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Live Streaming

Stream your services live from your browser or OBS, with automatic YouTube and Facebook broadcasting.

Hubl's live streaming lets you broadcast your services directly from your browser — no extra software required. You can stream to YouTube and Facebook simultaneously, switch between camera and screen layouts on the fly, and share the stream on your event page for visitors to watch.

If you prefer to use professional broadcasting software like OBS Studio, Hubl can set up your YouTube and Facebook broadcasts and provide you with the stream keys to paste into OBS.

Note

Live streaming is currently in beta. The feature is functional but may have occasional rough edges. If you run into issues, try refreshing the page or ending and restarting the stream.

Prerequisites

Before you can go live, make sure the following are in place:

  • You must be logged in with a role that has streaming permissions.
  • YouTube — Connect your YouTube channel in → Integrations. YouTube requires your channel to be approved for live streaming (this is a YouTube requirement, not a Hubl one — it can take up to 24 hours the first time you enable it on YouTube).
  • Facebook — Connect your Facebook Page in → Integrations. You need a Facebook Page (not a personal profile) with at least 100 followers to go live on Facebook.

Tip

You don't need both YouTube and Facebook connected to stream. Either one works on its own, or you can stream to both at the same time.

Creating a Stream

1

Open the Streaming dashboard

From your , navigate to Ministry Tools in the , then click Streaming. You'll see a list of any previous streams and their status.
2

Click Create Stream

Click the Create Stream button in the top-right corner. This opens the new stream form.
3

Choose an event (optional)

If your stream is for a specific event (like a Sunday service or special event), select it from the Event dropdown. Linking a stream to an event does two things:
  • The stream title is automatically set to the event name.
  • The stream is embedded on the event's public page so visitors can watch.
If you leave this as "No event — standalone stream," the stream exists independently and can be shared via its own URL.
4

Set a custom title (optional)

Override the default title if you want something more specific (e.g., "Easter Sunday Morning Service"). If you leave this blank, it defaults to the event name or today's date.
5

Click Create & Go Live

Click the button to create the stream. You'll be redirected to the Go Live page where the broadcasting controls are ready.
Create a new stream — optionally link it to an event

Going Live from Your Browser

The browser-based broadcaster is the easiest way to go live. It uses your computer's camera, microphone, and screen share — no extra software needed.

Setting Up Your Sources

The Go Live page shows a dark preview area with a toolbar at the bottom. Use the toolbar buttons to add your video and audio sources before going live.

1

Add your camera

Click the Camera button in the toolbar. Your browser will ask for permission to use your camera. Once granted, you'll see your camera feed in the preview.
2

Add your microphone

Click the Mic button. If you have multiple microphones (e.g., a USB mic and your laptop's built-in mic), a dropdown appears so you can pick the one you want. The selected mic stays saved for next time.

Tip

For the best service audio, connect your soundboard or audio interface to the computer and choose that device as the mic source. Hubl requests stereo, 48 kHz audio and turns off browser voice-call processing so music and room tone stay natural. Keep your mixer levels strong but out of the red; clipping before the browser cannot be repaired later.
3

Add a screen share (optional)

Click the Screen button to share your entire screen, a specific window, or a browser tab. This is useful for showing presentation slides, worship lyrics, or announcements alongside your camera.

Tip

You can add both a camera and a screen share at the same time. Use the layout picker to control how they're arranged — for example, picture-in-picture shows your camera in a small corner over your screen share.
The toolbar at the bottom of the preview lets you control your sources

Choosing a Layout

The layout picker appears above the preview. It controls how your video sources are arranged in the final broadcast. Choose from:

  • Camera — Full-screen camera feed. Best for a single speaker or worship leader.
  • Screen — Full-screen share. Best for presentations, worship lyrics, or announcements.
  • Picture-in-Picture (Camera) — Screen share fills the frame with your camera in a small corner overlay. Great for presentations where viewers still want to see the speaker.
  • Picture-in-Picture (Screen) — Camera fills the frame with the screen share in a small corner. Useful when the speaker is the focus but you want to show slides occasionally.
  • Side by Side — Camera and screen share displayed equally next to each other.

Note

You can switch layouts at any time — even while live. The change takes effect immediately for viewers.

Audio Quality

Open the stream configuration before going live to choose the audio quality. Auto now uses the highest-quality stereo setting on normal connections and only drops lower when the browser reports a very limited network. If your upload connection is unreliable, choose a lower tier before starting the broadcast.

For church services with worship music, use the browser broadcaster with a direct board feed or USB interface when possible. If you need scene transitions, EQ, compression, or a full broadcast mix, use OBS Studio and send Hubl the finished audio from OBS.

Platform Toggles

Below the layout picker, toggle pills show which platforms will receive your broadcast:

  • YouTube — When enabled, a YouTube Live broadcast is created automatically when you go live. A link to the YouTube video appears once the stream starts.
  • Facebook — When enabled, a Facebook Live video is created on your connected Page. You can also enable auto-post to publish an announcement post to your Page when the stream starts.

Starting the Broadcast

1

Verify your preview

Confirm your camera, screen, and audio sources look correct in the preview. Make sure you've selected the right layout and that your platform toggles are set.
2

Click Go Live

Click the red Go Live button. Hubl will:
  1. Create a broadcast room in the cloud.
  2. Set up a YouTube broadcast and/or Facebook Live video (depending on your toggles).
  3. Publish your camera, screen, and audio to the room.
  4. Start sending the composited feed to YouTube and/or Facebook.
3

You're live!

The button changes to a red End Stream button and a "LIVE" indicator appears. If YouTube is connected, a link to your YouTube video is displayed — you can share this link with your congregation.
The broadcaster while live — switch layouts, monitor your sources, or end the stream

Warning

Do not close the browser tab while streaming. If you navigate away, a confirmation dialog will warn you that your stream is still active. Closing the tab will disconnect your camera and microphone, though the stream session on YouTube/Facebook may remain open until you formally end it.

Ending the Stream

1

Click End Stream

Click the End Stream button. A confirmation prompt ensures you don't end the stream accidentally.
2

Stream wraps up automatically

Hubl will:
  • Stop the cloud compositing and RTMP relay.
  • Transition the YouTube broadcast to "complete" so it becomes a YouTube video your viewers can replay.
  • End the Facebook Live video.
  • Disconnect your camera and microphone.

Tip

After ending, the YouTube video URL remains valid and becomes an on-demand recording on your YouTube channel. You don't need to do anything extra to save it.

If a Camera or Screen Signal Drops

If a source stops sending video mid-stream (a camera cable gets bumped, a capture device loses its signal, the picture goes black), you don't need to reload the page or re-add your other sources. Hubl recovers just that source:

  • Automatic recovery — If a camera disconnects entirely, Hubl retries it a few times on its own. The source tile shows Reconnecting… while it works.
  • Manual reconnect — Every tile for a source on your device has a circular Reconnect button. Click it to drop and re-acquire just that camera or screen in place — your other sources, audio, and layout are untouched. For screen shares, the browser's share picker opens again so you can re-select the window.

Note

A tile showing No signal or Signal lost means the device stopped delivering frames even though it's still connected. Check the physical device first (power, cable, HDMI input), then click Reconnect on that tile.

Going Live with OBS Studio

If you need more control over your broadcast — scene transitions, overlays, multiple camera angles, or professional audio mixing — you can use OBS Studio (or any RTMP-capable broadcasting software) instead of the browser.

1

Create a stream

Follow the same steps above to create a stream from the Streaming dashboard. You'll be redirected to the Go Live page.
2

Click Set Up Platforms

On the Go Live page, you'll see a banner that says "Want to use OBS instead? Set up your stream keys first." Click the Set Up Platforms button to open the setup wizard.
3

Configure your broadcast

On the setup page:
  • Title — The name that appears on YouTube and/or Facebook.
  • Description — A brief description shown to viewers on the platform.
  • Thumbnail — Upload a custom thumbnail image for the broadcast.
  • Toggle YouTube and/or Facebook on or off.
4

Click Set Up Streams

Hubl creates the broadcast on YouTube and/or Facebook and generates the stream keys. The page advances to the "Ready" view showing your credentials.
5

Copy the stream key and server URL into OBS

The Ready view displays:
  • YouTube Server URL and Stream Key — Copy these into OBS under Settings → Stream. Set the Service to "Custom" and paste in the server URL and stream key.
  • Facebook Stream URL — Copy this into OBS as a second output (or use OBS's multi-output plugin).
Each field has a Copy button for easy clipboard access.
6

Start streaming in OBS

Click "Start Streaming" in OBS. Your broadcast will go live on the platforms you configured. You can monitor the stream from the YouTube Studio or Facebook Creator Studio dashboards.
7

Stop streaming in OBS when finished

When your service is over, stop the stream in OBS first, then return to Hubl and end the stream to transition the YouTube broadcast to "complete."
Copy these credentials into OBS Studio under Settings → Stream

Tip

If you need to reconfigure (e.g., you want to add Facebook after already setting up YouTube), click the Reconfigure button on the Ready view. This clears the existing broadcast and lets you start fresh.

Linking a Stream to an Event

When you link a stream to an , the stream is automatically embedded on the event's public page. Visitors navigating to the event will see a "Watch Live" button or an embedded video player.

  • While live — Visitors see the stream in real-time via the YouTube or Facebook embed.
  • After the stream ends — The YouTube video becomes an on-demand recording that visitors can still watch from the event page.

Note

A stream is unique per event per day. If you stream the same event on multiple dates (e.g., weekly services), a new stream record is created for each date automatically.

Managing Past Streams

The Streaming dashboard lists all your streams with their status:

  • Idle — Created but never started.
  • Live — Currently broadcasting.
  • Ended — Broadcast completed.

Click any stream to view its details, see linked event information, or delete it. Ended streams linked to YouTube retain their video URL, so you can always find the recording.

Moving a Broadcast to Another Stream

If you set up a plain stream instead of one linked to your Sunday service, the broadcast still works — but its history lands on the wrong stream, and the service occurrence on your public page looks like you skipped that week. You can move a finished broadcast, along with the recording it produced, onto the right stream.

1

Open the stream holding the broadcast

From the Streaming dashboard, click the stream, then find the broadcast under Broadcast History.
2

Choose Move

Click Move… on that broadcast. Streams linked to an event are listed first, so your service stream is easy to spot. A stream that is broadcasting right now can't receive a move, and a broadcast that is still live has to be ended first.
3

Pick the service date

When the destination is linked to an event, you choose which service date the broadcast belongs to, and the closest one is already selected. This matters for evening services: a broadcast that starts late in the day can otherwise be filed under the following date.
4

Confirm what moves

The dialog lists the broadcast and every recording travelling with it. Confirm, and you land on the destination stream with the broadcast in its history. The stream you moved it off keeps working and is left looking as though it never went live.

Tip

Nothing is deleted by a move, and it works both ways. If you move the wrong broadcast, open it on its new stream and move it back the same way.

Note

A stream can't take a broadcast for a date it already has one for, since the same service date would then appear twice on your public page. The dialog tells you before you confirm.

Recordings

If recording is enabled (it is by default), your stream is saved to cloud storage. You can access recordings from the Recordings tab in the Streaming section.

  • Download recordings directly from the Recordings page.
  • Each recording shows its duration, file size, and the date it was captured.
  • Recordings may have an expiration date depending on your storage plan. Expired recordings are automatically cleaned up.

Troubleshooting

Browser won't access my camera or microphone

Make sure you've granted camera and microphone permissions in your browser. Click the lock icon in the address bar to check. Some browsers block camera access on non-HTTPS pages — Hubl always uses HTTPS, but if you're using a custom domain, make sure your SSL certificate is active.

YouTube says my channel can't stream live

YouTube requires channels to be verified and approved for live streaming. This is done in YouTube Studio under Settings → Channel → Feature eligibility. The first-time approval can take up to 24 hours.

Facebook says I don't meet the live requirement

Facebook requires your Page to have at least 100 followers before you can go live via third-party apps. Grow your Page following or go live directly from the Facebook app in the meantime.

The stream started but YouTube shows "Offline"

There can be a 10–30 second delay between when you click Go Live and when YouTube recognizes the incoming feed. Wait a moment and refresh YouTube Studio. If it persists, check the Stream Diagnostics panel at the bottom of the Go Live page — it shows whether the egress (the cloud relay to YouTube) is active.

The audio sounds thin, distorted, or cuts out

Start with a direct feed from the soundboard or a USB audio interface, then check that the source has healthy levels. For processing, clipping, silence, or dropout warnings, read the Troubleshoot streaming audio guide.

I accidentally closed the tab while live

Return to the Streaming dashboard and click on the stream. The Go Live page will detect the existing session and let you reconnect or end the stream. YouTube and Facebook may also automatically end the broadcast after a period of no incoming video.

Permissions

To access the Streaming section, a user must have a with streaming . Organization admins and super admins have access by default.

To grant streaming access to someone else, go to People, then Roles, and either start from the A/V Team or Streaming Director template or set the Streaming permission on an existing role:

  • View — can see streams, recordings, and past session history, but cannot start a broadcast.
  • Go Live — can start and end broadcasts. This is the right level for most A/V volunteers and worship leaders.
  • Manage — can also create streams, change stream settings and destinations, and delete recordings.

Note

Going live to YouTube or Facebook also requires those accounts to be connected under Settings, then Integrations. Connecting them is a separate Integrations permission, so if your A/V volunteer needs to set up destinations themselves, give their role Integrations Manage as well. The Streaming Director template includes both.

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