Streaming your first destination

Streaming needs a licence or an active free trial; see the free trial if you have not started one. This page assumes you already have a Show with at least one input on Program; see Your first Show if not.

Add a destination

Open the Streaming window. Down its side are Encoding, the settings every destination shares, then your destinations, each with a dot that turns green while it streams, then ReCast, and Add Destination at the bottom. Add one and paste the RTMP, RTMPS or SRT address your platform or server gives you. Most platforms show this as a server address and a stream key (RTMP and RTMPS) or a stream ID (SRT); paste each into its own field.

An address has to start with the right prefix for its kind (rtmp:// or rtmps:// for RTMP and RTMPS); InterDirector tells you if it does not, before you try to connect.

Start it

Press Stream to start sending to every destination you have added and turned on. Each destination can be turned on and off on its own, also from a hotkey or Stream Deck button, and you can see the state of each while it runs.

If a destination’s connection is struggling, InterDirector lowers its bitrate to keep it going, and raises it again once the connection allows. The Stream button turns amber while this is happening, or while a destination is reconnecting, so you can see at a glance that something needs attention without opening the output’s settings; hover it for the reason. It turns green again once every destination is live at its full bitrate. Stopping a live stream always asks first, from every control that can stop it, so a missed click never ends your broadcast.

H.264 or HEVC

Video codec in the stream’s Encoding settings is H.264 unless you change it. HEVC gives a better picture at the same bitrate, or the same picture at a lower one, but not every service takes it:

YouTube takes HEVC.
Twitch (outside its own Enhanced Broadcasting), Kick and Facebook take H.264 only.
Your own SRT server takes it if the software behind it reads HEVC; most current ones do.

A service that does not take HEVC refuses the stream, and its destination says so. To send HEVC to one platform and H.264 to the rest, give that destination its own settings (below) and choose HEVC there. The codec cannot change while the stream is live.

A destination with its own settings

Every destination shares the stream’s Encoding settings: codec, bitrates, resolution and keyframe interval. Switch on Use its own encoding on a destination to give it settings of its own, for a platform that wants a lower resolution or bitrate than the others, say, or a different keyframe interval. Each destination with its own settings has an encoder of its own: its bitrate lowers itself for its own connection without softening the others, and if the Mac cannot start its encoder, that destination says so and the rest stream on. Its bitrates change while it is live; its codec, resolution, keyframe interval and the switch itself change while it is switched off. Each encoder takes a share of the Mac’s video encoder, which recording and replay also use.

Portrait, for Shorts, Reels and TikTok

A destination with its own encoding can send a portrait picture, 1080 × 1920 or 720 × 1280, while the others stay landscape. Choose its Picture:

Portrait, rotated turns Program a quarter clockwise, nothing cut: for a Show built on its side.
Portrait, fitted shows all of Program, with black above and below.
Portrait, cropped fills the frame from the middle of Program; what is at its sides is not seen, so keep the action in the centre.

Like the resolution, the picture changes while the destination is switched off. ReCast makes its own portrait streams, so its destination has none.

Stop the show

Outputs ▸ Stop the show (rec & stream)…, or ⌃⌥⌘. (Control-Option-Command-period), ends the show in one go: it stops streaming to every destination, the recording, input recording and NDI, the multiview over NDI with it, and ends ReCast if it is running. The external displays stay on, and so does everything on them. It asks twice before anything stops, and says what will: the first time what is on air, the second time that it cannot be undone. It is also on a Stream Deck or Companion button (Output ▸ Stop the show), which asks the same two questions on the Mac, and never in an automation rule.

If it will not connect

See Nothing happens when I press Stream.

Record what you stream: Program can be recorded to a file at the same time, from the recording controls beside the stream controls. For a full account of what an output can do, see Outputs.