Can I use the ClearCaster to connect to a pre-scheduled Facebook Live post?

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Hello Jason,

Yes, ClearCaster is capable of starting a stream for pre-scheduled Facebook Live events. Once your ClearCaster is paired with your Facebook account, follow these steps to set up a scheduled live event using ClearCaster: go to facebook.com/live/create and instead of Go Live use drop down and select Schedule Live. On the same page you will be able to select your ClearCaster. You can schedule an event anywhere from 10 minutes or up to 7 days from the current time/date. Please note that you will not be able to use that same ClearCaster for any other live or scheduled event until the original scheduled event has ended.

To ensure that you have seen all our posted information on our Wowza ClearCaster here are some useful links:

Getting Started Guide: https://www.wowza.com/docs/wowza-clearcaster-getting-started

User Guide: https://www.wowza.com/docs/wowza-clearcaster-user-guide

Most important, in relation to your question is our page to sign up for a free demo: http://info.wowza.com/clearcaster-free-demo

Jessica A Bixler

I’d do it with caution. We’ve had several issues with the Clearcaster “false starting” on scheduled posts. Especially if it is scheduled more than a few hours beforehand. The CC will go live and begin to show that it is live on it’s output. However your actual facebook post will be stuck in a screen stating " This video should begin soon" and never does, even after a dis/reconnect of the Clearcaster’s network or power. Despite Jessica’s comment, I’m cautioned against using the CC with a scheduled post by tech support everytime I call. We’ve stopped using the product until that can be sorted out.

Thank you for contacting Wowza ClearCaster Support and your interest in the Scheduled Live Stream option. While the Wowza ClearCaster takes advantage of this Facebook Live feature we have noticed instability as it relates to the Preview and actual on time launching of a scheduled event. Unfortunately due to this we do not recommend you schedule live events with the ClearCaster at this time.

With that said, our team at Wowza is working with Facebook as a partner to provide feedback to them to improve the overall user experience, as well as bring reliability and confidence to this much sought after feature.

The reasons stated above are preventing our addition to ClearCaster.Wowza.com.

Support Engineers can provide a link to the “Preview” interface that will be integrate into full production once the feature meets our QA teams standard for broadcast production and requirements.

We would like to assist you to resolve that issue, you can open a Wowza ClearCaster Support Ticket online.

You can submit the required information in the Support Ticket form to generate an email message or chat text message, and the next available Wowza ClearCaster Support Engineer will assist you.

Wowza Media Systems also offers 24x7 phone support to ClearCaster users.

-Jessica

Yes you can do that.

Hello there Jessica,

We also share the same problem. Problem intensifies when you wish to “join” an already pre-scheduled live post (someone = agency already posted a scheduled live video before). We go to the edit of that live post and choose “paired encoder” and only after 12 minutes of the time scheduled it effectively is live on Facebook. On Clearcaster.wowza.com everything “seems” fine. Is this fix coming up soon? Will it be a Clearcaster “auto upgrade”? Thanks, Xavier V.

Could you possible run another test using our new updated wowza clearcaster manager (clearcaster.wowza.com)? You will need to add the encoder to the scheduled post while logged into the Facebook profile that has the permissions to edit the scheduled post in a tab in that same browser.

The scheduled events is still something being worked on but we have noticed instability as it relates to the Preview and actual on time launching of a scheduled event.

User Guide: https://www.wowza.com/docs/wowza-clearcaster-user-guide

Hi there Adam,

We’ve just started a new test, and it only went live around 4 minutes after the scheduled hour. Any news on this? Why can’t you at least allow Clearcaster GUI to give option to which FB event we want?? Ex.: like we already do with other “non-dedicated” FB encoders? It makes no sense that we are not able to do this simple and most requested feature. Please let me know your feedback. Thanks, Xavier V.

Hello Xavier,

Since you are still facing issues we would like to move this discussion to a ticket, so please submit a ticket here at your earliest convenience.

In your latest response, you use the term Event, I wanted to be clear that Facebook Events are being deprecated, if you were referring to a Scheduled broadcast to a Page, Timeline, or Group and not an event then we do want to investigate.

For clarity, the other “Non-dedicated” encoders do not use the same API that Wowza ClearCaster does, so this is why you see a difference in comparing those other options. Wowza ClearCaster has the advantage of 1080p broadcasts and has back and forth communication with the Facebook Live stream platform to account for changes in your broadcast network path.

Once you have submitted a Support ticket I can then set-up a scheduled call with screen sharing to get a full understanding of how you are currently setting up these scheduled broadcasts so that we can capture any details that may help us in our collaboration to make this option more robust.

Thanks in advance,

Jason Hatchett

Technical Support Supervisor – Wowza ClearCaster

Hi there Jason,You are correct, I misuse the term. What we want is to be able to stream from CC to scheduled live posts, specially since CC has such advantages on streaming to FB when compared to others, hence my “frustration” that we cannot use this reliably for more than 50% of our FB live encodings because Scheduled is not working properly and it seems that there’s no way around that, not even with a “simple” RTMP that we can retrieve at any time for a scheduled post.I will right now open the support ticket and we will gladly support your investigation in any way we can. Thanks, Xv

Hello Xavier,

We are working this issue within a Support ticket and we will post the steps for resolution here after we have completed that support case.

Regards,

Jason Hatchett

Hello Xavier,

We are working this issue within a Support ticket and we will post the steps for resolution here after we have completed that support case.

Regards,

Jason Hatchett

Best practice for Scheduled Broadcast workflow.

You can schedule an event anywhere from 10 minutes or up to 7 days from the current time/date.

*Please note we do not advise you leaving your ClearCaster in prolonged Preview (approximately no longer then 1 hour)

Create a Live event using Facebook go to facebook.com/live/create (you will NOT need to add your ClearCaster under the Setting tab). Instead of Go Live you will need to select Schedule then you will need login to your Wowza ClearCaster Manager: clearcaster.wowza.com.

facebook-schedule.png

Open the broadcast details page. To edit the existing broadcast, go to the Broadcasts page, find the broadcast you wish to edit, and then click Edit. Under Broadcast Setup, modify the live stream event as needed. Then select the ClearCaster to which you connected your video source. Your changes are saved automatically.

clearcaster-manager.png

When you’re finished configuring the broadcast, either click Return to the Broadcast List or click Go Live to publish the broadcast; Go live from the broadcast details page: save any changes you may have made and then click Go Live above the video preview. (This is recommended if you’re publishing a broadcast that you just created or edited.) Go live from the Broadcasts page: find the broadcast in the list of broadcasts and click Go Live.

To ensure that you have seen all our posted information on our Wowza ClearCaster here are some useful links:

Create a Wowza ClearCaster broadcast for Facebook Live: https://www.wowza.com/docs/wowza-clearcaster-user-guide-streaming

Manage your Wowza ClearCaster broadcasts: https://www.wowza.com/docs/wowza-clearcaster-user-guide-manage-your-wowza-clearcaster-broadcasts

We would like to assist you to resolve that issue, you can open a Wowza ClearCaster Support Ticket online.

You can submit the required information in the Support Ticket form to generate an email message or chat text message, and the next available Wowza ClearCaster Support Engineer will assist you.

Wowza Media Systems also offers 24x7 phone support to ClearCaster users.

-Jessica