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Getting started

Live Stream puts live streams on your WordPress site. Hosts go live from the WordPress admin, with a camera or from OBS, and viewers watch on your own pages with a chat beside the picture. The video and the chat run on WordPlus Cloud's servers; your site decides who may watch and who may go live.

It's a beta

Live Stream works, and it still changes. During the beta a stream takes up to 50 viewers at once. See The beta.

What you need​

  • WordPress 6.0 or later and PHP 7.4 or later.
  • A WordPlus Cloud subscription that includes live streaming. Live Stream comes with it.
  • HTTPS. Browsers let a page use the camera and the microphone only over HTTPS, so hosts going live from the browser need your site on it.

Install the plugin​

Live Stream isn't on WordPress.org yet: it comes from your WordPlus Cloud account.

  1. Sign in to WordPlus Cloud and open Downloads. Download Live Stream's zip.
  2. In WordPress, go to Plugins → Add New Plugin, press Upload Plugin, choose the zip and press Install Now.
  3. Press Activate. A Live Stream menu appears in the admin.

Activate the licence​

Go to Live Stream → Licence and enter your WordPlus Cloud licence key. If the site already runs another WordPlus plugin on the subscription, such as Better Messages, it is connected already.

The header of Live Stream → Studio shows where the licence stands: your site's domain once WordPlus Cloud takes its streams, or Licence issue. Choose it for the details, to check again, or to open the Licence page. Until the licence is active, a notice on every tab says why nobody can go live or watch yet:

  • no licence is active on the site;
  • the licence doesn't include Live Stream;
  • the plan doesn't include live streaming;
  • the site is still getting its own key, which takes a minute or two after activating.

Create a stream​

Live Stream → Studio is one page with three tabs: Studio, where hosts go live, then Streams and Appearance for administrators.

  1. Open Streams and press Create stream. Give it a title, such as "Weekly Q&A".
  2. Set what it needs. Each stream keeps its own settings:
    • Starts: when it's planned to start, in the site's time zone. Viewers see a countdown until a host goes live. Optional.
    • Cover: the picture before the stream starts and after it ends. Without one, the Appearance tab's cover.
    • Who can watch: everyone, logged-in users, or selected roles. Administrators host.
    • Chat: see Chat and moderation.
    • Texts: what viewers read at each moment of this stream, in your own words. Before it starts, with a line of your own under it; while waiting for the host's picture; when it's full; after it ends, and the thanks under it; and the light chat's notes while it's closed. Leave one empty for Live Stream's own words, in the site's language.
  3. Press Save changes. Creating, copying and deleting a stream happen at once; every other change waits for the save bar.

A stream's settings on the Streams tab: title, shortcode, start, cover, Live now link, who can watch and hosts

Put it on a page​

  • In the Studio tab, press Create a page beside the stream. Live Stream publishes a page with the stream on it, the chat beside the player. It's offered while no page has the stream on it yet.
  • Or add the Live stream block to any page and choose the stream in it.
  • Or paste the stream's shortcode, shown in its settings, such as [easy_stream id="12"].

More ways, and the blocks for each part, in Putting a stream on a page.

Go live​

Open Live Stream → Studio, choose Go live beside the stream, turn on your camera and press Go live. Going live from the browser walks through it, and Streaming from OBS covers OBS.