Restream tools and features: Everything you need to know

Live streaming keeps evolving, demanding more from content creators and brands. If you want your live video content to make a real impact, it needs to have good production quality. Fortunately, there’s a live streaming tool that makes publishing engaging content easy.

Restream is a go-to live streaming solution that helps you produce high-quality live content, maximize your audience reach, and overshadow your competitors. Go live right from your web browser, schedule pre-recorded videos to go live, and multistream to top platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Twitch and more. Read this full guide to Restream’s features to see why it should become your live streaming companion.

Restream tools and features: Full guide

Is Restream.io free? The short answer is yes. We have tons of amazing free live streaming tools and features. However, we also offer many effective paid features and services to facilitate, improve and level up your live streams. With Restream’s paid subscription plans and features, you can reach wider audiences, stand out from your competitors with custom branding, and get insights on your live stream performance to better understand viewer behavior. 

3 ways to go live with Restream’s products

Restream gives you more than one way to broadcast your live content. You can:

1. Use Restream’s multistreaming plug-in with streaming software like OBS Studio for easy simulcasting.
2. Go live from your web browser using Restream Studio for no-hassle, professional-looking live streams.
3. Record and edit videos and set them to go live with Restream’s Upload and Stream.

Each of our products has several features that make going live — and looking good — easy. Here’s a full breakdown of each feature that comes with our products.

Use Restream’s multistreaming plug-in with streaming software

Restream integrates with third-party streaming software such as OBS Studio to let you multistream on several platforms simultaneously. With our plug-in, you get several other helpful features that take your streams to the next level.

Custom destinations

With Restream, you can multistream to two platforms for free with our Basic plan. However, broadcasting to some platforms may require a paid subscription plan. For instance, you can stream to your personal profile on Facebook with our free plan, but a paid plan lets you stream to Facebook groups and public pages. A “custom destination” is any streaming platform not included in the free plan, including custom RTMP streaming. Each paid subscription plan grants a different number of custom destinations.

RTMP Pull links

RTMP Pull is a feature that lets you play one live stream inside another. You can pull your live video feed from Restream and insert it as a source in another streaming software, such as OBS Studio. Think of it as adding another webcam on your stream, but without the extra hardware. Why would you use RTMP Pull links? They’re essential for broadcasts of esports tournaments, for example, by providing real-time translations and commentary. 

Stream to Facebook pages

Some platforms have more than one way to stream. On Facebook, for instance, you can stream to a profile, page or group. Restream lets you add multiple channels from the same platform, so you can go live with the same content to your Facebook page and group.

Stream on your website

Streaming live video on social media networks like Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn is a great way to connect with your audience, especially if you’re already active on those channels. But what if you could amplify your message further by hosting a live video on your own website? Restream’s website video player lets you embed a live stream on your home page, a landing page or any other page on your site.

Proxy streaming

Do you want to broadcast to streaming services outside your region? Then you need Restream proxy. If a certain streaming platform is blocked in your region, or if it's just too far away, Restream will help you get around these obstacles and reach the destination! This feature is especially useful if you’re planning to stream to different distant countries.

Fail-safe stream backup

Thanks to the fail-safe stream backup feature, you can protect your live streams from any interruptions. The backup tool switches between your primary and secondary streams in case of any issues. This feature ensures an optimal viewer experience. We recommend that your streams don’t last more than 120 hours, however, due to technical limitations. 

Browser-based live streaming with Restream Studio

Restream Studio lets you broadcast live videos on your favorite channels in a matter of minutes. You don’t need prior knowledge or experience about live streaming to use it. Plus, our live streaming Studio has a wide range of free and paid features to help make your live video shine.

No Restream branding

Our paid subscription plans allow you to turn off the Restream watermark on your stream. You can also add your own logos and watermarks, as well as custom background images and overlays. You can upload all your custom visual effects in Restream Studio and start streaming in just two clicks.

Stream recording

Wouldn’t it be great if you could save a recording of your live stream to use later? Restream lets you record and download your live streams to repurpose them. Download your video or audio files and transform them into amazing podcasts and other social media content!

Split-track recording

We’ve made our stream recording feature even more useful for content repurposing by adding a split-track recording feature. It allows you to separate your video and audio tracks for each stream participant, making editing and postproduction much easier. You can separate the video feeds of you and your guest to edit into short clips, or get separate audio recordings to turn your live stream recording into a podcast.

Stream in Full HD

With one of our paid plans, you can offer your viewers exceptional streaming quality by using Full HD. Restream Studio supports Full HD streaming, but you do need a camera that records in HD as well. Streaming in HD or 1080p makes your stream look more professional and stand out from your competitors.

RTMP source

Although they have a similar name, the RTMP source and RTMP Pull features don’t do the same thing. RTMP Pull lets you place a feed from an external software (like OBS) in your Restream Studio stream. RTMP source does the opposite — it lets you place your Restream Studio stream in an external software. Why is RTMP source useful? It lets you combine features from other live video software with Restream’s. If you’re hosting a Zoom webinar, for example, you can use Zoom to host up to 1,000 participants and Restream to display custom captions, screen share, or even stream a pre-recorded video.

Stream on guests’ channels

With Restream’s pairs feature, you and your guest can stream the same video to both of your channels at the same time. Simply add their channel link to Restream Studio before you go live. Pairs is a paid feature, but it’s totally free for your guests to pair their channel with yours for your stream. If you combine pairs with Restream’s events feature, you can also have your guest create an event link for your stream to promote it in advance.

Teams

Pulling off a successful broadcast often takes more than one person. When you’re on camera, it’s good to have someone else off-screen to manage the live chat, launch pre-recorded videos or slides, or change the music. With Restream teams, you and your teammates can join the same live stream in our Studio, without needing separate accounts. You can also assign roles and privileges to each team member, so there’s no confusion or mishaps when you’re live. 

Custom graphics

Make your live videos look professional and polished by adding your brand’s visual assets. Upload your logo, branded captions, background and more with Restream Studio’s graphic and design features. 

Record-only mode

If you want to run a mic or camera test, or practice your scene transitions, you can use Restream’s record-only mode. It lets you record a video with the Studio, without going live on any platforms. You can watch the video when you’re done to make sure everything looks perfect. You can also use it to film videos that you’ll publish later, like a quick tutorial, a conference lecture, or an employee onboarding video.

Create stunning live videos

Restream Studio is the easiest way to create high-quality live videos on multiple platforms at once. It's user-friendly and offers an engaging viewer experience.

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Upload and stream pre-recorded video

Sometimes, live streaming a video you previously recorded and edited is better than going live. If you want to focus on the chat during your stream, don’t yet feel comfortable on a live camera feed, or want to re-broadcast a previous stream, you can use Restream’s Upload and Stream. 

Video storage

Restream allows you to upload and store pre-recorded videos on our Basic plan, but if you want to upload longer videos and get more storage space, you can upgrade to a Standard or Professional plan. Why upload videos to Restream? So you can schedule them to go live later! Depending on the paid plan you choose, you can store between five and 10 videos.

Stream pre-recorded videos

With Restream’s Upload and Stream, you can schedule pre-recorded videos to go live on as many platforms as you like. You don’t even have to be near your computer — Restream will automatically broadcast your videos on your selected channels at your selected time. You can upload and stream videos with Restream for free, but only videos of up to 250MB and only three videos at a time. If you need more storage, you can upgrade your plan.

Concurrent events

Sometimes, you need to run multiple live broadcasts at the same time. If you’re an agency that has multiple clients that you run events for, a large organization that needs to run live streams of several events at once, or you simply want to stream in landscape mode on Facebook and portrait mode on Instagram, Restream’s concurrent events feature can help.

Video clips

Playing a pre-recorded clip during your stream helps make your live broadcast more dynamic. You can play an intro or outro, a video submitted by a viewer prior to the stream and more. If you want to play a video clip on your stream, you can easily upload videos to Restream’s cloud storage and add them as a source to your live video.

Video looping

Video looping lets you set your pre-recorded videos to play on a loop during a live broadcast. You can live stream one of your most popular broadcasts on replay, loop a product launch for those who couldn’t join live, or run a 24-hour radio station or DJ set.

Advanced Restream features for power users

The features included with our Enterprise plan allow your organization to run a high-powered live video streaming strategy and broadcast professional content:

• Single sign-on
• Product onboarding and training
• Account management
• Parallel streams
• Custom billing
• Security review
• Custom team seats

Check out our pricing page to discover all our features and compare subscription plans.

Premium support with all paid plans

We deeply care about our customers, so we constantly improve our products. But most importantly, we provide 24/7 support for our premium users. Premium support means your tickets are prioritized and you get replies as soon as possible.

Other features Restream users love

• Multistreaming to two streaming services. Choose from over 30 integrations such as YouTube, a Facebook personal page, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and more.
• Access to Restream chat (a tool that combines your chats across all your streaming platforms)
• Multistreaming plug-in that integrates with popular streaming software such as OBS Studio
• Inviting up to five guests to your live streams without using any third-party tools
• No time limits on your live sessions
• Real-time channel toggling (it allows you to end your stream on one platform but keep it going on another, without any interruption or interference in the quality of your stream)
• Insightful data from Restream analytics
• Adding an extra camera for more than one angle
• Two users on the same Restream account
• Private chat with your team members during the stream
• Stream monitoring to detect any possible issues and ensure the best viewer experience
• Copyright-free background music
• Hi-res audio
• Screen sharing
• Importing and presenting a slide deck on your stream
• On-screen captions, comments and ticker
• Saving your stream settings and assets for each brand you stream for with brand folders
• Sharing links on-stream as scannable QR codes
• Virtual backgrounds
• Streaming in vertical (portrait) mode
• Importing products from Shopify, Amazon, Etsy, Wix, Prestoshop and more to promote and sell during live e-commerce streams
• Live stream countdown timer
• Build out your live stream flow in advance with layouts, transitions and more
• Create templates for your streams so you can easily go live with all your settings ready to go
• Creating a post on social media for an upcoming live event and getting a link to use for promoting the event
• Combining multiple pre-recorded videos into a playlist for one smooth stream
• Trim stream recordings into shorter videos or edit out unwanted sections

Free online tools for content creators

In addition to our products and features, Restream also has a suite of free online tools for content creation. You don’t have to download any software or even create a Restream account. You can also rest assured that your data is safe with us. Any files or data you send to our tools get removed from our servers when you’re done.

Whether you need a free video converter to change your files to an online format for publishing, a podcast transcription tool, an MP3 converter, to test your webcam online, or to edit and publish your live interview recording, Restream has a tool for you.

FAQs

Wrap-up

At Restream, we want our streamers to have everything they need to produce professional, exceptional live content. Our free users have access to all the basic tools and features to reach this goal. The ability to multistream to as many platforms as you want — along with access to Restream Studio, analytics, chat, stream monitoring and many more tools — makes Restream a go-to streaming solution.

If you have any questions about Restream’s paid features or subscription plans, our friendly Support team is always available to help via 24/7 live chat.