Using Pexip Infinity to stream from VTC systems into Microsoft Teams live events

Microsoft Teams live events are extensions of Teams meetings, enabling users to broadcast video and meeting content to a large online audience.

You can use Pexip Infinity as an external RTMP encoder for your Teams live events, which means that you can stream video, audio and presentation content from your videoconferencing meeting room systems directly into the event.

Note that, as an alternative, a VTC can participate directly in the live event — see Pexip CVI with Microsoft Teams live events for more information.

See these Microsoft articles for more information about the administrative requirements for Microsoft Teams live events:

Setup summary

These steps summarize the process to schedule a live event and add an RTMP stream via Pexip Infinity:

  1. Schedule a Teams meeting and change the meeting type to a live event. Note that the person (Teams user) scheduling the live event needs to have an E1 license.
  2. Set the event permissions to People and groups or Org-wide, and select Teams Encoder as the production method.
  3. Join the event from a Teams installable client and copy the Server Ingest URL and Stream key or name fields from the Meeting options panel (More > Settings > Meeting options) — these form the basis of the streaming participant URL.
  4. Ensure that the Pexip VMR you are using has Call quality set to HD (720p).
  5. Use the Pexip app to join a Pexip VMR.
  6. Start the Pexip VMR and add the RTMP streaming link (the Server ingest URL appended with / and then the Stream key or name) as a participant into the VMR.
  7. In Teams, you can now select Send live, and then Start when ready.

Detailed setup instructions

These steps explain in more detail how to schedule a live event and add an RTMP stream via Pexip Infinity:

  1. Schedule a Teams meeting:

    1. From the meeting drop-down menu, change the meeting type to a live event. The person (Teams user) scheduling the live event needs to have an E1 license.

    2. Enter the meeting title and other attributes as normal and then select Next.
    3. Set the event permissions to People and groups or Org-wide. You cannot use an external encoder if the permissions are Public.
    4. Select Team Encoder as the production method for the live event and then select Schedule.

  2. Invite attendees as normal.

  3. Join the event as a Producer from the Teams installable app — it has to be the installable client, you cannot use the web browser.

    The RTMP feed selection screen appears.

  4. Open the Meeting options panel (More > Settings > Meeting options).
  5. Copy the Server Ingest URL and Stream key or name fields — these form the basis of the streaming participant URL.
  6. Ensure that the Pexip VMR you are using has Call quality set to HD (720p).
  7. Use the Pexip app to set up the custom RTMP streaming.
  8. Add the RTMP feed as a participant to the conference. The participant address is:
    Server Ingest URL + "/" + Stream key or name
  9. In Teams, you can now select Send live, and then Start when ready.