How to stream to multiple platforms at once

Three ways to go live everywhere at once

Multistreaming, sometimes called simulcasting, means one show going out live on several platforms at the same moment. There are three ways to do it, and they differ in one thing: where the copy for each platform is made.

• From your own computer. Your streaming software sends a separate stream to each platform, usually with an add-on. It costs nothing to set up, and your upload has to carry every one of those streams at once.
• Through a relay server you run. Your computer sends one stream to a server that copies it to each platform. It holds up when the server sits on a fast connection in a data centre, and you are the one who keeps it running.
• Through a studio in the cloud. You send one stream, or go live from a browser tab, and the studio makes the copies in the cloud. Scenes, guests, comments and Be right back happen there too, so nothing extra runs on your computer.

The sum that decides it: your upload

Live video is upload, and most home and phone connections give far less upload than download. When the copies are made on your side, the upload you need is your bitrate times the number of platforms: a 6 Mbps stream to four platforms needs 24 Mbps of steady upload, and every platform stutters the moment it dips.

On a phone plan the same multiplication lands on your data. At 8 Mbps a stream uses about 4.3 GB an hour once the overhead of a mobile network is counted, so four platforms sent from the phone itself would use about 17.3 GB an hour.

When the copies are made in the cloud, your connection carries one stream however many platforms it reaches. Two platforms cost your upload nothing more than one, and so do twenty.

Where each platform keeps its stream key

Every platform hands out a stream key: a private code that lets software go live on your channel. Some also give a server address to paste beside it. This is where each one keeps them:

• YouTube: YouTube Studio → Go live → Stream.
• Twitch: Creator Dashboard → Settings → Stream.
• Kick: Creator Dashboard → Settings → Stream key.
• TikTok: LIVE Studio → Server URL + Stream key.
• Facebook: Live Producer → Streaming software → Stream key.
• LinkedIn: Go live → Stream from a third-party tool (RTMP URL + key).
• X: Media Studio → Producer → your broadcast → Source (RTMP URL + key).

Keep your keys private, and check who can stream

Treat a stream key like a password: anyone who has it can go live on your channel. If one leaks, reset it on the platform and paste the new one into your studio.

A platform may offer a stream key only to some accounts, or ask you to switch live streaming on first and wait before it works. Instagram, for one, asks for a professional account and gives a new key every time you go live. If you cannot find your key, that platform’s own help pages say who can stream from other software, so check the day before, not ten minutes before.

Check each platform’s limits and rules

Each platform publishes the highest resolution and bitrate it accepts, and they are not the same. Lumbus sends up to 1080p at 60 frames a second on every Studio plan. Twitch, Kick and TikTok take 1080p at most, and YouTube and a custom RTMP address take 1440p60 and 4K60 on a Custom plan.

Read each platform’s rules too. Some partner programmes have their own terms about streaming elsewhere at the same time. TikTok’s LIVE guidelines ask creators not to show information from a third-party platform, so leave other platforms’ chat and names off a stream that goes to TikTok.

Comments from every platform in one place

The hard part of a multistream is rarely the video. It is the audience: three chats moving at once on three screens. A studio that reads the comments for you puts them in one list, so you can answer people wherever they are watching.

Lumbus reads comments from YouTube, Twitch and Kick into one panel, and one tap puts a comment on screen. One chat overlay carries all three on the picture. Comments on other platforms stay on those platforms, so keep a phone open on any that matter to your show.

Your moderators can switch scenes from chat too, with brb, live, fix and bitrate, so a problem gets handled while you are still mid-sentence.

Before you go live everywhere

Five checks that take less time than apologising to three audiences at once.

• Test every platform off air first. A test with colour bars shows each key works before anyone is watching.
• Set the title and description on each platform that asks for one, before you start.
• Start a few minutes early on a Starting soon scene, so people arriving on every platform land on the same show.
• Watch one platform as a viewer on a second device, with the sound down, to see what people actually get.
• Know what happens if your connection drops. With a studio in the cloud every platform stays connected and shows Be right back until you return. Straight from your computer, each platform decides for itself.

How many platforms each plan sends to

On Lumbus, Free sends to 2 platforms at once, and the Studio plans to 5 on Studio, 8 on Studio Plus, 12 on Studio Pro and 20 on Studio Max. A Bond session from your phone sends to as many as its plan: through your studio, or on a paid plan straight to your platforms.

Each platform has its own switch, so you can turn one on or off while you are live without touching the others, and it reconnects on its own if the platform has a hiccup. Live hours are unlimited on every Studio plan however many platforms you send to, for normal creator and production use.

To try it with every platform at once, Studio Pro is free for three days with eight hours on air and no card. Or start on Free with 2 platforms and keep it for as long as you like.