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Tour of YouTube updates to Live Control Room

Just over a year ago YouTube launched the Live Control Room in new Studio. "My Live Events" and "Stream Now" remained available in Classic Studio.  With Classic Studio going away by the end of April - just over a week from now - YouTube is rolling out new features in Live Control Room. 

Development is ongoing, and YouTube has assured that "you will still have access to the Classic live tools within Live Control Room in case you need them." 

YouTube has made the Live Control Room easier to navigate, and there is a new Manage page where you can view and edit your upcoming live events and current live broadcasts.

There are also new live stream features: automatically start and stop your streams with your encoder, edit your live stream video before the archive has processed, automatically unlist live stream archives and see how your live content contributes to your channel grown in Analytics. 

To access the Live Control Room, just open YouTube Studio (studio.youtube.com) on a desktop computer, and click the Go Live button at top right (you can also find that option under the Create button).

Improved navigation and live stream management

The main navigation options have been moved from the top to the left of the page.

You can toggle the menu open and closed by clicking the 3 line "hamburger" menu option at top left. 

There are four options: Stream, Webcam, Manage, and Stream Now Classic.

Stream 

You can either create a completely new live stream, or you can copy  stream settings, privacy, and details (title, category, etc.) from a previously completed stream. Learn more about how to create a live stream with an encoder.
Click Events in the lower right corner to return to the Classic Live Events page.

Webcam

Broadcast live using your computer's webcam. You don't need any software other than your web browser.

Click Events in the lower right corner to return to the Classic Live Events page.

Manage

The new "Manage" tab lets you see all your scheduled live streams, and the status of any current broadcasts. 
 You can see that my live stream had an "Excellent" connection. You can also see the number of live viewers. 

You can also select multiple live streams on the Manage page to make bulk changes to the title, description, visibility, and audience ("made for kids" or not). 
 

Stream Now Classic 

Finally, if you really want to use the old "Stream Now" option, you can return to Classic temporarily.

New Live Streaming Features

YouTube has also added a few new features.

Auto-Start and Auto-Stop

When you set up your live stream in the Live Control Room you can set it to start automatically when you start sending data from your streaming software, and stop the stream automatically when you when you stop sending data from your streaming software.

This should make it easier to manage your live stream.

To set up auto-start and auto-stop: 

1. Open Live Control Room and click Stream on the left menu.

2. Set up your live stream by entering title, description and other details. If the stream is in the future, schedule the date and time.

3. Click Create Stream

 4. On the dashboard, toggle the switches to Enable Auto-Start and Auto-Stop
5. Start the live stream in your encoder or third party streaming service. 

You have to set up the live stream in your Live Control Room to use this feature.

Select Manage to edit this option for already scheduled upcoming live streams.

Automatically Unlist Live Streams Archives

Even when your live stream is public, you may not want the archived recording to be publicly available. You can now set your live stream to be automatically unlisted after it is processed. 

To automatically unlist a live stream: 

1. Sign in to YouTube Studio and open the Live Control Room

2. Create a new Stream or click Manage to edit an upcoming stream.

3. Under Additional Settings enable Unlist live replay once stream ends

4. Start your live stream 

If you change your mind, you can always change the visibility of the replay from unlisted to public or private.

Unprocessed Live Replay Editing

You can trim the ends and create highlights of your live streams as soon as it ends. No need to wait for the live stream to fully process. 

When your live stream ends, the Stream Finished box gives you an overview of the stream. 
Click the Edit in Studio button to immediately edit your live stream video, even before it has processed

More YouTube Analytics Data

Finally, you can now learn more about how live streams have contributed to your channel growth, by comparing data from your uploads, live streams and premieres. 

1. Open your channel's Analytics (studio.youtube.com/channel/UC/analytics

2. For any of the stats click See More to take a "deep dive"

3. At the top of the graph, click More to view all the options

4. Select Publish Format
This will let you compare data for Upload, Live and Premiere videos. 

Note that Publish Format data is not available before January 18, 2020. 

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