- Whether you've got an over the top set up like I do,
or you're sticking with the built-in webcam
on your computer,
you can bring your Zoom meetings and classes alive
by using Ecamm Live.
And this video is not sponsored in any way, shape or form.
I've just been using Ecamm Live
for the past couple of months,
and I've really grown to like it a lot.
It combines the like limitless possibilities of OBS,
with the simplicity of StreamYard.
It's not free software, but if you're someone like me
who spends a lot of time,
either doing streams or literally all day every day,
doing online classes,
Ecamm can bring everything to the next level.
My typical setup does include like the RODECaster Pro
and the ATEM Mini and sometimes multiple cameras.
But this same idea
will work with any camera input that you have.
And the beauty of it is that through Ecamm,
you can combine all these different sources.
You can create little graphics really easily.
You can just do all kinds of stuff,
even screen-sharing in ways that are much simpler
and more effective than in a traditional Zoom meeting.
I have done over 250 Zoom classes online this semester,
and we're heading into the second semester soon.
So, that number will go up and up,
and anything that makes my life easier
I get really excited about when it comes to this.
But Ecamm doesn't just make it easier,
it actually makes it better.
So, let's see cam,
what's so great about Ecamm.
Right now.
Wait, right now I've got a second EOS R connected to Ecamm,
the same way that I normally would for my classes.
The shot's a little different.
Normally I actually use this shot for my classes
because it works really well.
That's probably not relevant.
Anyway, so right now I've got Ecamm and Zoom
both opened on my computer and I put them side by side
so you can see how these things work together.
Actually, I should put it this way.
Zoom is over here and all of the Ecamm layouts
are right down here.
And that is really the beauty
is how you can adjust this interface.
So, I can just move everything around however I want it.
I can bring up different settings and different overlays.
If you are streaming,
because that is the most common use for Ecamm,
is on something like YouTube.
Then you can even open up your comments
and pop those up on screen as they roll in.
But that obviously doesn't happen during a Zoom meeting.
So, instead of going to YouTube or anything like that,
usually I just set my destination as record only,
although it doesn't really matter,
because Zoom is doing the recording for the meetings.
And I will say,
I have noticed that when I'm using Ecamm
and this method through Zoom,
my classes, sometimes the recorded part can be
maybe 40 to 45 minutes,
usually Zoom takes kind of a while to process that file
before I can then upload it
so the students can replay it.
Using Ecamm for whatever reason makes Zoom
process the file way quicker.
I have no idea why, if anything,
I would kind of thought the opposite, but it works
so, I'm not gonna argue with it.
But jumping back into the setup here,
and this definitely is not an Ecamm tutorial video,
that could be an entire series, maybe in the future.
This is just the basics of using Ecamm with Zoom
or some other online meeting software, Skype, FaceTime.
They kind a work the same way.
When you first start up Ecamm
and then you open up your Zoom settings,
right now, everything is running through
my Blackmagic ATEM Mini,
which is also what is running into Ecamm Live.
But Ecamm is not showing up anywhere here.
So, what I need to do in Ecamm Live
is go onto Output and click on Virtual Cam
and turn that on.
Now, again, this is a Pro plan feature,
so it's not gonna work on every Ecamm plan.
The pro option of Ecamm also gives you the ability
to bring in guests for interviews, which is terrific.
You just send 'em a link and they can join in
and you can do split screen.
You can have like five people.
It's amazing.
My only gripe with Ecamm
is that they didn't call their interview feature we cam.
Come on.
Once you've got virtual cam turned on,
it basically makes the output from Ecamm
act as a webcam source for your computer.
So, in other software,
now like Zoom, Ecamm will pop up as a source,
and I can click over there and use that as my
video source for Zoom.
So, I'm actually going to start a meeting.
And even though your Zoom meeting is now running the same,
it's the fact that you're using Ecamm
that lets you do all of that really cool new stuff.
So, for example, everything down here in the window,
I've got my sound effects.
I teach high school kids,
sound effects go a long way.
Right now there's, because I'm all by myself in this chat,
there's nobody talking in the chat,
but sometimes if I got students
that wanna blow up the chat,
I can drop the explosion sound effect.
(boom)
You can create scenes just as if you're doing
a YouTube live stream.
So, if you wanna do a picture and picture thing
for one scenario, you wanna play a video,
you wanna have all these different setups
with graphics and stuff.
You can create all these different scenes
and roll through them.
Whatever's showing up in Ecamm
will show up in your Zoom meeting.
I really love using overlays,
because when students are just watching and listening,
sometimes the info's not getting through.
So like literally, this was some of our
assignments from the most recent classes I did.
I was reminding my students,
this is what you need to be working on.
And as I'm talking, I can throw in these overlays.
If I need to edit them just in Ecamm,
I just double click on it, and I can change,
I can just edit this stuff in real time.
Like, I was trying to convince my students
they could actually just make digital media
for fun on their own.
It's a mind blowing concept.
But I can change something like,
this video is awesome,
and save that and it will update in real time.
You can have multiple overlays.
So, sometimes for each of my classes, I might throw,
different overlays up there.
You can throw pictures, PNG files,
anything that you want can be an overlay.
Even just sharing an image becomes really easy.
For example, I have this image,
I was working on a podcast this morning.
If I was in this Zoom meeting
and I wanted to share my podcast timeline
that I was working on,
I literally just need to drag it onto my Ecamm window,
and then it show up in my Zoom meeting,
and I can tell everyone,
hey, look at this podcast here.
I can resize it, I can move it around.
All of the changes again,
that I'm making in Ecamm Live
will show up in my Zoom meeting in real time.
And the same thing goes with playing a video file.
You can just click this movie button and play things like,
look, here's my logo.
I can play that super easily.
If you wanna share your screen,
this is also so much easier than Zoom screen sharing,
which I have to admit has gotten a lot better.
So, for example,
I've got a browser window open
to my favorite YouTube channel.
Who could not love this channel right here?
And if I wanna share that browser window,
I just need to click the little computer icon
and it will pop up here.
I can put myself as picture and picture.
I can rearrange myself.
If I wanna just get rid of that,
I actually don't even need to be there,
it can just be the screen share.
You might even notice too,
that even though the browser window on my actual computer
is like, buried under Ecamm and Zoom,
and all this stuff,
in the screen-share,
it's just the browser window on the background.
And if I move it, you'll see,
it kinda does this weird moving thing
with my computer desktop,
but you don't see any of my icons and stuff.
You can change all that stuff in your settings
the more you get into Ecamm,
like how your screen share works.
I can even screen share this Zoom meeting,
which is then just gonna make the whole thing go crazy,
and I really like to do that sometimes.
My students are sort of like,
their attention is waning.
I can just do that right there.
But this is a really helpful thing.
So for example,
last week I was in a meeting after school
with some of like, local community colleges and stuff.
And we were talking about the programs that we teach.
I needed to quickly show my classes,
but I didn't have like a keynote or anything prepared.
And so what I was able to do is
share our program website super easily.
And then while someone else was talking,
I typed out here are our classes
and was able to add that as an overlay real quick.
And it did make me look more professional
during the meeting.
Like it was a very good image
to present as a working professional,
but also it made the point
I was trying to convey more clear,
which is really what this is all about.
This is not about just flexing on everyone
with all these graphics and things that you can do,
although sure, that can be fun.
It's really about making things as clear
and effective as possible.
And if you've been watching
YouTube or Twitch streamers,
and you see all the great things that they're able to do
that keep their streams interactive and engaging,
and then you go to your Zoom meeting
and everything is super boring and plain,
and every meeting feels exactly the same.
Well, this is a way you can make yourself stand out.
This is a way you can really level up the overall quality
of everything that you're doing.
And of course there are a couple other benefits
to this as well.
If you're really only concerned
with your side of the meeting,
like, you're giving up presentation or a lecture
and you don't want the other people's windows
or any of that stuff happening,
you can just record your meeting directly in Ecamm,
and the finished file is gonna be much higher quality
than the Zoom recording,
because the Ecamm recording can look like this,
but the Zoom recording will look like this.
And to take this one step further,
even though this isn't totally necessary,
if you are somebody who doesn't have an ATEM Mini,
or you don't have something like the Elgato Cam Link,
but you don't wanna use your webcam
now that you've got Ecamm
to make everything look amazing.
With the Canon EOS Webcam Utility,
which is a free download.
And I do think Sony has a very similar application
that does the same things.
Your Canon camera can now do a lot of things
it can't do before.
And if I were using my EOS R like normal,
it doesn't really matter because it has clean HDMI out,
which means I get auto-focus.
I get all that great functionality
in any streaming software application that I'm using.
If I use something like the 6D Mark II,
or the Canon M50, or a slightly older model.
If it doesn't have clean HDMI out,
even if it has really great video auto-focus,
it's gonna put that white box around your face,
and you're not gonna be able to get rid of that.
But with the webcam utility,
you might even notice now that I've disconnected
the ATEM Mini from my computer in Ecamm,
the next thing it went to is Webcam Utility.
I just need to connect my 6D via USB.
About a month ago, I got this little PolarPro Apex Tripod.
I got the one that's just the legs,
and then I put my old JOBY GorillaPod head on it.
This is my favorite portable tripod ever.
This thing can hold like 75 pounds.
It's so sturdy.
Have you ever had a JOBY fall over on you?
JOBY jealous of this.
Ugh.
Set the camera over here.
And as soon as I turn on the 6D Mark II,
the webcam utility recognizes it
and it becomes an input source.
So, without any other capture cards,
now I'm using the 6D Mark II
as a webcam with clean HDMI out,
and auto-focus.
It's got kinda slow auto-focus,
but it's there and it's working.
So, on the camera itself,
when I'm looking off to the side on the screen,
I'm still seeing all of the white boxes
and everything there, but on the actual stream,
on the Ecamm input with the webcam utility,
there's nothing there,
it's clean HDMI input.
So, now with Ecamm and your existing camera as a webcam,
just through USB for free,
you can really change the entire situation,
the entire experience of one of your Zoom meetings
or your Zoom classes.
It's also worth mentioning while we're doing this,
that Ecamm does have a mic delay option.
So, if you want to delay your audio
because you're having syncing issues
through Zoom or whatever,
you can experiment with that until you get it exactly
how you need it.
And of course, it's absolutely possible to deliver
incredible classes, meetings, streams, whatever,
just using your built-in camera and microphone.
But these little things
that kind of level everything up a little bit,
they really do make a huge difference.
And I think most importantly,
it keeps you creative in your work.
If you're just kinda doing the same thing,
the same way every day,
that can get pretty boring
and you can get a little bit jaded,
but if you start for all these new things to do
and different ways to kind of alleviate friction
or bring in some new functionality to your workflow,
that not only gives you a better end result,
but it also makes things more exciting for you.
It makes you feel more creative
and lets you have more fun while you're working.
If you wanna know more about my over the top,
unnecessary, but still really fun Zoom setup,
I did an entire video about it,
and I've also put together a playlist
of other videos I've made about live streaming
and everything to kinda get you up and running
the best way possible.
(upbeat music)