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Broadcasting on YouTube

PanoPaper shows a camera live on your YouTube channel, from the YouTube tab of Settings ▸ Broadcast. The easiest way is to connect your YouTube account: PanoPaper then starts and ends each broadcast on YouTube by itself, with nothing to copy or paste. You can also paste a stream key from YouTube Studio instead.

What every service shares, such as choosing the camera and what happens on a patchy connection, is in Live Broadcasts.

Before your first broadcast

Turn on live streaming for your channel in YouTube Studio. The very first time, YouTube can take up to 24 hours. With your account connected, PanoPaper says so under 'Go Live on YouTube' until YouTube has turned it on, with a Turn On Live Streaming link to the page where you do it - and checks again each time you open the Broadcast tab.

With your account connected

1. In the YouTube tab, click 'Connect…' next to Account and sign in with Google. That's all PanoPaper needs: your Channel and your stream key now come from your account, so there's nothing to type or paste. The Stream key row is hidden, and the Channel can't be edited.
2. Next to Title, click 'Edit…' to give your broadcast a title and a description. The description can take several lines; its first line shows under the title. Without a title, the broadcast is named after your channel. PanoPaper keeps both for your next broadcasts.
3. Turn on 'Make broadcast public' for a broadcast everyone can find on your channel. Off, it's unlisted: only people with its link can watch.
4. Click 'Go Live on YouTube'. The broadcast starts right away, without YouTube Studio or a countdown, and stopping it in PanoPaper ends it on YouTube too.

'Disconnect…' removes the connection from your Mac and from your Google account, and with it from every other Mac or user account where you connected it. Your Channel stays, but the stream key PanoPaper took from your account goes: it works only with your account connected. To go live without your account connected, paste a stream key from YouTube Studio. If the connection ends in another way, the YouTube tab says so: click 'Connect…' to connect again.

The Privacy Policy link under Links opens PanoPaper's privacy policy: what PanoPaper does with your YouTube account and how it protects that data.

Viewers

With your account connected, the line under the button shows how many people are watching while you're live, updated every five minutes - and so does the menu bar panel.

Without connecting your account

Without your account connected, you give PanoPaper your stream key and your Channel yourself:

1. Copy the stream key from YouTube Studio's live page, and click 'Paste' in the YouTube tab.
2. Give your Channel handle as well, so Watch on YouTube can take you to your live page.
3. Click 'Go Live on YouTube'. PanoPaper opens YouTube Studio's live page and counts down a minute before it starts sending - YouTube starts the broadcast only while that page is open. Meanwhile, check there that Visibility is set to Public, so the broadcast appears on your channel, then click 'Click to Start Now' in PanoPaper - or it starts by itself when the time is up. The broadcast goes live as soon as the page shows your camera's picture.

When you stop the broadcast in PanoPaper, YouTube keeps waiting for your stream to come back until you click End stream in YouTube Studio. To have it end by itself, go live on a scheduled stream: on YouTube Studio's live page, click Manage, then Schedule stream, choose the stream key you pasted into PanoPaper, and turn on Auto-start and Auto-stop. The stream then starts when PanoPaper goes live and ends shortly after you stop.

The YouTube tab

• Account - your YouTube account, connected with 'Connect…'; see With your account connected. With 'Make broadcast public' on, PanoPaper makes each broadcast Public as you go live, also when you go live the YouTube Studio way.
• Channel - your channel's handle, for the link to your live page. With your account connected, it comes from your account and can't be edited. Only without your account connected do you give it yourself: click 'Set…' and type or paste it; the whole address works too, and PanoPaper keeps just the handle. 'Edit…' changes it later.
• Title (with your account connected) - the title and description of your broadcast.
• Stream key - with your account connected, PanoPaper uses a stream of its own on your channel, named “PanoPaper”, and hides this row - your channel's default stream key stays free for other apps. Only without your account connected do you paste it yourself: copy the key from YouTube Studio's live page, then click 'Paste'. PanoPaper shows only its last characters; it stays in your keychain. If what you copied doesn't look like a stream key, PanoPaper asks before saving it. To use another key, click 'Remove…' first, then paste the new one.
• Quality - Automatic (marked Recommended), 4K, 1080p or 720p. Automatic starts at the largest size and follows your connection, down as soon as it slows and back up while it has plenty of room, without interrupting the broadcast: 4K for a camera whose picture is larger than 1080p or a flattened 360° camera, otherwise 1080p. YouTube takes a few minutes to pass a new size on to viewers. 4K needs an upload that holds steady: below what YouTube expects, it refuses the picture rather than letting it soften. While you're live, the status shows the size going out ("Live · 720p · 2.4 Mbit/s").

Under the 'Go Live on YouTube' button:

• Find it in YouTube Studio - the page where your stream key is. Once a key is saved, it reads Open YouTube Studio and takes you to the control room for the broadcast - handy while you're live.
• Watch on YouTube - your channel's live page, as viewers see it. It appears once your Channel is known, and shows your stream while you're live. Copy Link, the first of these links, copies that link. While you're live with your account connected and 'Make broadcast public' off, both use the broadcast's own link instead, since an unlisted broadcast isn't on your live page.
• How to go live on YouTube - YouTube's own help on streaming.

To show a “Watch live” link on your own website, or to tell your home automation when you go live, see Broadcast Automation.