Watch time for live content was up by 250% in 2021, with the number of live-streaming events available increasing by 300%. As live streaming increasingly supplements (or replaces) in-person experiences and events, the integration between Vimeo OTT and Arena.im can help drive engagement with your customers during those events. The integration connects Vimeo OTT with Arena so that you can seamlessly embed live chats alongside your events.
By enabling this integration, you can select from a list of your Arena chats to embed as part of your live event setup. In addition to chat, you’ll be able to take advantage of Arena’s wide feature set including live polling, Q&A, direct messaging, leaderboards, and more.
⚠️Note: Arena chat will not work with Vimeo Live Events, it will only work with the "Legacy" Live Events tool in OTT.
For information on how to create an Arena chat Chat, please see this guide.
More on Arena's product offering can be found in this guide.
⚠️Note: As of now, the Arena chat integration is available only to OTT sellers who are enabled for Live streaming. Additionally, embedded Arena chats will only be visible to customers who are viewing an event on the web.
In this article
How to enable this integration
To utilize this integration, your organization will need both an account on Vimeo OTT that is enabled for live streaming and an account with Arena. You can sign up for an Arena account through this page.
Once you have both of those in place, you will need to retrieve both an API key and your Arena site slug from the Arena team. You will then enable the integration by going to Manage in the top bar > Site > Advanced tab on the left and inputting both of these values.
- API Key is provided by Arena staff upon signing up
- Site Slug is found under site settings in Arena:
You can verify that you have set up the integration correctly by clicking the Send test button once both inputs have been saved.
If set up correctly, the button will display a "Success" message.
Once this integration is enabled, you will see the ability to select from a list of your existing Arena chats as part of the live event setup.
You will also have the ability to choose the format of the live chat and where it is displayed on the page. More on the available options can be found in this guide.
What your customers will see
Once you’ve added an Arena chat to your event, only authorized viewers (paying/registered customers if the event is behind your paywall or anyone if the event is free) will be able to see and interact with the chat widget.
They will also be able to see the chat before and after the event is live - allowing you to drive conversation leading up to and following an event!