in this video i'm going to talk about my live streaming setup and why i feel the
combo of the m1 mac mini and ecam live make for a fantastic minimal live streaming setup
i'm rafael and welcome to the channel where our goal is to always fix it in camera and then
finesse it in post and i always appreciate the early thumbs up because a minimal frictionless
live streaming setup encourages going live more often i had a goal to start live streaming this
year but i wanted to make sure that the process was as frictionless as possible easy to repeat and
require the least amount of equipment but still be able to achieve fantastic results i initially
started live streaming with my 2017 macbook pro and obs and i felt that it worked great but there
were a lot of steps needed for it to work well and a lot of little things you needed to do to make a
good looking stream i recently got the m1 mac mini and it's been great as a live streaming computer
i know i've been pretty tough on the m1 computers in the pro space but this is one place that it
does shine thus far i've done several live streams with the mac mini and ecamm all while doing screen
recording doing a walkthrough in final cut pro having both safari and chrome open with
tabs streaming in ultra low latency at 24 frames a second with multiple cameras connected with guests
joining it has been a great experience and this is all before ecamm live became native on the m1 max
so it's even better now as a dedicated streaming computer these are the things i love about the m1
mac mini over the macbook air and the macbook pro 13-inch it has plenty of ports it has two
usb-c and two usb-a having the extra ports is really good because there are many peripherals
that won't work into usb hubs like the blackmagic ultra studio recorder that i use that has to be
plugged in directly on the m1 macbook pro 13 inch you'd have to use one usbc for the power and the
other for the hdmi to usb and you're kind of stuck at that point but with the mac mini you have four
ports i plug in two cameras one through the ultra studio and the osr directly using the eos web
utility software i use the blackmagic ultra studio recorder because my camera has hdmi and sdi out so
i got it because it works better for my workflow but you can just as easily use the elgato cam link
or the atomos connect 4k these can be used with any camera that has a clean hdmi signal out i use
one of the usb ports for the shure mp7 usb mic i love how you can plug in the usb to the computer
but still have an xlr directly into the camera so if you want to record on the camera and live
stream you can do both with independent outputs i like this mic because sure has an app where
you can eq the audio a bit for your talking style i personally don't like having the mic too close
i like it a little bit further away and the app has a preset for that so you can actually
have the mic a little bit further away from your mouth and it still sounds really good and with
all this plugged in i can still plug in another camera directly with the ultra studio or cam link
or with a usb directly from the camera i use a 4k monitor with the hdmi port having a dedicated
ethernet port is amazing because doing live streams over wi-fi can be spotty at times
it's not really recommended either one of the biggest non-technical benefits is that the m1 mac
mini is super quiet right beside the mic like zero noise which is a huge departure from the 15-inch
macbook pro that i was using before that sounded like an airplane taken off when the fans kicked in
the mac mini is silent even when i'm using the ipad with sidecar to do interviews during the
live streams recently i was doing an editing demo on a live stream and the whole system remains
silent and ran smooth the entire time all while streaming playing back playing music and recording
the live stream session to the ssd ecamm live as a streaming software i really like and i've tried
stream yard and i've used obs in the past and for a little context about five years ago i worked
for a company which developed its own broadcast studio in a box which was essentially a broadcast
level computer and software combo that was able to stream peer to peer anywhere in the world
with broadcast quality and reliability it needed an operator and a powerful computer and they spent
years developing it it worked very well and had some amazing features but it was very complicated
for most people so when i set out to find which live streaming software i was going to use
there were features i knew i wanted so when i tried ecam live for the first time and it was
so intuitive with all the features it had built in i was instantly hooked what i like about ecam live
is the ease of use no plugins to install no stream keys to get schedule streams right from the app
for youtube facebook linkedin and twitch or set it to a custom stream or send it to restream to
go live to multiple locations and if you have more than one camera i love how you can switch
camera sources just by clicking the source or by pressing the numbers on the keyboard no a10 mini
or external camera switchers or controllers required the software does so much you can
combine picture-in-picture on the fly see your live stream comments mark favorite comments and
come back to them later you can add them to your stream add overlays add simple text on screen
share your screen or a specific app or powerpoint playback movies from your desktop just by dragging
and dropping control your audio sources on the fly add sound effects i also like how you can add
music to your streams by either adding it to the sound effects or the way i do it is i use stream
beats from harris heller and play them right from apple music or spotify i like using itunes
specifically because it has a built-in equalizer and i bring down the mids so my voice can cut
through during the live stream with ecam you can also invite multiple people to your streams
very easily through skype or in the pro version with an interview link and this process is very
frictionless on the interviewee side it opens up in a chrome page asks for access to the camera and
mic and they're even able to share their desktop if they wanted to for some of the best results
i set up an ipad with a teleprompter and use it as an extra screen so i can be looking directly
at the camera while talking to the guest and the whole interaction just feels very natural and
also in the pro version this is one of my favorite things you can add luts to all your camera sources
which was something that i was really struggling to get right in all the other services personally
adding luts was a big feature for me because it means i don't have to switch too many of my camera
settings and just apply a lot with my personal look and feel so the streams look like my color
graded videos the whole app feels like drag and drop simple and you can arrange the windows that
best suit your needs you can use any camera as a source your webcam your iphone as long as you
can get the signal into your computer ecamm will recognize it and it's completely up to
you if you want to use more sources and like i said earlier the latest update of ecamm is
optimized for the m1 chip and it's a beauty and uses almost no resources i feel that the mac mini
with ecam live as your switcher app is a great combo and you don't need much else a camera an
hdmi to usb converter and a usb mic you don't need much to have a great minimal live streaming setup
no atems or road casters as great as that hardware is but you don't need it to start streaming
the base model m1 i feel would be great for a streaming setup and pair it with an inexpensive 4k
monitor it's a cheaper option than the m1 macbook pro and you get a huge monitor but honestly i
would still recommend the 16 gigs of ram and at least 512 gigs of ssd to last for the long run but
even the base model will work for just streaming overall the mac mini and ecam live is a great
streaming combo if you're interested in catching my live streams make sure you click the link down
below to my dedicated live stream channel where i do deep dives on the craft of photo and video and
all things that are related to the creative space ultimately how to fix it in camera and finesse
and post i'm so glad that you found my channel as always thanks for watching see you next week
you