In July 2022, Instagram rolled out a desktop live streaming studio, Instagram Live Producer. This studio allows users to live stream to their Instagram profiles from a computer using streaming software such as OBS Studio or Restream. Since you can connect Instagram Live Producer to a streaming service via a URL and stream key, you can also stream a Zoom meeting to Instagram. Anyone with a Professional Instagram account can use Live Producer.
Free Zoom account and Instagram Live Producer
If you don’t have a paid Zoom account, you can still stream a Zoom meeting to Instagram using OBS Studio and Restream.
If you host a talk show, virtual conference, or meeting on Zoom and you’d like to broadcast it to your Instagram profile, you can use Restream Studio. Make your Instagram Live stream look more professional by adding captions, graphics, a background and overlays.
1. Create a Restream account if you don’t have one.
2. Download OBS Studio if you don’t already have the software installed. It’s free and open source. [If it’s your first time using OBS Studio, you can read our tutorial for the best OBS streaming settings to get started.]
3. Connect your Restream account to OBS Studio by opening OBS and navigating to Settings.
4. Click the Stream tab on the left side.
5. Click Restream.io - RTMP in the drop-down menu.
6. Click Connect Account. Enter your Restream account credentials.
7. In your Restream dashboard, click Edit Destinations, then +Add Destination.
8. Click Custom RTMP.
9. Launch Instagram Live Producer by going to instagram.com and logging in to your Instagram account. Click Add post and then Live; you’ll see your RTMP URL and stream key on the Go Live screen. Launch your Instagram Live stream.
10. Copy the RTMP URL and Stream key from Instagram Live Producer and paste them into the relevant fields on Restream. Click Add Channel.
11. Go back to OBS. On the Sources tab, click Add and then select Window Capture. Name the source something like Zoom meeting and click OK. This will let you specify your Zoom meeting as the video source in OBS.
12. In the Window drop-down menu, select [Zoom.exe] and click OK.
13. Start your Zoom meeting.
14. In OBS, click Start Streaming and your meeting will be live on your Instagram profile.
Note that Restream Studio allows you to add up to five guests with a free plan and nine guests with a paid plan to a live broadcast. You can send them a secure link and they can use their webcam, mic and web browser to join your stream.
Also, keep in mind that you may have resolution compatibility issues when streaming from Zoom to Instagram. The ideal orientation for Instagram is 9x16 (portrait) but Zoom uses 16x9 (landscape). So your Zoom meeting may not look exactly how you want it to when it appears on Instagram.
Multistream from Zoom to Instagram and other platforms simultaneously
You can send the same broadcast to your Instagram profile, YouTube channel, Facebook profile and other channels if you use a multistreaming tool like Restream. To stream from Zoom to Instagram via Restream, you’ll need to add Instagram as a custom RTMP channel.
To get started, follow steps 1-10 in the above instructions on how to stream from Zoom to Instagram with a free Zoom account. After you’ve added Instagram to your Restream account, you can add other channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and more. Check out our platforms guides to see how to connect your preferred channels to Restream.
Once your channels are added to Restream, complete steps 11-14 in the above instructions to connect your Zoom meeting to Restream. Now, you’re ready to start multistreaming to Zoom, Instagram and your other favorite platforms.
Paid Zoom account and Instagram Live Producer
Here’s how to use Instagram Live Producer with a paid Zoom account:
- Enable live streaming on your Zoom account.
- Schedule a Zoom meeting by clicking Schedule in the top-right corner. Enter your meeting details and click Save.
- On the meeting management page, scroll to the section called Live Streaming and click Configure Custom Streaming Service.
- In the window that pops up, you’ll need to enter a Stream URL, Stream key, and Live streaming page URL from Instagram Live Producer.
- Find your stream URL and stream key from Instagram by going to instagram.com and logging in to your profile. Then click Add post and then Live; you’ll see your stream key and URL on the Go Live screen.
- Start your Instagram Live Producer broadcast.
- Start your Zoom meeting.
- On the bottom panel containing all the meeting/webinar controls, click More.
- Select Live on custom live streaming service from the list of options. Once your Zoom meeting starts, it will broadcast to your Instagram profile.
