How do I broadcast to YouTube Live with captions?
Adding captions to your YouTube Live stream requires one minor but important tweak to the delivery method. Instead of streaming directly to YouTube, you set up your device to stream to us. We take your live stream, add captions into it and send it to your YouTube channel.
You can go live using your phone or a camera connected to live streaming software.
Step 1: Pick Your Streaming Software
From Your Phone
Using a free app called GoCoder, you now have the ability to stream directly to your YouTube channel from your phone.
For step-by-step instructions on setting up GoCoder, click here.
Using Streaming Software
For those who stream to YouTube using live streaming software (also referred to as encoding software), it’s easy to set up your software to get live captions added by changing the output destination of the stream.
If you are using Open Broadcaster Software (free open source software for live streaming), follow the instructions here.
Step 2: Schedule a Live Video on YouTube
Ensure the page being used for live streams has used the streaming/events function previously. If it has not, YouTube will take up to 24 hours to update the account.
Go to the top right of the page after logging in and select the ID icon and select ‘YouTube Studio (beta)’ from the drop-down.
This will take you to a new page. On the new dashboard page go to the ‘Other Features’ tab and then select the ‘Live Streaming’ option from the drop-down.
Once it brings up the below page. In the ‘Live Streaming’ tab on the left, select ‘Events’. Please note, if the page has never had an event before it could take up to 24 hours for YouTube to allow the first event to be scheduled. After the initial event, you can schedule as often as you like.
On the top right of the page or in the middle you can schedule a ‘New live event’. Select that.
A new page will open. Select ‘Single-use stream key’.
Make note of the ‘Stream Name’ and ‘Primary Server URL’, as you will need to enter this information when you make your booking with us.
At the bottom of the page it says, ‘Closed Captions, None’ – Ensure you change this to ‘Embedded 608/708’
You can then select ‘Live Control Room’ at the top of the page and preview the stream. Please note, you must select preview before actually seeing the option to ‘Start Stream’.
Step 3: Book YouTube Live Captions
Book a live captioning session
After you have logged in, you can book a live captioning session to correspond to the time you wish to go live on YouTube. At the bottom of the form, you will be prompted to choose your destination.
Click YouTube.
In Server URL, enter the Primary Server URL you noted earlier. In Stream Key, enter your Stream Name.
The other fields here are optional. Click next when you’re happy with your destination details.
Congrats! You’ve now setup your YouTube destination for your live stream captioning.
Fill in the remainder of the form with your date, time and duration details.
Click Next.
Review your booking details are correct, tick to confirm you have read and accepted our Terms & Conditions, and click Submit to place your YouTube Live Captions booking.