In the past week, many clients have asked me how they can set up instant and company-wide video communication feed to all of their employees. If you’re a small company, you can set up an MS Teams channel and invite everyone to join. Even with Zoom, the meeting might get a little crowded.
For larger organizations with hundreds or thousands of users, inviting everyone to a meeting is not a feasible solution.
Much more acceptable is the traditional webinar-style communication with one or several panel members visible while everyone is in listening mode and has the ability to type ask questions in comments of the live stream.
With organizations needing to respond quickly now, I feel a need to share my simple but practical steps on how to use your existing office 365 tools and Zoom to set up an instant video stream for your employees.
Though my approach uses Zoom, its chosen purely for its quick functionality as you can see below in the setup steps. Only the host will need to sign up for a Pro account of Zoom. With that single subscription, you can stream video messages to thousands of your Office 365 users.
Let’s begin.
Why live stream (and not record a video)?
As opposed to just recording the video here are some of the benefits of the live streaming video communication especially in time of emergency or an urgent event:
Instant and accurate to the minute communication
Many employees perceive live video feed as more genuine communication
Employees feel more engaged when they can ask and get real-time answers to their questions
Collect questions via comments without interrupting the sound and video feed
Ability to automatically record the live stream for later viewing
Why live stream through SharePoint (and not a web streaming platform)?
If you’re already using SharePoint in Office 365, you already have tools to set up a live stream in minutes. Here are additional benefits of using SharePoint as your live streaming platform:
Ability to embed live stream right onto your homepage
Employees can access the feed on their phone or another mobile device
Employees already have access to the intranet, so there is no need to set up additional meetings, and licences!
Employees can comment while the live stream is taking place
If you have moderators, they can help answer questions from the audience while you focus on the communication
Microsoft Stream will take care of:
Video quality management depending on employee internet bandwidth and device used
Recording of the stream for later viewing
Permission management
Transcript generation
Q&A and poll if you need any
many other extras you’ll probably not need but are available to you
Why use Zoom for live streaming (and not MS Teams)?
If you’re Microsoft shop you’re probably wondering why is this article not suggesting using MS Teams instead of Zoom.
As of writing this article, I could not find a documented capability to stream events from MS Teams to Microsoft Stream. Zoom allows doing this seamlessly.
Here are a few more added benefits:
Pro Zoom subscription is all you need to host a meeting
If you have additional panellists joining the meeting, no special Zoom licence is required for them
Ability to connect Zoom to Microsoft stream takes only a few minutes to set up
Check out how you can set up live streaming on your SharePoint in this quick step by step admin guide. Need help? Leave a comment, and I’ll be happy to connect with you.
In Summary
Live video streaming urgent, company-wide messages can ease the frustration of employees when there is an unknown. Opening voice chat to hundreds of thousands of employees is rarely feasible. Employees can comment in the comments section which will enable engagement and help executives answer those questions in real time. Office 365 and Zoom provide an excellent set of features to set up live streaming in minutes.
Making your SharePoint intranet modern, fast, and durable
Yaroslav Pentsarskyy is a Director of Product at Origami. Yaroslav has been awarded as Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for 8 years in a row and has authored and published 4 intranet books.
Yaroslav is also a frequent presenter at industry conferences and events, such as the Microsoft SharePoint Conference and Microsoft Ignite.
Our vision at Origami for a modern digital workplace solution is more than just a pretty page. It’s a business enabler and culture builder. It’s a facilitation platform that brings together everything your team needs for helpful, relevant and engaging workplace experience.
Book a demo today to see how Origami’s pre-built intranet helps your business needs and supports your employees.