The RingCentral Events Stage is where you can reach the entire audience in one place. It’s great for your main talks — keynotes, presentations, fireside chats, panels, interviews, and so on. Up to 100,000 people can view the Stage at a time.
Creating Multiple Stages
If you're on the Business plan, you will have the ability to set up multiple stages. Go to the Event Dashboard > Venue > Stages.
Here you will see one Stage already created. This Stage is default and cannot be removed. However, you can set up to meet your event needs. Hover over the Stage listing and click on the pencil icon to edit it.
If you need multiple Stages in your event, click Add Stage to add more.
Once you create several Stages, you will see all of them listed on this page. The Stage created manually can be removed by hovering the listing and clicking on the Bin icon. It's also easy to go to the Backstage from here if your Stage has StreamYard selected as a stream provider.
Setting up your Stage
To set up the Stage, go to the Event Dashboard > Venue > Stage (or Stages). The ability to set up multiple stages is available on Business plans.
You will see the following fields for you to fill in:
Stage title (60 characters max / required)
The descriptive, easy-to-remember name, attendees will use to find the Stage during the event. The Stage Title can be changed any time by the Organizer.
Stage description (140 characters max / internal use)
Add in some extra information about your stage, this will only be visible to Organizers in your Event Dashboard to help you distinguish between different Stages.
Who can watch
If you have different ticket types, you can restrict your Stages so that they are only viewed by specific ticket types. If you then link this Stage to a schedule segment, only those with the specific ticket types will see it in the schedule.
Stream provider
There are four different options to display content on Stage to choose from as shown below.
- StreamYard
- Youtube
- Wistia
- Vimeo
Thus, you can either embed a pre-recorded video from YouTube, Vimeo, or Wistia or start your own live broadcast from the StreamYard backstage. Refer to the section Choosing a stream provider for more information.
Live closed captioning
Closed captions will be enabled for your stage by default and we recommend keeping them enabled for better accessibility if not using your own captioning. Attendees will be able to enable and disable the captions on their screen at any time. However, you can disable this option if desired.
Apps
In this section you will be able to connect the apps that are enabled for your organization and can be added to the Stage area. Click Discover more apps to get redirected to the App store where you can install various apps that can improve your in-Event experience. Check out our integration guides to learn more about the available apps.
Additional Information Area
You can add additional information to the stage for your attendees by using the content area. Follow this guide to set that up.
Choosing your stream provider
It's important that you choose a stream provider that works well for your needs and your Attendee experience. Here's a little more info about your options.
Pre-recorded videos
You are able to add pre-recorded videos from YouTube, Vimeo, or Wistia on the Stage, by selecting the respective option from the dropdown menu under "Stream provider".
Then, paste the video ID from the hyperlink of your choice, as highlighted in the image below. Scroll down and click Save.
YouTube playlist
Adding a YouTube playlist will let attendees select which video(s) they want to watch.
Broadcast Studio
For fully virtual events, most organizers use the StreamYard backstage with advanced video production features to host a live broadcast. In this case, you need to select StreamYard as your stream provider.
RTMP
You can livestream from a third-party software onto the RingCentral Events Stage using RTMP streaming.
- Set the Stream provider to StreamYard (if not already selected) in order to see the RTMP Stream tab.
- Switch to the RTMP Stream tab. When you're creating a new stage, you would need to save it with StreamYard as a stream provider first to be able to see this tab.
- Click Generate RTMP setup (this will generate a unique set of stream keys and URLs for your event).
You will then be able to see the RTMPS URL and Stream Key to input into your software. This will ingest the feed from a livestream program, such as OBS, WireCast, Switcher Studio, Ecamm, StreamYard, and others. RTMP is the solution to choose for live streaming your onsite event content into a virtual venue on RingCentral Events.
Recording the Stage
If you would like to enable the Replay feature, make sure the box for Record this stage? is checked! This should be ticked by default, but we recommend double checking, especially if you have more than one admin working on your event.
Recordings can take up to 24 hours to appear in your Event Dashboard > Recordings tab, check out this guide for more info on accessing your recordings.
Low Latency Mode
The low latency mode is another option which becomes available when you choose StreamYard as your stream provider. It is enabled by default.
Keep it enabled for optimized performance if you expect most of your attendees to have a stable and fast internet connection. Low latency mode improves the attendee experience at the expense of stream reliability. When enabled, low latency should decrease the “lag” between broadcast and stage by a few seconds, so users watching the stage will see the backstage content a little quicker, at the expense of higher network requirements on the attendees part.
Disabling this will push that delay back to its default, but will make this stream easier to load for users with slower network speeds/worse internet connection. If you expect many of your attendees to connect from slow internet connections, we recommend disabling the low latency mode to improve stability. If you anticipate having a large number of users in the APAC region, or are experiencing stream quality issues, it's also recommended to have this option disabled.
Getting speakers set up
Having all of your speakers set up and well prepared is an essential key to having a successful Stage broadcast on RingCentral Events. Refer to this guide for detailed instructions on how to create speaker profiles for all of your speakers and get them registered for your event. Organizers can manually register them or let speakers register via the Registration page.
It's also important to have your speakers correctly assigned in your event schedule. This will keep your audience engaged and informed as speaker profiles will be showcased on your Registration page, Schedule, and Reception Page.
We highly recommend doing a test run with your speakers. You can use the backstage of your existing event for rehearsal. Please kindly note that speakers need to be signed in into their RingCentral Events account to be able to access the backstage. Make sure you share our speaker instructions with them!
Finally, on the day of the broadcast make sure to send your speakers the backstage link so they can get ready for presenting and access the studio on time.