To borrow from media stalwart Oprah Winfrey: “Great communications begins with connection.” Never a truer word has been spoken such as this, especially in the time of the Great Disconnect. When COVID-19 reared its ugly head, we’ve lost so much more than we could have imagined. Jobs, opportunities, even loved ones. But the one loss that reverberates even to this day that the world is slowly going back to its feet is our connection to one another.
Seemingly overnight, the whole world was thrust into remote work setups and online grocery shopping, and even schooling. Thanks to technology, we remained connected with the ones that matter to us. What Microsoft Teams has done is invigorate this connection with its online events feature.
Microsoft Teams Live Events
True to form, Microsoft Teams continues to evolve and develop features to enhance our connectivity experience. Now, Teams allows users in any organisation to broadcast video and meeting content to larger online audiences.
What this does is encourage stronger connections between attendees before, during, and even after live events—regardless of how geographically dispersed your attendees may be. Along with chat, calling, and meeting functions, Microsoft Teams Live Events allows you to expand your meeting audience to a larger one, making the event inclusive. This one-to-many broadcast communication ability lets the event host lead interactions where audience members can ask questions after the presentation.
Getting Started
Microsoft Teams Live Events was designed for large audiences, hence it relies on Content Delivery Networks for content delivery to live events participants. Your content is secured by encryption protocols. Furthermore, as event initiator, only you can issue access to live events participants depending on your live event configuration.
To ensure robust security measures are in place, Microsoft Teams encourages organisations to ensure that enhanced network security infrastructures are in place and to include Microsoft Teams Live Events in security planning.
Just like on TV. Microsoft Teams Live Events is done just like they do on TV shows—it supports multiple roles like organiser, producer, presenter, and of course, the audience.
Event Scheduling
Microsoft Teams has included a feature that lets event organisers create an event based on a target number of attendees, designate event team support, pick the appropriate production method, and invite attendees. It is important to note, however, that Microsoft Teams will not allow users to schedule events on low bandwidth coverage.
Production Value
Microsoft Teams’ enablement of large audience live events is hinged on creating enhanced connections, hence it has removed the limitation of creating broadcast events using only your laptop or smartphone camera. With Microsoft Teams Live events, it is possible to mount a professional video production using multiple cameras.
Microsoft Teams Live Events support multiple production scenarios, depending on project requirements and budget. Organisers may still conduct an event using the webcam or A/V input from Teams room systems, which is the simplest way of holding a Live Event. If your project requires a more professional approach, it is possible to use external encoders. This is the option for you if you want to optimise existing studio-quality equipment such as media mixers, which support streaming to a Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) service.
Optimising Attendee experience
Your Microsoft Teams Live Events’ success depends largely on the experience your audience receives as much as the impact of your content. For events produced in Microsoft Teams Live Events, it is best for your audience to use Stream Player and Azure Media Player if events are created using an external app or device. It works across desktop, browser, and mobile devices for both iOS and Android.
Live Events Analytics
As with all things Microsoft Teams, it is holistic. Your Microsoft Teams administrators are able to view real-time usage analytics that shows an activity overview of the live events. Included here is the event status, start time, views, and production type.
Conclusion
With Microsoft Teams Live Events, we are afforded greater flexibility and mobility. People in your organisation will no longer feel excluded and can attend enterprise-wide events such as company anniversary events, Christmas parties, and the like.
At this time of the Great Disconnect, Microsoft Teams Live Events is our gateway to regaining the connection that is an inherent human need. Let Switch Connect show you how to optimise Microsoft Teams Live Events to add value to your organisation!
Talk to Us today for more details about Microsoft Teams Live Events.
