Which live stream platforms work with Arena?

Discover which live stream studios can be connected to your event on Arena.

When you select ‘Stage’ as your Room type on Arena, you’ll be able to showcase a live stream to your attendees. Here, we’ll look at which streaming tools can be connected to Arena to help you deliver high-quality streaming at your virtual or hybrid event.

Which live stream platforms can I choose from?

Arena isn’t an online live stream studio. This is because we believe event planners are better off using one of the many high-quality and affordable tools that exist already, as opposed to the more limited and glitchy studios that tend to come built into other virtual event platforms.

When you build your event on Arena, you can connect to pretty much any live streaming platform. In short, as long as your chosen tool produces an RTMP field, we can connect to it. 

Here are just a few of the platforms you can choose from.

  • Streamyard: StreamYard is a self-serve studio that allows you to easily add branding, share slides and show different speakers. It costs $20 per month, but you can get $10 off here.
  • Restream: Restream.io is another easy-to-use self-serve studio. It usually costs $99 per month but you can get a $10 discount here. Like StreamYard, it allows you to display different speakers, share slides and add your own branding.
  • YouTube: Aside from being the world’s most popular video-sharing site, YouTube also provides live streaming services. Just be aware that YouTube can block live streams for suspected copyright infringement, so it’s best to be cautious.
  • Vimeo: As the leading professional video platform, Vimeo Livestream provides flexible embed styling options and is widely used by live stream professionals.
  • Wistia: Wistia is a video hosting platform for marketing professionals, making it a popular choice for marketing professionals who want to create a live stream.
  • Zoom: Zoom is arguably the best-known video conferencing tool. You can live stream any Zoom meeting or webinar with Arena – just make sure you have live stream enabled in your Zoom settings.
  • Twitch: Twitch is the world’s most popular live-streaming platform. You can integrate your Twitch channel by simply entering your Channel ID in Arena.
  • iFrames: iFrames allow you to display content from an external source within your event on Arena, giving you complete flexibility over what you show on your Stage.
  • HLS: HLS is short for HTTP Live Streaming and is the modern way of streaming videos online. To stream to Arena via HLS, you just need your HLS URL.

On top of these options, you can connect to any tools that use RTMP by entering your bespoke Arena RTMP URL, RTMPS URL and stream key. This is ideal for connecting professional tools like Wirecast, OBS, vMix, XSplit and MimoLive.

Which live stream provider should I choose?

There’s a huge range of streaming providers and the best for you will depend on your expertise and budget.

For most simple events, we’d recommend using Restream or Streamyard. These DIY solutions are user-friendly and allow you to produce a professional-quality live stream easily and efficiently. That said, if you’re on a budget, you could choose to stream directly from Zoom.

At the other end of the scale, you'll find studio software with fuller features, such as OBS, Wirecast, Wirecast Go, Streamaxia, Broadcast Me or MimoLive. These give you a vast amount of control but can be daunting for those with limited technical knowledge.

You can also select ‘Hire Space fully managed’ as a live stream solution. In this case, our experienced Live Stream Producers can take care of all the live streaming for you, ensuring that you get world-class production value without the stress. 

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Now that you have an idea of what kind of live stream solutions you can connect to Arena, you just need to learn how to connect your live stream. Then, all that remains is to add attendees, add speakers (if you haven’t already), add attendee credits and publish your event. Read our dedicated guides on each to get going.