The history of video-conferencing dates back to the 1800s of 4K black and white screens until this present day of smart screens, smartphones and devices.

Video-conferencing or teleconferencing; refers to the technologies that aid the reception and transmission of audio-video signals by users at different locations in real-time. Video-conferencing became popular in the 2000s due to the rise of smartphones equipped with rare and front-facing cameras specifically for video-conferencing.

The Covid-19 lockdown saw a hike in the usage of video-conferencing tools. The pandemic that resulted in Nigeria and the rest of the world sitting at home, made companies schools and organizations patronise video conferencing platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, Skype to hold virtual meetings with their employees, clients and associates as well as virtual classes for students.

Due to the limitation in the number of persons that can join a zoom meeting, Facebook/YouTube live stream proved to be a solution to connecting with hundreds of persons unhindered. With Facebook/YouTube live streaming, a meeting held on Zoom can be shared to a Facebook page or group or on YouTube to allow a larger audience to engage.

Facebook

To share your Zoom meeting on your Facebook page or group, you must be the Admin of the Group and the Group must have given Zoom permission to do so. If that is done, follow these simple steps to share.

1. Check if your Facebook account is enabled to go live. If no, Go to Account Management> Account Settings and scroll down and select “Allow live streaming for meetings”.

2. Start your meeting on Zoom.

3. Ensure you have logged in to your Facebook account.

4. On the bottom bar on Zoom select More; Live on Facebook when you are asked where you want to go Live – page, group etc.

5. You can add a description to the Facebook video post.

6. By clicking Next, you will immediately go live on Facebook.

7. To share your screen as you would in Zoom, click Share.

8. Click End Meeting when you are done with a meeting, and the live video will stop. It will be uploaded to Facebook for people to watch as a replay.

YouTube

To set up Zoom live streaming on YouTube, follow the steps below.

1. Open YouTube, click the camera icon in the top right corner.

2. Click Go live from the drop-down options.

3. Enter the details of your new stream.

• Title – The name of the webinar

• Visibility Public – This makes it searchable by anyone on the YouTube channel.

• Description – What is the meeting about? This will appear under the video.

• Schedule for later – Toggle between no or yes and set the date and time of your meeting.

• Upload a custom thumbnail – a suitable image to be added.

• Audience – Select your audience category and Click Create Stream.

1. Click the arrow icon in the top right and copy the URL.

2. From the Upcoming Meetings page, click on your new meeting.

3. Scroll down to the bottom and click the Live Streaming tab under the LIVE icon.

4. Click the link to configure the stream settings. The popup window will ask you to paste the settings you copied from YouTube.