How to Use the New YouTube Live Control Room

YouTube has launched a new live stream control room in YouTube Studio (beta) that you can access from anywhere on YouTube. If your YouTube channel is enabled for live streaming (check your Status and Features page), the new control room should be available in your YouTube account.

The new desktop Live Control Room (www.youtube.com/livestreaming/) has three options:

• Stream Beta for live streaming using an encoder
• Webcam for live streaming using your computer's camera, no encoder required
• Manage to manage your current and scheduled live streams

You can also manage your live streams and live stream archives from the Live tab on your Studio Beta (studio.youtube.com) Videos page.

YouTube wants you to try it out and send them your feedback!

Note that Live Stream Events and Stream Now are still only available in Creator Studio Classic. There is a Classic Live Streaming button to return to Classic on the bottom right of the live stream control room.

Update April 20, 2020: The Live Control Room has new navigation and new features. Click to learn more.

Read on for more details.

Set up a live stream using Stream Beta

1. Click the "creation" icon  (it looks like a video camera with a +)

2. Select Go live

That will open www.youtube.com/livestreaming/

3. Set up your new Stream Beta live stream.

4. Set your live stream options:

• Add a title
• Select whether the live stream is Public, Unlisted, or Private
• Add a description
• Add a category
• Schedule the live stream for later
• Enable monetization
• Add a custom thumbnail
• Click Settings for advanced settings to enable or disable chat, change latency and so forth

Note: You can create a new live stream by copying stream settings, privacy, and details from a previously completed stream.

5.  Click the Create Stream button

6. Use the Stream Key Setup to setup your encoder software

Note: if you want to use your webcam to live stream, click the Webcam tab before setting up your stream. There are instructions below.

7. Start the encoder and go back to the live dashboard.

8. Once the preview begins click Go live

9. Stop sending content from your encoder to end the stream.

An archive will be created of all live streams up to 12 hours.

Learn more in the YouTube Help Center: Create a live stream in the Live Control Room

Stream using your webcam, rather than an encoder

1. Click the "creation" icon  (it looks like a video camera with a +)

2. Select Go live

That will open www.youtube.com/livestreaming/

3. Click the Webcam tab at the top

4. Set up your live stream

• Add a title
• Select whether the live stream is Public, Unlisted, or Private
• Click More Options: Add a description, Add a category, Select your camera and microphone
• Click Advanced  Settings: Disable Chat, Enable age restriction, Enable monetization

5. Click Next

6. Take a thumbnail photo

Once you have taken a photo, you will see the option to upload your own thumbnail.

7. Click Done when you are ready to start your live stream or have finished scheduling

Manage your Live Streams

To manage your live and scheduled streams, click the Manage tab.

1. Sign in to YouTube and click the creation icon (a video camera with a +)

2. Select Go live to open www.youtube.com/livestreaming/

3. Click the Manage tab

4. Click the live stream you want to manage

5. When viewing the stream information, click the 3 dot menu icon under the thumbnail for options to edit, share or delete the stream

6. Click Live Dashboard to go live

Access your current, upcoming and past live streams in the YouTube Studio dashboard.

1. Open YouTube Studio at studio.youtube.com

2. Click Videos on the left menu

3. Click the Live tab at the top

(Yes, I only have set up a bunch of tests for this channel)

4. Videos are in the following order

• Live Now: current live streams
• Upcoming: scheduled live streams
• Live Replay: videos that have already live streamed

5. Click the "Live" icon to the right of a current or scheduled live stream to open in Live Control Room

For completed live streams you will see a YouTube video icon to open the live stream archive.

6. Click the 3 dot menu icon to the right of the video for more options

• Edit title and description
• View on YouTube to open the video watch page
• Get shareable link
• Promote (if your account is linked to Google Ads)
• Download (only available for completed live stream archives)
• Delete

7. You can click the monetization status icon for any video in the list to enable or disable ads on the video