed and video quality.
  • Play the video on a TV.
  • Switch to full-screen mode.
Tip: To watch the event later, ask the meeting organizer if a recording is available. The live-stream can only be viewed while being broadcast live.

Related topics:

 

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