Teams Live Events

Contents

1. Overview of Microsoft Teams Live
2. Detailed guidance for Teams Live Events
   1. What type of events should Teams Live be used for?
   2. PDF guides for how to set up a Teams Live Event
   3. Important considerations before using Teams Live
3. Book a meeting with the Media Production team
4. How to find training on Teams Live
5. Support resources / links
   1. Support for Teams Live Events
   2. University policy, security guidance and advice on video conferencing
   3. Support for Teams and standard Teams meetings
   4. Support for Replay / Panopto / Lecture Capture

1. Overview of Microsoft Teams Live

Teams Live Events is a feature within Microsoft Teams that enables Oxford University staff to schedule, produce and broadcast meetings to a large online audience up to 10,000 (with a temporary further increase to 20,000 until 30 June 2021). It is especially useful if you are presenting to an audience outside of the University as attendees can watch via a web URL link and don’t have to log in.

Teams Live Events is designed to be used for large-scale information dissemination such as town hall meetings, departmental updates, broadcasting keynotes or online training at scale. It is an extension of Teams Meetings and uses all the familiar tools and layout of a normal Teams meeting but with the ability to control the presentation of the meeting more and, importantly, go past the current 350 attendee limit. 

Educational Media Services has many years experience providing technical support for high-profile livestreaming events for the University and elsewhere. Please note that we are still testing Teams Live and Microsoft is updating the functionality on a regular basis so we will be updating this document on a regular basis.

2. Detailed guidance for Teams Live Events

Unlike regular Teams meetings, Teams Live meetings are not designed to be a chat-based collaborative events but instead one-to-many communications where the hosts/producers are guiding the presenter-led interactions. Attendees join via a shared URL link and can only view the content the hosts decide to make live. Attendees cannot be seen or heard by the presenters, but can participate in discussions using a moderated Q&A chat function.

What type of events should Teams Live be used for?

• Meetings of over 300 (exceeding the current limit of Teams Meetings)
• Information dissemination such as town hall meetings
• Cross-university briefings 
• Research Group updates that might include external collaborators
• Large scale training events
• Public engagement events

PDF guides for how to set up a Teams Live Event

If you would like to set up a Teams Live Event then the following PDF guides will help. You should also read the Important Considerations in the next section.

• How to schedule a Teams Live Event (PDF)
   
• Managing and presenting in a Teams Live Event (PDF)
• Useful Tips for Producers and Presenters (PDF)

• external_presenters.pdf

  external_presenters.pdf

Important considerations before using Teams Live

Please note that Microsoft is updating the functionality for Teams Live events on a regular basis.

1. There is no password protection for events. Anyone with the link can view the event and join anonymously. Presenters have no way of knowing if someone has joined who shouldn’t have. We therefore strongly recommend that no confidential information be shared in a Teams Live event.
    
2. There is currently no ‘share system audio’ feature for Mac users in Teams Live. This feature allows presenters to share their screen and their computer's sound, e.g. for playing a YouTube video or a video file on your computer. There are ways to achieve this using additional software but as a temporary low-tech workaround, if you simultaneously unmute your microphone and speakers, your computer's audio will be picked up via your mic. 
    
3. Windows users do have the 'share system audio' feature but not while sharing a presentation, so media content embedded in a PowerPoint file cannot be heard. The same workaround above can be used.
    
4. There is a limit of 4 hours for each event – so for instance weekend conferences/workshops will need to be split into sessions and therefore generate multiple event links.  
5. There can be only 15 Teams Live events that can run concurrently under the University license.  (NB this has been increased to 50 until 30 June 2021).  
6. Only one presenter's webcam can be viewed by attendees at a time, which isn’t ideal for panel discussions as only one speaker at a time will appear on screen, rather than the multi-person gallery view you have with a standard Teams meeting. If you have an event based around a panel discussion you may need to rethink the format of the event or find an alternative solution.
    
7. If you join from a mobile phone device or tablet, you can only join as an attendee – and you don’t appear to have access to the Q&A tab. If you are presenting or moderating in Teams Live then you will need to use a computer with the Teams App installed.
    
8. There is no ‘pause’ button, once an event has been stopped, it cannot be re-started.
    
9. Teams Live cannot be streamed to a social media account such as YouTube or Facebook, so if this is important for your public engagement work then you should look for an alternative solution.

3. Book a meeting with the Media Production team

If you have any queries or would like to schedule a test meeting then we are more than happy to help and advise.  Please contact media@it.ox.ac.uk 

4. How to find training on Teams Live

Teams Live training sessions will be listed on the Digital Skills Courses page here 

5. Support resources

Support for Teams Live Events

For support using Teams Live, contact Educational Media Services:
media@it.ox.ac.uk

University announcement of Teams Live, including a feature comparison table with standard Teams meetings:
https://www.it.ox.ac.uk/article/teams-live

Microsoft support page on Getting Started with Teams Live Events:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/get-started-with-microsoft-te...

University policy, security guidance and advice on video conferencing

University policy on video conferencing software (Word .docx file) - this is important to read regards user permission to be recorded:
Policy on recording meetings

Comparison of service options for virtual conferences and events, produced by the University Events team in April 2020 (Word .docx file):
Running live conferences and events virtually

Specific security guidelines on using the Zoom service:
Guidelines for using Zoom from InfoSec

Support for Teams and standard Teams meetings

For support with Microsoft Teams, including meetings, chat and channels:
https://help.it.ox.ac.uk/teams-getting-started

For recording a standard Teams meeting, sharing the video, setting permissions etc:
https://help.it.ox.ac.uk/record-a-meeting-in-teams

Support for Replay / Panopto / Lecture Capture

This includes home recording of lectures and presentations using Panopto:
https://help.it.ox.ac.uk/replay/manualrecording