Guru Session #10: Isadora for Remote Performance (April 24nd, 2020 - 6pm CEST/5PM GMT/12pm EDT/9am PDT)

mark

I have an offer to perform the live feed on zoom. Anyone have suggestions on how to share the screen and broadcast to Instagram live, Facebook live, or Zoom? Much appreciate hearing about successes broadcasting live feed from Izzy. Thanks gwen

Zoom has no input via NDI or Syphon -- the two ways you can send a video signal from Isadora into another program.

But, can't you just share your screen to Zoom? Isn't that the simplest thing to do?

Assuming you can't do that for some reason, I would suggest OBS (Open Broadcasting Software) because it has a Syphon input, which is very low impact performance wise and very low latency. Once the image is getting into OBS (as I discussed in the guru session) then:

1) Use a "Virtual Webcam" to get the output of OBS into Zoom: On Windows, there is a plugin that can output OBS as a virtual webcam, and take that into Zoom. On macOS this requires a software called CamTwist or ManyCam, both of which are paid programs. (I tried ManyCam as a proof of concept of this the other day, and it worked as a virtual web cam.)

2) To broadcast to Instagram, you can apparently use OBS in combination with something called YellowDuck to get broadcast a live feed.

3) I believe you can broadcast to Facebook live from OBS directly.

4) For sure you can broadcast OBS directly to YouTube and Twitch.

Those are the options I know about. There may be more. However, I've only ever done broadcasting to YouTube myself. I have no experience actually doing the ideas offered in points 1 through 3.

Hopefully that's enough to get you going.

Best Wishes,
Mark

Fred

@gwen-charles said:

@mark Hi mark, Thanks for this info. I am very successfully collaborating with dancers using Skype input with the NDI plug in. Now id like to broadcast the live feed experiments we are doing. I have an offer to perform the live feed on zoom. Anyone have suggestions on how to share the screen and broadcast to Instagram live, Facebook live, or Zoom? Much appreciate hearing about successes broadcasting live feed from Izzy. Thanks gwen

Just a note, for security (and to annoy the rest of us) zoom does not support virtual cameras as input anymore so option 1 of @mark 's response is no longer working. You can use zoom's share screen function though.

mark

@fred said:

Just a note, for security (and to annoy the rest of us) zoom does not support virtual cameras as input anymore so option 1 of @mark 's response is no longer working. You can use zoom's share screen function though.

Thanks for this information Fred. Is it true on both MacOS and Windows? Or just MacOS?

@gwen-charles and all

I've just posted a knowledge base article on sharing Isadora's output via Zoom. But whether it was Isadora or QuickTime player, the result on the remote computer was pretty bad: I was seeing maybe 3fps even though Isadora/QuickTime Player were rendering smoothly on the host computer.

Best Wishes,
Mark

gwen charles

@mark Thanks Mark. I tried the simplest version " Share screen" on Zoom and it was a success! thanks! I will try the other options next to try to get onto Instagram Live and Facebook Live. gwen

bonemap

@fred said:

Just a note, for security (and to annoy the rest of us) zoom does not support virtual cameras as input anymore so option 1 of @mark 's response is no longer working. You can use zoom's share screen function though.

Do you know if previous versions Of Zoom that allow virtual cameras are available for download?

Kind Regards

Russell

Fred

@bonemap not from zoom but you might be able to find them. It's not really a good option as it may give connection problems and incompatibility for other users. I have seen older versions give trouble with the shared stereo audio setting for groups.

@mark as far as I know this is Mac and PC.

The good news is they have reinstated access to Blackmagic drivers and other non-usb webcam video input. You can put your Isadora stage on an HDMI output that goes directly to a capture device on the same machine. This is a very neat and reliable solution with great quality.

Zaira_001

Hi there Mark!

I'm trying to run a live performance from Zoom through Isadora and stream it to youtube (all on my tiny little macbook air, she's taking the processing like a champ) and I have been able to get the video working successfully via the screen capture plug in for Isadora, but am having trouble getting the audio working. I've managed to get the Isadora feed and the Zoom audio playing into OBS, but I'm worried that since the audio isn't playing through Isadora as well the video is going to appear laggy. I'm really stuck, what would you recommend I do? Do you think running it through Isadora isn't going to cause enough latency to be noticeable and I should just leave it as is, or work on getting the audio into and out of Isadora before connecting it to OBS?

Thank you so much! I appreciate whatever feedback you can give me!

mc_monte

@zaira_001 You don't have to pipe the audio through Isadora, but the Advanced Audio Settings in OBS allow you to manually create a delay in the audio and video to help sync them. Anywhere from 30ms to 300ms adjustment my be needed, finding the right numbers is a matter of trial and error. The Audio Output Capture from OBS will pick up any system-level audio (make sure you're using headphones to prevent a feedback loop if you're also using a microphone.)

Audio is one of the trickiest elements to get right with live streaming. Test, test, test your setup and adjust the settings. A good metric to use is to "Record" from OBS instead of streaming, and then re-watch your recordings to determine how it turned out.

mark

@zaira_001 said:

Thank you so much! I appreciate whatever feedback you can give me!

@mc_monte' s answer is more complete than I could have given you. Please try what he suggests and ask back if you're still feeling unsure.

Best Wishes,
Mark

VJMC

Out of curiosity, has there been any development on the OSC web socket that I believe was mentioned in the session? I'm working with an escape room company on a virtual escape room using these tools for live virtual performance and looking for easy options to allow for mouse/keyboard interaction.

mark

@vjmc said:

Out of curiosity, has there been any development on the OSC web socket that I believe was mentioned in the session

As of now, no. I am focused back on the main Isadora app at the moment. If we can roll that into the fall release, we will. You can read more about our plans in this forum thread.

Best Wishes,
Mark