We're making a few updates so you can learn more about your webinar audience, and grow on LinkedIn with less effort! Any questions or feedback for our founders? 

Come hang out LIVE with Geige & Dan — they'll answer your questions about StreamYard: a browser-based tool that lets you live stream, record videos & podcasts, and host webinars.

Welcome to episode 245 of the StreamYard Live Town Hall.

My name is Gage and I'm here with Dan, of course.

We have an exciting, some exciting announcements tonight, as well as a special guest from the StreamYard team.

For anyone new here, Dan and I are the founders of StreamYard.

We do these town halls every single Sunday at 6 p.m.

1 is to stay in tune with you, go through the same flow that you all do with your own shows and productions.

That's why we're calling it Ask StreamYard.

So if there's anything you'd like us to touch on tonight, feel free to leave it in the chat and we'll do our best to get to as many as we possibly can.

And I always mention the 3 pillars of StreamYard, which are ease of use, stability, and professional stream.

So if you've got those 3 things, Streamr is the tool for you.

See folks tuning in from all over the world tonight.

Before I forget, We have lots of awesome content on StreamYard.

We have YouTube channel reviews with Dee and Daniel, second Saturday of every month.

Really fun show if you're looking to grow on YouTube.

Both Dee and Daniel are pros when it comes to all things video and all things YouTube.

And they'll dig in on specific channels and talk about things, like how to think about thumbnails or analyze your analytics after your videos are posted in your live stream.

And then we have Enhance Your Live Streams, the last Tuesday of the month with Nick Nimmin, who again, is a pro when it comes to all things video, but jump into that 1 for all your live streaming questions.

And then 1 thing we've been doing at the start of these so that we get to know a

you get to know a little bit more about us is a fun fact.

And the 1 we had for tonight was you had to pick 1.

For me, it's definitely Slurpees, or sorry, smoothies, not Slurpees.

There's a time in my life, maybe middle school is when I was really into Slurpees, but yeah, I really like smoothies, Huge fan.

I feel like when I was younger, maybe I would have gone with Slurpees.

There was a few summers where I was definitely into Slurpees, but now probably lean more towards smoothies just because you can kind of put whatever you want in the smoothie.

I always like when Slurpee is just mixing a whole bunch of flavors together.

All right, I see there's already quite a few questions here.

So we'll get into the update in a second here, but first let's cover some of the questions.

Paranormal Gateway says, we'd love the option to be able to import images, JPEG, PNG, or another image file to be able to show on screen while streaming my show.

Yeah, that's a great point, Paranormal Gateway, and definitely something we'd like to add in the future.

1 thing we did add a while ago now, I guess, is the ability to import PDFs.

So as an alternative, what I would probably recommend doing now is if you just open up something like Google Slides and take all your images and basically, you know, set up your images per, like maybe it's an image per slide, or if you wanna show multiple images per slide, do that.

And you can really easily just export the Google Slide as a PDF and then put that directly in StreamYard.

I think that works quite well, but definitely understand, you know, maybe you have a folder with a bunch of images that you just want to really easily import.

It is something we'd like to support in the future as part of sort of like that present tab.

I assume you already know this, but you can definitely upload a bunch of images as overlays, but I'm guessing maybe you don't want to do that.

You still want your camera to be visible at the same time.

I see lots of folks are, smoothies are definitely a pretty big margin.

So yeah, there's so many more options, right?

Jamaica says, do ads run on your live stream while using StreamYard?

It's a weird question because it depends on how your channel is set up.

So if you mean like does StreamYard run ads or something, Absolutely not.

So the only thing that's gonna be part of your feed is what you choose to put on your feed.

If you are on the free plan, it does have the StreamYard logo in the corner there, but you'll see that there.

It's not like a surprise, and you can remove it if you choose to upgrade.

But if you just mean, can you run ads on live streams that you do with StreamYard?

StreamYard just integrates directly with things like YouTube.

So if you're using the YouTube ads product, it absolutely works fine with StreamYard.

And you can run ads on your live streams and recordings.

All right, let's see what else we had here.

Downhome Crypto says, question, will we ever be able to move the panes in the control panel around, like putting the chat bar on the left side and such.

It's definitely something we're open to down home.

I know many folks would like to have things like, hey, I want to be able to see the comments and the brand at the same time.

So yeah, we're definitely open to, and even exploring things like the ability to maybe pop out certain parts of the control panel or move them around.

Elmo Michelle says, can we just buy some Streamr merch if we don't win?

I'm sorry you haven't won yet, Michelle, but thank you so much for trying for a year.

It's awesome to have had you here for that long.

If you just go to the StreamYard home page, if you're already logged in, it's a little bit hard to find.

So you either need to probably just log out is the easiest way.

If you log out and go to the bottom, there's a footer there that links directly to the store.

We tried to basically charge essentially what it costs us to have the merch.

Mark says, can a border be added automatically around a camera without having to create a transparent overlay?

The thing that Dan and I have behind us right now is our background.

And we did add an option where if you're on screen by yourself in the let me just check double check where it is if you go to the settings and go to

There is an option at the very top that says, crop solo layout to show background image Yeah, exactly like dan's showing there So if you have that checked instead of you taking up the entire area of the screen, it will have the borders of your background image, which I assume is what you're asking there, but if not, do let me know.

The other 1 that's pretty common too, So for example, if you're doing a stream like we have here where there's 2 of us on screen, and like the thing we just showed only works if it's just you, and only if you want like a background that's that exact size.

But the other thing that's pretty common is without even using a transparent overlay, people will just customize their background.

So they'll make the background look quite interesting and just wrap perfectly around the video elements without having to do a separate transparent overlay.

You can also do a transparent overlay, like you mentioned.

And then we may add more functionality to build some of that in.

So there are other ways to do it, but we don't have that right now.

Let's do maybe a couple more, and then I want to get into the update just in case there's questions around that.

Dice Grinder says, will you have different giveaway tools like a spinning wheel?

Yes, we're definitely open to doing more with the giveaway tool in terms of more variety, in terms of what it looks like, and potentially even making it a little bit more integrated so you're not having to sort of screen share another tab.

So stay tuned, it's definitely possible that we do more with that.

MuttNut says, question, are there any plans to add extra camera to the basic plan?

So there's no concrete plans right now, but not in terms of a date or something.

I will say that we're always open to changing our plans and thinking about what makes sense on different plans.

So it's definitely possible in the future that that changes, but I don't have a date or anything for you at this time.

OK, let's do 1 more here and then get into the update.

Rochelle says, question, any updates on teleprompter features within StreamYard?

It would be good to have the option within StreamYard versus toggling with the overlay of Word or Google Docs, similar to what's available in CapCut.

No new updates, Rochelle, but it was super useful last time.

Last show, we had asked what folks have open while they're streaming.

And a very common 1 was exactly what you say, like having Google Docs open at the same time.

So definitely got us thinking in terms of like what we could do around teleprompter features and in terms of supporting that.

So no new updates other than definitely understand that it's a pretty wide need, especially based on the last show, and we would like to support it.

And I'll have to check out what CapCut has.

Yeah, I would also say we have actually tested a little bit internally, something we kind of built versions of it and played around with it.

We just wanna make sure that it would actually work better than using an external doc.

Google and those types of products, Google Docs works pretty well.

So we just want to make sure that if we do something, it actually is like a much better experience than what you can get from Google Docs or something.

Yes, so let's jump into the announcement for tonight, and then we'll get back to some of the questions.

So yeah, really excited about this 1, specifically for OnAir.

We just launched custom registration fields.

So this was definitely 1 of the bigger requests when we launched OnAir.

So if you, and first of all, if you don't know what OnAir is, OnAir is basically StreamYard's ability to, instead of streaming to YouTube or maybe in addition to streaming in YouTube, you want to have a private webinar or a private live stream, that's exactly what OnAir is for.

So you can basically set it up such that maybe you want to do a private live stream on your very own website and embed it there.

Or if you don't have your own website, if you just want to do a webinar where folks go to a StreamYard link that you promote, StreamYard OnAir is basically just a very simple, easy-to-use webinar platform that is stable and works at scale.

And now you can actually make your very own registration field.

So before we only had a few, not even a few, it was essentially just, What was it, Dan?

So it used to just be email, first name, last name, and now, but now you can add additional fields like, you know, country, telephone number.

And I think we actually have a video here from Dana walking through exactly how it works.

Anything to add first, Dan, or should I go ahead and play the video from Dana?

It's a pretty short video, so I think play the video and then I can go into it in a bit more detail.

I'm so excited to unveil a brand new feature that lets you understand your audience better than ever.

Imagine hosting a webinar and knowing exactly where your participants are tuning in from, or having direct channels like their phone number to connect with them deeper.

Now you can personalize your On Air registration page by adding custom fields tailored to your needs.

Want to know the countries that your participants are joining from?

The phone number and country will auto-populate based on your viewer's browser data, and your participants can easily adjust it if needed.

Beyond that, you can add text input fields, single-select drop-downs, and checkboxes to collect even more valuable insights from your viewers.

Simply head to your OnAir Settings page, click registration on the left, and hit the add button.

This feature is available on all plans, professional and above.

There's a bit more info, but I cut it off early just because it starts to get into other stuff.

Why don't you stop and just screen share this?

I don't know if data goes pretty quick through that.

So here's what the registration page actually looks like.

Now again for people that are not familiar with on air this is the webinar platform so this isn't for streaming to YouTube this isn't for streaming to Facebook this is a unique experience specifically for private live streaming or for doing webinars.

So these are the fields you collect in the past, email, first name, last name, those are still there.

You can still collect those, or you will still collect those if you turn on registration.

So for example, if you wanted to get the country your users are watching from, just click that, add it, and that's literally all you have to do.

If you want to get the phone number, same thing, or if you want to have a text field, maybe ask a really custom question here, whatever it is, and that'll just show up, it's the question.

And then there's quite a few, well, there's a few advanced options.

So specifically this 1 is quite advanced, single select.

So you could ask, hey, are you a cat's person or a dog's person, for example, and then put in the option.

And Then basically just get a dropdown to let them actually choose the 2 options.

I mean, it's everybody's watched these townhalls before knows.

We try to keep this as simple as possible, but still try to give you as much power as we possibly can while keeping it simple.

I think this is a pretty good example of that.

So a lot more functionality around on-air now.

If there's any questions, I can keep explaining more.

So yeah, if there's any other questions you all have about it, let us know.

Or if there's anything you'd like to see in addition to this, like if, you know, if there's other things you'd like to see involving registration or on-air in general, do let us know.

But yeah, glancing, looks like folks are pretty excited about it.

Still trying to figure out how to integrate on-air feature into my news platform.

I guess depending on how your news platform works, 1 very common way is folks just embedding it directly into the website is usually a pretty simple way to go.

And All these custom fields as well also work for embedding.

As long as you have registration on, then registration works for embedding.

So if you just embed it, turn on registration, you can still add whatever fields you want all within your own website.

Glad that it matches what you were looking for.

Russell says, question on the new registration feature, can the viewer have an option not to input, say, a phone number?

So first of all, you can just not ask for phone numbers if you don't want to collect them at all.

And that's the default is to not collect them.

But if you really want to know everyone's phone number, you can add it as a field, but then there's a little switch and I didn't show that, but there's a switch for each field where you can make it required or not.

If you want to make it optional, make it optional, if you want to make it required, make it required.

Chantel says, are custom polls available for on-air to pre-set up and release at certain times within the on-air?

So not at this time, Chantel, but that's definitely a request that is way up there on the popularity list, along with more options around Q&A.

So definitely, polling options will be coming in the future.

Robert says, will you ever consider interfacing with Descript?

It would be great to go directly from StreamRoute to Descript.

Robert, it's not something we've gotten too many requests for, but if it does start to become more popular or asked for more frequently, it's definitely something we're open to.

Carl says, when will we be able to show all the chat running on our show from all platforms.

So I assume what you mean, Carl, is like the chat on screen itself, but just in case it's not what you mean, most major platforms, StreamRoute supports the comments for, right?

So like if you're streaming to YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, all of the comments from those platforms will come into your studio and you can choose to show comments from any platform that you like.

If you mean like showing the entire chat on screen, don't have a date on that, it's something we're open to.

We've hesitated to do it in the past, just in case if someone put something inappropriate, it sort of burned into the show permanently.

But I know some people are willing to take that risk and rather have it up there.

Chris says, hey guys, any updates to the touch-up appearance on mobile?

So just for anyone that's wondering, so we have the touch up filter, which is only available on desktop or laptops right now, hoping we can launch it on mobile relatively soon.

We're working on just performance improvements for the touch up filter in general.

And once those are out, we should be able to hopefully add it for mobile.

So yeah, hopefully coming soon, but I don't have a date for it yet.

Rob says, is there a way to remove someone from a webinar while it is going live?

So I guess Rob, it depends what you mean by, oh, do you mean

If you mean like someone who's co-hosting with you, you can, the same way that when you're streaming to YouTube or Facebook, you can simply click to remove them.

If you mean someone who's watching from the audience, not quite yet.

I assume that might be what you're asking.

So you can block, yeah, You can block people in the chat, right?

So yeah, you can block people from the chat.

You can't actually, if someone's registered and has the link, you can't stop them from watching it yet.

But in the future, we are planning on adding more ways for sort of blocking access and authenticating individual access.

And just for this question as well, yeah, we have had a few other people say it's a bit too aggressive, or some people that want it to be a little more intense.

So we'll be adding an option pretty soon to tweak how aggressive the touch-up filter is.

Hoping that's maybe next week or the week after.

Square table says the streamer to work on boats or does the water mess it up?

If you, I'm not, maybe you're kidding square table, but if you're not kidding, it just depends on the internet connection you have in the boat.

I mean, the most likely thing is you're probably working off satellite internet or something, which if you have a guest is gonna be a bit more difficult just because of the latency involved with satellite internet.

But if you're just streaming by yourself, it could potentially work fine.

I would definitely test it first before doing a big stream.

I've seen people stream on both, and yeah, it's hit and miss, I would say.

For some people, it's quite good if they have a solid connection, and for some people, it's pretty rough.

Maria says, can I use multiple phones with the same login during a live stream?

So 1 thing we did a while ago, Maria, is the whole concept of teams on StreamYard.

So say you have someone else in the stream who's like a co-producer or who you just want backstage, you can invite people to your StreamHard account and it's also more secure that way too because you can remove them in the future or control whether they have access to things like billing and whatnot.

So yes, you can have multiple people in the account during a live stream.

And also, if you just mean multiple phones in the sense of getting another camera angle, you can do that as well.

But if I'm misunderstanding the question, do let me know.

Albert says, do we have to pull down SY updates to our local PC?

Are you pushing updates since we are coming to SY in the land of wizards?

So you don't have to download anything with StreamYard.

So all the updates will happen automatically.

Just when you go to the StreamYard website, that's when you get the latest version of StreamYard.

Nicole says, hey, guys, I've got a friend that has some special effects appear on screen when he uses hand gestures.

Yeah, Nicole, I think that question, I'm not sure if it was you, but I think someone else asked about that last time.

No, that gentleman, he must have some other piece of software running in conjunction with StreamYard.

That's not something that's for a streamer.

We do have a guest to bring on as blogger.

Let's do 1 last 1, then we'll bring on Alex.

Albert says, question, maybe a repeat question, is StreamYard using AI tools in StreamYard, like summarizing the stream.

So the new touch-up filter feature and the background noise removal feature are both powered by AI.

And there is lots of other exciting AI-powered features coming in the future, So stay tuned on that.

See all StreamYard transcripts on Youtube

Ask StreamYard: New Features To Know & GROW Your Audience (#245)