- Ecamm Live has been one of our favorite
live streaming apps on Mac in the last few years,
but it's been a while since our last review
and a lot has changed with a ton more competition
and also a heap of new features across the board.
So how does it stack up now and is Ecamm Live still
our pick for best live streaming software on Mac?
We're going to dive into everything you need to know
in this Ecamm Live tutorial.
Hi, it's Justin Brown here from Primal Video,
where we help you grow an audience and scale your revenue
with online video.
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make sure you give us a thumbs up and all the links
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Let's jump into it so Ecamm Live is an amazing
live streaming platform for Mac.
It is Mac only, so PC users, you're out of luck.
There's built-in support for all the major platforms for you
to go live to and there's also RTMP support,
meaning that you can pretty much use Ecamm Live
to broadcast anywhere.
There's also built in support for platforms like Restream
and switchboard, which lets you multicast
or simulcast your live stream out to multiple platforms.
So if you want to broadcast live on YouTube and Facebook
at the same time,
then you've got that functionality inside of Ecamm
and there's a lot of features inside of Ecamm,
so I'm going to do my best to mention all the important ones
or the standout features, so
make sure you stick around so that you don't miss them.
Ecamm Live, lets you broadcast live in a heap of
different formats and sizes as well.
So it supports video resolutions right up to 4K.
And you're not just limited to a widescreen broadcast.
You can do a portrait or nine by 16 broadcast,
a square broadcast, classic four by three ratio
or even extra wide two by one ratio.
And there's even support for 360 live streaming,
if that's something you're into.
There's an inbuilt live streaming scheduler so that you can
schedule your live streams well ahead of time.
And there's just a ton of built-in customizability
to really help you dial everything in and to tweak
and adjust everything all while keeping
the overall interface and the overall experience
really, really simple and intuitive.
All the panels and the tools and the windows
and things you can customize up and hide the ones
you're not going to use and reposition and feature the ones
that you're going to use while you're actually live.
Ecamm live makes it really easy to switch between
your primary camera, your screen-share and even video files
as well, if you've got some fancy intro animations
or graphics and things that you want to play
while you're live, it literally is as easy as drag
and dropping that file onto your Ecamm Live
and it's going to start playing.
Now we'll share with you really soon where you can go
to create your own amazing custom animations and things
that you can use on your live streams,
so make sure you're sticking around for that one.
But Ecamm Live also supports pre-configured scenes.
So you might have a scene for your primary camera,
one for a 50/50 screen split with you on one side
and your guest on another or one for your screen-share,
it makes it really easy to switch between
these different inputs or layouts while you're live.
With just a couple of clicks,
you can add in a plain static title,
an animated ticket title or title that's going along
the bottom of the screen,
or you can even create something like a countdown timer
to be on screen before you start your live stream.
Now you also get access to easily control
and adjust your cameras as well, so if you want to adjust
the brightness, you want to adjust and tweak the colors
or even change the framing of your shot,
maybe zoom in a little bit, then all of this
is super simple in Ecamm and there's also support
for green screen or background removal.
So if you are filming on a green screen or blue screen,
then it makes it really easy to remove that so that
you can put yourself anywhere on your live streams.
Now we'll get to some of the more advanced features
really soon, but one of the standout features for me
is the built-in guest feature or the interview feature.
And this is where you can easily bring other people
into your live streams.
Now Ecamm has had this feature for a little while,
but it was limited to working with Skype only.
So you had to have a call running with Skype
with your guests then you are able to bring them in,
but Ecamm has recently overhauled this feature
and you now don't need to use Skype,
which is amazing cause who uses Skype these days.
So the new interview feature will let you bring in up to
four guests onto your live stream at once.
And you can have people sitting and waiting in a green room
before you bring them on.
To invite someone onto your stream, all you need to do is
grab your unique invitation URL,
copy that link and give it to whoever you want to join.
And then that person is able to join from most devices
out there, so they don't need to just be on their computer.
This will work on phones or tablets and things as well.
But I think one of the coolest parts about this feature is,
is that that guest then just shows up as another
video source or an input source that you can then use
and customize up again, either beforehand
or while you're live really, really simply.
And you even have the ability to customize up the look
and feel of your guests shots as well.
So if they've got a green background,
you can manage the chroma keying or the green screen effect
on your end, or you can adjust their colors
or the brightness of their shots so that it matches
the overall look and feel of your broadcast.
And it's this stuff that you normally only see in
really advanced really top level live streaming programs.
And it's usually way clunkier and harder to use.
Now are another really powerful game-changing feature that
I use all the time in Ecamm, is the virtual webcam feature.
Now this is essentially where Ecamm has been detected
as a virtual webcam inside of other applications,
like a zoom call, meaning that you can control
what you're sending over to those other applications
from within Ecamm.
So it might be that you're just doing text on screen
or that you're sharing your computer screen
all from that other application,
just seeing your feed through as if it was a webcam.
Now this feature is awesome and a really help you take
your zoom calls or even your webinar presentations
to the next level as well.
The last few free training workshops that we've run.
We've actually just used this feature inside
of webinar software, by controlling it all from
inside of Ecamm.
So all the keynote slides and everything that I was using,
I just ran through Ecamm,
but shared it through as if it was a webcam.
So that makes it much easier for me to run the training,
but also it makes it look so much more pro,
and so much more polished for your viewers watching
and attending as well.
And the other really big standout thing with Ecamm
that I have mentioned is the overall interface
and how easy it is to use.
There is so much thought put into this that makes
the whole thing so seamless and really easy to use
while you're alive.
I mean, even simple stuff like being able to pinch to zoom
on your track pad, to zoom in on your computer screen.
If you really want to show your viewers something
and you're sharing your computer screen,
it's just the simple stuff like that that makes
the world of difference.
More professional live streaming software would have you
going into menus upon menus and using clunky little sliders
to try and zoom in or zoom out on a shot.
Ecamm is just so intuitive and makes it so much fun to use.
And there's also a lot of really advanced little features
in there that you would expect to only see
in top level programs as well.
Things like being able to adjust the audio delay,
there's a short delay between your video feed
and your audio.
You can actually manually adjust the delay
to pull it back in sync.
There's also things like NDI support built in,
so if you've got network cameras that are running
on that protocol, then they'll just show up as
another video feed for you to use.
But there's also NDI output.
So likewise, in a more professional environment,
if you want to push your video feed out
or your live stream out over to your local network,
you've got that ability in here too.
And even just little settings in there to help make your
live stream more polished.
Like if you're doing a screen-share, you can check a box
and it will hide all of your desktop icon.
So if you're someone who's got a messy desktop,
this setting could be really helpful.
Or if you're working on a really high resolution screen,
maybe you want your mouse cursor to be bigger
on a screen share.
All of this stuff you've got easy access to in Ecamm.
Now, one of the things that stood out for me early
on with Ecamm was how dedicated and how accessible
the dev team are.
The guys that are working on this are absolutely amazing,
but they're also actively engaging and actively taking
feedback on board and really building out a massive
list of features, which has taken Ecamm
to where it is today.
Now this is something that you don't see too much,
but it's something that gives you great peace of mind,
knowing that if you've got any questions
or any issues that you can contact
the people that are actually making it or get support from
the amazing community that's using it,
that can help you out with wherever you're stuck
or whatever you're looking to do.
So we've covered off on a lot of the features
and a lot of the advantages,
but what about some of the downsides or some of the things
that Ecamm Live might be missing.
Well we will say that if you're someone who is looking
for the top level pro broadcast live streaming software,
then this isn't it, it comes close, but it's not it.
If you're someone who needs the ability to really dial
in specific settings, specific bit rates and file types
for video recording inside of there as well,
or the ability to really customize up a specific scene
with multiple layers of images and videos,
then that is not Ecamm Live.
And if those are the things that you're after,
then that's where you would be looking at something like
a Wirecast or a vMix.
But I really think that Ecamm is kind of that perfect mix
of a lot of those advanced features and controls
and the ability to customize things up,
but also the ability keep everything really simple,
make it really easy to use while you live.
In regards to pricing, you've really got two main options.
There is a free trial to let you test everything out
for 14 days, but that will have a watermark
on your live stream.
So the two options really are your standard plan
and your pro plan,
both of these are monthly subscriptions with an annual pay
option as well, which does make it even cheaper.
The standard plan is $20 per month,
and it does give you access to most of the features inside
of Ecamm live, or you've got the pro plan,
the professional plan, which is $40 per month,
and this unlocks everything.
So things like the virtual webcam feature,
4K live streaming.
And if you want access to that new guest feature,
that's only available in the pro plan as well,
but still given the price and what's included.
It makes Ecamm an absolute, no brainer,
if it fits your usage case.
Now one thing you do need to be aware of
with that new interview feature on the pro plan
is that that pro plan includes 20 hours use
of that interview feature per month,
or if you're paying for the annual,
then that'll give you 240 hours per month.
Now, if you do go over your allocated hours,
you can purchase an additional block of 20 hours
for currently 14 99.
So again, so that's just something to be aware of
if you are going to be running a lot of interviews.
So as for my recommendations and who I think Ecamm Live
is going to be suited towards,
I think it's going to be great for someone
whether you're an absolute beginner,
never done any live streams before in your life,
right through to someone on that more advanced
side of things as well given that it is easy to use,
but it also packs a punch in terms of what you can
actually do in there and having a lot of features
and controls and things in there as well.
But if you ask someone who is looking for
the most advanced features and things,
then that's where maybe a vMix or a Wirecast
would be better suited for you.
Or on the other side of things, if you're someone
who doesn't want to customize anything up,
you literally just want to click a few buttons and go live
and bring people on,
then Ecamm is still going to be great for that,
but another one to consider would also be Streamyard.
It's incredibly easy to use,
but it doesn't come anywhere close in terms of the features
and things that you get access to inside of Ecamm live.
But for me though, Ecamm live is hands down
my number one, live streaming application on Mac overall.
I actually wish there was something like it on the PC side
of things as well.
And like I said, even when I'm not even live streaming,
I'm using Ecamm live to run and manage my webcam
and screen share and those kinds of things as well
on other platforms.
So it's an amazing, super powerful application
and it just keeps getting better year on year.
Now, earlier in the video, I said, I would also share
with you where you can go to create amazing looking
animations and graphics to use in your live streams.
Check out the video that's linked on screen,
where we take you through exactly how you can do it
fast and easy.
And I'll see you in the next one.