Last week on Teams On Air we had Jeff Tyler, lead for digital experiences at Microsoft to showed us Behind the Scenes of Skype Meeting Broadcast at Microsoft. You can leverage Skype Meeting Broadcast to engage with employees and customers live, up to 10K attendees. During this episode, we took you behind the scenes of a highly produced event at Microsoft. In addition, Jeff and I share how we use Skype Meeting Broadcast to run this show, Teams On Air, and some best practices on how you can get started with just a laptop and internet access.
Lastly, we Share the roadmap of Skype Meeting Broadcast and Microsoft Teams! Check out the episode today:
Topics:
2:01 What is Skype Meeting Broadcast?
5:32 Behind the scenes of a Tier 1 Microsoft broadcast
8:39 Interview with Jeff Tyler from Microsoft Studio
12:22 How Teams On Air is produced
20:04 Get started with Skype Meeting broadcast
30:37 Q&A
39:20 Roadmap update
Links:
Get started with Skype Meeting Broadcast - https://www.broadcast.skype.com
Skype Meeting Broadcast best practices - https://www.aka.ms/SMBBestPractices
Hive - https://www.hivestreaming.com
Kollective - https://www.kollective.com
Q&A
We had so many questions from our Q&A, that we couldn’t address them all, so we’ve rounded up all the questions from our live Q&A and included them below. If you want to catch up on the show, you can access our full list of on demand videos on YouTube at http://ms/TeamsOnAirReplay. If you’d like to receive notifications for latest videos in the future make sure you subscribe to our playlist. Thanks for watching!
Q: is there a user voice for skype meeting broadcast? I suppose I can just put my ideas out there. 🙂
A: Yes. You can post your ideas here and vote for other ideas as well. https://www.skypefeedback.com/forums/299910--recently-released/filters/top?category_id=119968-skype-meeting+broadcast
Q: At one time there was a plan for their to be "curtains" - i.e. the skype for business broadcast page was "white labelled" and the front page could be branded. This is ideal for scenarios where you have a conference and a "broadcast sponsor" However, this feature seems to have evaporated. Can it be enabled ?
A: It is in our roadmap. As promised during the show: here’s a primary roadmap we shared at Microsoft Ignite.
Q: How will you address side-by-side Content (PowerPoint or background video/audio) sync’d with Video of live presenter - either watching the Live stream or when watching on replay, similar to how other products like this work?
A: In the Skype for Business client, you can change the view on the fly. You can select a content layout view where the presenter or content is in full view or both side-by-side. Schedule a meeting today http://broadcast.skype.com and try it out.
Q: When we run through the Magewell to the laptop running the Skype client, we cannot hear any audio. Is that common or are we not set up correctly? The audio is fine in the Trickster Mini as well as anyone watching the broadcast. it's just the laptop with the Magewell.
A: In the Skype for Business settings for video and audio, make sure you select the Magewell as the source. You should be able to hear the audio that way
Q: Does the workstation that is showing the video through the Magewell need to have the microphone unmuted? In some of our testing it seems that if that workstation is muted, no audio coming via the Magewell goes out to the Broadcast. Once I unmute, audio is heard.
A: Yes, you need to mute/unmute in the Skype for Business client. It’s a best practice to test this before the show to get use to muting the right speaker/content.
Q: Could you explain how to display content in a room where you have an audience while also displaying that content to those on the broadcast.
A: There are special considerations when you are broadcasting to both in room and remote audience.
1) Use the RegKey to effectively suppresses noise cancellation, since audience applause, laughing, and so on, is often picked up as noise. You can find the regkey at https://www.aka.ms/SMBBestPractices
2) Keep in mind that your audience will be watching the broadcast with a delay of around 20-30 seconds behind live. This won’t be an issue for audience members watching individually on their own devices, but it has implications if you are streaming the broadcast to an auditorium which include remote presenters. Rooms containing both an audience and remote presenters will need receive the real-time meeting feed via the Skype for Business client, and not watch the time-delayed broadcast feed via a browser.
3) Rehearse sound in the auditorium carefully, particularly checking for any undesirable echo. If possible, use the same PC to play audio into the room and record audio from the room. This will allow Skype for Business to use the default noise-cancelling algorithm effectively and produce a ‘clean mix’ of the room’s audio.
Here is a diagram on how we do recommend doing this:
Q: Can the host of the Skype Meeting Broadcast tell how many people are streaming the video live? Or stats after the fact, in some way?
A: Yes, our reporting lets you know how many people were live vs. on demand.
Q: What licensing do I need?
A: Skype Meeting Broadcast is available in any O365 SKUs that have Skype for Business Online Plan 2. E1, E3, E5 all have Skype Meeting Broadcast. It is also available in EDU Faculty E1-E5 plans.
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