Stream a multi-camera show from a Mac | Guides

From cameras to a live stream on one Mac: bring in each camera, give the show its sound, switch between them, and go live.

This is the whole job in one place, in the order I set up a show myself: cameras first, then sound, then the switching, then the stream. Each step links to the help page that covers it in full.

What you need

An Apple Silicon Mac on macOS 15 or later.
Cameras, connected whichever way suits them: a USB capture device or webcam, an NDI camera or computer on your network, a Blackmagic capture device, or a phone or encoder sending a stream over the network.
A microphone, or an audio interface, that your Mac sees.
Somewhere to stream to: the server address and stream key (or SRT address) that YouTube, Facebook, Twitch or your own server gives you.

1. Bring in each camera

Press Add Input… and choose the kind that matches how the camera reaches your Mac:

The camera reaches your Mac as	Choose
A USB webcam, or a capture device such as a Cam Link	Camera
An NDI source on your network	NDI
A Blackmagic capture device	Blackmagic
An RTMP or SRT stream from a phone, an encoder or streaming software, or an RTSP or SRT camera	Network Stream

The Add Input sheet: thirteen kinds of input in a grid, from Audio, Blackmagic and Camera to Composite, Replay and Statistics, each with a line on what it takes; Replay and Statistics are greyed out, as the Show already has one of each.

Each one becomes a card with its live picture. Mix them freely: a show with two USB cameras, an NDI camera and a phone works the same way as one with four identical cameras. If a picture’s shape or size is not the show’s, it is fitted to the canvas, and each input can be framed, cropped and colour-matched on its own.

2. Give the show its sound

A camera over USB brings in picture only: your Mac sees its sound as a separate device. So add your microphone as an Audio input, then on each camera’s Audio tab, under Audio Source, tick that microphone if you want it to come up with the camera. Tick several if a camera needs them all, a panel’s two microphones say; each keeps its own mixer strip. An NDI or network camera brings its own sound, ticked as Its own sound, beside a microphone or instead of it. Music or a mix from a DAW comes in through our InterStream plug-in: see Sound from a DAW.

A camera’s Audio Source: tick boxes for OnBoard, Replay and Commentary, with the Commentary microphone ticked so it comes up with the camera on Program.

In the audio mixer, every source goes to Master by default, and Master is what your stream and recording carry. With Follow Program on, which it is for a new source, a source’s sound comes up when its picture goes to Program and down when it leaves.

The audio mixer: a strip for each source with its balance, fader, meter and peak hold, its FX, its routing to Master and bus A, and buttons to mute it, have it follow Program and solo it, the muted ones dimmed with their speakers crossed out; then Master, the To PA bus returned to Master, and the Solo / Monitor strip playing Master.

If a camera’s picture arrives later than its sound (or the other way round), hold the faster one back: on the input’s Source tab, under Timing, set Input delay in milliseconds and press Apply. Up to four seconds, picture and sound together; below it, the setting says how much of your Mac’s memory the delay holds.

You do not have to guess the numbers. Tools ▸ Sync Cameras and Audio… measures how far each camera is from the sound, with a phone flashing and beeping on stage, and sets every delay at once. See Line up your cameras with the sound.

An input’s Timing: Input delay 500 ms with its own Apply, the allowed range of 0 to 4000 ms, and the memory the delay holds, about 57 MB.

3. Switch

Click a card to put it in Preview, the monitor on the left. Nothing goes on air until you take it: press CUT for a straight cut, Fade 1 or Fade 2 for a cross-fade (each has its own length), or Dip to pass through black. The T-bar between the monitors does the same by hand: let go at Program to take it, at Preview to cancel.

That is the whole rhythm of a show: load the next shot into Preview while the current one is on Program, then take it.

The Preview and Program monitors with the Cut, Fade, Dip and T-bar controls between them.

Or skip Preview. A keyboard shortcut, a Stream Deck key or a Bitfocus Companion button can take a camera straight to Program: in Show Settings, Controls, give each camera a key with Cut to Program or Fade to Program. One key per camera is the quickest way to follow a conversation. Your own software can switch too, through the control API.

On a second display, a multiview shows Program, Preview and every camera at once, with a red border on the one that is live, laid out however you like. See Build your own multiview.

4. Go live

Press the gear beside Stream, then Add Destination, and paste the server address and the stream key your platform gives you, or an SRT address. Then press Stream. It reads Streaming while you are live.

The Streaming window with Facebook open beside the list of destinations: its RTMP server, its stream key and its own encoding switched off, so it shares the stream’s.

If the connection struggles, InterDirector lowers the bitrate to keep the stream going and raises it again when it can, and the button turns amber so you know without opening anything. Stopping a live stream always asks first. Several destinations stream at once from the same encode, so going live on YouTube and Facebook together is one press.

5. Record it as well

Press Record to save Program to a file on your Mac at the same time, in HEVC, H.264 or ProRes. The stream and the recording are independent: if the internet drops, the recording carries on.

File → Save keeps the whole setup, cameras, sound and destinations, as a Show you open again next time.