Live Broadcasts
The Broadcast tab of Settings shows a camera live on YouTube, on Facebook, or on another streaming service such as Twitch, Kick or a server of your own - on one of them or on several at once. Open it with 'Broadcast…' in the PanoPaper menu. This page is about what every service shares; each service has a page of its own.
The camera
- Camera - the camera that goes live, with its live picture under it, so the wrong one never goes out. You can choose another camera while you're live: the broadcast keeps going, holds the last picture for a moment, then fades over to the new camera, its sound with it.
- 360° view - for a 360° camera: Slowly look around (a natural view that turns once a minute), Flattened (a natural view in one direction) or Fisheye (the round picture as the camera sends it). Drag the picture to aim the view, and scroll or pinch to zoom; each camera keeps its view for its next broadcast.
- 'Include the camera's audio' - the camera's sound goes out with its picture. Off, the broadcast is silent. It can't be changed while you're live.
Cameras taking turns
To show several cameras one after another, choose Take Turns at the end of the Camera menu. Under it:
- Cameras - tick the cameras that take turns. They go out in the order of the menu bar panel, and a camera that is offline is skipped until it is back.
- Switch every - how long each camera stays on air, from 7 seconds to 10 minutes. Each switch fades over to the next camera, its sound with it.
- 'Hold on detections' - with detections on, a camera that detects someone keeps its turn until they are gone.
The preview takes turns just as the broadcast will, before you go live too: under the picture, PanoPaper names the camera that comes next and when, and a thin bar along the foot of the picture shows how much of the turn has passed. Going live starts with the camera the preview shows. You can tick cameras and change the time while you're live. To end the turns, choose a single camera in the Camera menu: the broadcast fades over to it.
YouTube, Facebook and other services
A tab for each service, with its own settings. Every tab has a Stream key, the key the service gives you for streaming software - it stays in your keychain, and on YouTube it comes from your account once you connect it - and a Quality: 4K, 1080p or 720p, and on YouTube and Facebook also Automatic, which follows your connection without interrupting the broadcast. A camera with a smaller picture is enlarged to fit. Each service has a page of its own about its tab and your first broadcast there:
YouTube
Connect your YouTube account, and PanoPaper starts and ends your broadcasts on YouTube by itself, with nothing to copy or paste. Or paste a stream key from YouTube Studio. See Broadcasting on YouTube.
Paste the stream key from Facebook Live Producer once, and it stays for your next broadcasts. See Broadcasting on Facebook.
Twitch, Kick and others
The Custom tab takes any service that works with streaming software, or a server of your own. See Other Streaming Services.
Links
In each tab, under its 'Go Live on…' button, links to the service's own pages: where to find your stream key - and once it's saved, the service's control room for the broadcast - and How to go live on…, the service's own help on streaming.
Going live
Each tab has its own 'Go Live on…' button, and each service goes live and stops on its own: you can be live on YouTube and Facebook at the same time, and stop one while the other goes on. While a service is live its button reads 'Live On Air - STOP', and a Status section appears under the tabs for any OTHER service that is live, showing how much is being sent right now - a calm picture needs much less than a busy one - with its own 'Stop service' button, so you can stop it without changing tabs.
The light at the button's left end is green while the service is ready to go live, and stays green through the countdown. On Facebook, and on YouTube without your account connected, PanoPaper first opens the service's own page and counts down: the button reads 'Click to Start Now' and a pulsing red band fills it from left to right. Click it to start at once, or click the ✕ at its right end to cancel. Once you're live, the whole button pulses red and glows, and so does the light on it. Its right end shows how long you've been on air. Until the service has taken your stream, the button reads 'Connecting…' in grey, with a ✕ to cancel; it turns red only once you're on air.
Under the button, a line says what is still missing, or that the service is ready to go live. While it is live, the line shows how much is being sent, with a red mark before it. With your YouTube account connected, it also shows how many people are watching.
While you're live, the PanoPaper icon in the menu bar turns red and its red dot pulses, and the menu bar panel shows a Live on… row; its 'Stop' ends every broadcast, after asking. Quitting PanoPaper while live asks first too.
In the Web Edition, when the service's page is already open in Safari, Chrome, Edge, Brave or Vivaldi, PanoPaper brings that tab to the front instead of opening another one - when you go live, and for the Open YouTube Studio and Open Facebook Live Producer links. The first time, macOS asks whether PanoPaper may control your browser; if you don't allow it, a new tab opens each time.
When you go live
The button with the antenna at the end of the service tabs opens When You Go Live: PanoPaper can tell a website, your home automation or a shortcut when a broadcast starts and when it ends, with the link to watch it. See Broadcast Automation.
On a patchy connection
A broadcast keeps going through short dropouts, and when the connection gets slower it sends less until it recovers. A lost connection is tried again by itself, right away when your Mac is back online. If the camera's picture pauses, the last one stays on screen until it comes back. While you're live, your Mac doesn't go to sleep by itself, and the broadcast goes on while the screen is locked or the displays sleep. If another app is using your Mac's video encoding, such as a screen recording, PanoPaper encodes on the processor instead, at 1080p at most, and the broadcast goes on.
In the free version, a broadcast carries “UNLICENSED” across the picture, as the preview shows - viewers and recordings see it too. See The free version. Shortcuts and Siri can go live and stop too.
