Teams Live Events

Contents

Microsoft Teams live events allows you to broadcast live content to very large online audiences (both internal and external audiences) of up to 10,000 participants! Content can also be recorded. The audience can interact with the presenters using moderated Q & A. Example events might be online graduation or induction events, or online webinars or conference-style presentations.

Additional options

Please consider if a Teams video call meeting or Teams webinar is more appropriate for what you are planning. Video call meetings allow for meeting participants to all contribute to a meeting and screen share content such as slides. Webinars are more controlled and the participants have clear roles; one or several experts (the presenters) share their ideas or provide training to an audience (the attendees).

Please access our help pages at the following links: creating video meetings in Microsoft Teams and Teams Webinars.

Microsoft support pages

This help page provides introductory guidance correct at the time of writing. Please also check the Microsoft support pages for the most up to date detailed guidance for live events; get started with Microsoft Teams Live Events.

Guide overview

Schedule a Teams live event
Manage a Teams live event
Best practice for running a live event
Further support and guidance

Schedule a Teams live event

Schedule an event

University employed staff and students are able to create live events from within Teams. To create a live event follow the steps below.

To create a live event in Teams, click on the select Calendar icon
At the top of the dialog box, select New meeting > New live event.
Add the meeting title, date and time information, and other details.
In the Invite people to your event group box, add the names of the people who will be presenting and producing the event (by default you will be the live event Producer).
Select Next.
Under Live event permissions, choose who can attend your live event.
Make selections under How do you plan to produce your event? (this is where you would select Q&A if you require this feature).
Select Schedule.
Select the Get attendee link to copy the unique code. This is what you post or send to anyone attending the event.

Once the event is scheduled, be sure to make any changes in Teams. Don’t edit this event in Outlook.

Manage a Teams live event

Manage an event

Large live streaming events typically have several people working behind the scenes to make them successful. Teams live events have clearly defined roles.

Organiser

The organiser schedules a live event and ensures the event is set up with the right permissions for attendees and the event group, and who will manage the event.

The organiser manages the following tasks.

Creates the live event
Sets attendee permissions
Selects production method
Configures event options (for example, the moderated Q&A)
Invites attendees (please see the following Microsoft help page for further guidance; invite attendees to a Teams Live Event)
Selects event group members
Manages reports generated after the event is over (please see the following Microsoft help page for further guidance; manage a Live Event recording and reports in Teams)

For more information, see the organiser checklist.

Producer

The producer makes sure attendees have a great viewing experience by controlling the live event stream. It is advisable to have more than one producer. Producers can manage the following tasks.

Start and stop the live event
Share own video
Hold all presenter duties
Share participant video
Share active desktop or window
Select layouts
Moderate Q&A
Manage reports generated after the event is over (please see the following Microsoft help page for further guidance; manage a Live Event recording and reports in Teams)

Please also see the following Microsoft help page for further guidance; produce a Live Event using Teams.

Presenter

The presenter can present audio, video, or a screen to the live event and moderate Q&A.

Please see the following Microsoft help page for further guidance; present in a Live Event in Teams.

Attendee

Attendees watch the event live or on-demand, either anonymously or authenticated, and can participate in Q&A. Attendees need to enable third-party cookies in their browsers to watch a live event. Please access the following Microsoft support page for guidance for attendees (you may wish to send this help page to attendees with the link to the event); attend a Live Event in Teams.

Best practice for running a live event

Best practice

Preparation

Most importantly, practice. A live event should aim to be run like a professional broadcast. Schedule additional events as rehearsals and run through all aspects of the event with all of those involved in the production. Try out also watching the attendee experience live and on demand. Learn the system well, so producers don’t have to solve problems during the live event.
Have the event group join about 30 minutes ahead of time. Share an intro slide indicating that the event will begin soon. Then, start the live broadcast about 10 minutes early to make sure everything is working.
Plan for your event group communication. Real-time communications are critical for live events. The inner event chat is a good way to stay in touch.
Assign roles and responsibilities. Know who is responsible for each step of the operation, from organisers, producers, presenters, Q&A moderators, to your overall producer or director.

Audio

Leave all audio muted until you’re ready to go live with your presenter at the start of the live event.
Test in-room audio before the event so you don’t bring noise or feedback from the room into the online event. Any presenter can also choose to share their system audio to improve sound quality. Please see the following help page: share system audio in a Teams meeting or Live Event.
Mute any producers or presenters who aren’t actively speaking. If they’re not muted, their audio will go live to attendees.

Please also be aware that;

Once you stop the live event, you can’t restart it!
There’s a 15 to 60 second delay from the time a media stream is broadcast to when attendees see it.
If your content is live, other presenters or producers can start sharing their screens by selecting share. Make sure that the event team is aware of this potential conflict.

Further support and guidance

Please see the following useful Microsoft support page for further links to all the most up to date detailed guidance for live events; get started with Microsoft Teams Live Events.

Please also see the following video tutorials for an initial introduction to live events.