The YoloBox is an extremely small and portable.
All in one livestremaing solution that supports multiple cameras and inputs.
In this video, I'm going to give you my first impressions of getting up and running with
it. Quick disclaimer, this video is not sponsored, but YoloLiv did send this to me to
review. Everything in this video is my honest opinion, and they don't get any input into
what I say in this video.
First, I want to give you a quick rundown of the features of this device.
Normally, I don't do this because it's easy to go look up the details on the web site or
there's a million other videos about it.
But this device is still so new that there isn't too much info about it out yet.
So what exactly is this thing?
In short, it's a self-contained all in one touchscreen live streaming video switcher.
It really is an all in one package.
It's a standalone device.
You can plug in video cameras.
It can connect to Wi-Fi or even a cellular network.
We'll talk more about that later.
You can add graphics and titles and then it can stream directly to YouTube Facebook
custom RTMP service and even more than one at the same time.
So what comes in the box?
Of course, the YoloBox itself.
And under here, we've got a carrying case.
We've got two HDMI cables.
We've got power cord USB, USB to USB-C power cord and a charging brick and a mount for
putting this on top of a camera.
It is so compact.
I can't believe how small it is.
The whole front of the device is a touch screen and monitor.
And it's battery powered so you can livestream on the go.
It's about as thin as you would want to be.
Like, really, it is so thin, just barely bigger than the ports on the sides.
I just absolutely love this form factor and the fact that it's entirely self-contained
device. All right.
Let's start by talking about the inputs and the outputs.
There's two HDMI inputs.
So that means two cameras or a camera and a computer or an iPad.
But there's also a USB port so you can connect a USB camera to it as well.
This is super interesting to me because it means you can use your nice camera with HDMI
out and a good lens to get a good close up shot.
And then you can use the USB camera to get a wide shot of the room.
Of course, the USB cameras are usually lower quality.
So it's something to keep in mind as well.
But the nice thing about USB cameras is that they're powered over USB.
So you can get a third camera angle without worrying about bringing batteries for that
camera or running another power cord.
Here's a neat trick, though. If you want a third HDMI input instead of using a USB
webcam, you can grab one of these little capture cards.
I'll leave a link in the description below.
And now you've got an extra HDMI port, and this capture card is also powered over USB.
So that's all you need. And it just sits right on top.
This also has the ability to load graphics and generate titles on the device itself.
You can add text layers or load graphics from an SD card, even a logo to the stream.
You can even load video clips on the SD card and playback prerecorded videos.
There's also an audio input to run audio from an external mixer or music from an iPod or
something. So it's a pretty nice set of inputs.
Next, moving onto outputs.
First, the whole device is a touchscreen monitor.
You control and monitor everything from here.
That means you don't need to bring a separate monitor because this thing is a monitor.
There's also an HDMI output, which is mainly useful if you want a larger view of what's
on the screen. There is, of course, a headphone jack so you can monitor your audio.
And if you pop in an SD card, you can also record your livestream to the card.
Then there's the streaming output from this device.
You can connect YouTube, Facebook twitch or even custom RTMP end points and stream to one
or more of them at the same time.
You can also either stream at 1080, 720 or 540.
And that takes us to network connectivity.
This thing has multiple ways it can get onto the Internet.
There's an Ethernet port to plug in a wired connection, which if you do have a wired
connection, that's can be the best available.
So use that if you can, but it can also connect to Wi-Fi.
If you don't have a wired connection nearby.
But also -- and this is what really surprised me -- you can pop in a SIM card and
livestream on a cellular connection.
I was able to take the SIM card out of my phone, pop into this box and livestream to
YouTube. By the way, if you need a good cell plan for this kind of thing, I can
definitely recommend Mint Mobile.
I've been using them for years.
They didn't sponsor this. I just really like them.
And if you use the link below, you get fifteen dollars off your first month.
And you also save me a bit on my next phone bill.
Ok. So that gives you an idea of the features of this.
Let's talk about the price and who I think this is good for.
This retails for eleven hundred dollars, which may sound expensive, but let's take a look
at other devices around the same price range.
So the Sling Studio is a similar self-contained switcher that also has built in Wi-Fi.
It's a thousand dollars for the main hub.
But the only way to connect multiple cameras is wirelessly.
And each camera you add, you have to buy a 300 wireless transmitter.
Plus, there's no screen.
So you also have to have an iPad to control it.
So that brings the costs closer to two thousand dollars in order to have a complete
setup. Not including cameras, of course.
There's also the one I reviewed a couple of weeks ago, the ATEN StreamLive, which is
about a thousand dollars.
And it's actually a kind of similar level of functionality.
About the same number of inputs.
But that one, of course, is a lot larger and not battery powered.
And you also still need an iPad to use as a controller for it.
Of course, there's also the Roland V-1HD for a thousand dollars, but that's just a
switcher. And you need to use an external streaming encoder and a monitor.
There's the Blackmagic Television Studio HD for a thousand dollars, which also doesn't
include a live streaming encoder.
And there's, of course, my favorite, the Blackmagic ATEM Mini Pro, which is pretty
portable and compact also.
But it's not really designed to be powered from a battery.
And you still need to add a monitor to see what you're doing.
Plus, it's more limited than what you can do with graphics, since you'll probably need to
run graphics into it from an external computer.
I still love the ATEM Mini Pro, but I think both of these are useful in very different
scenarios. So what kind of things do you think this is the most useful for?
Well, out of the box, it really has everything you need to start live streaming.
So it is excellent for people who are just starting out.
You don't need to worry about buying a bunch of separate devices like a monitor and a
streaming encoder and finding the right cables to connect them all, but also since it can
run off it's built in battery, that makes it super portable and something you can use
when you're out livestreaming on the go.
It has a 1/4 20 tripod mount on the bottom, so you can even attach it on top of your
camera and then you have a completely self-contained livestreaming solution.
Personally, for me, this will probably replace the Sling Studio when I start traveling
again and filming small conferences.
It's so portable and easy to pack up in a bag and it will really cut down the amount of
gear and wires I need to bring.
Normally I nearly fill a backpack with the Sling Studio transmitters, power cables, other
accessories. So this should trim it down nicely.
So these are my first impressions of this little box.
I've had this for about a week and I've been playing around with it and I think it's a
really promising device.
And I'm looking forward to seeing how they continue to improve it.
There were a few small things that were kind of funny about getting set up for the first
time, but they've already shipped a software update for it in the time that I've had
this. So I know they're actively working on polishing off some of the rough spots.
I've given them a bunch of feedback on this, too, so I'm looking forward to seeing future
software updates as well.
I'm definitely planning on doing more videos about this in the future, both deep dives on
specific features, but especially ones I've had a chance to use it outside of a studio
environment. So let me know in the comments if you have specific questions and I will see
if I can answer them in a future video.
All right. Thanks so much for watching.
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like this. Thanks.
And I will see you in the next one.