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[00:00:00] Don’t rotate your phone — this is not a vertical video. I’m going to show you how you can go live on Instagram and TikTok using professional cameras. And not just one camera, but multiple camera angles, and even add custom text and graphics to your production. Ready to go live in… 3…2…1… go!

[00:00:22] This is the YoloLiv Instream. It looks a lot the YoloBox Pro, but is designed exclusively for live streaming vertical video to Instagram and TikTok, with more platforms to come. It features two HDMI inputs, a USB port that supports a webcam, Ethernet and WiFi, HDMI output, and USB-C for charging, or to turn the Instream into a webcam interface. 

[00:00:45] It also has an audio output, line level and microphone inputs, an SD slot for loading graphics and videos, and recording your show, and a SIM slot so you can go live anywhere with 4G reception. The device is essentially running Android, with native Instagram and TikTok apps pre-loaded. As far as the apps are concerned, you’re just using the device’s built-in camera, just like your phone would, but instead you’re able to use professional cameras.

[00:01:11] The advantages of live streaming using a proper camera setup instead of just your phone’s camera are… many. The quality of the picture, for one… the quality of the sound… the fact that you can add graphics and lower thirds to your show… that you can pre-load videos for playing back during a live show. And, that you can cut multiple views from a single camera, build picture in picture or split-screen setups, and even do chroma key — green or blue screen! And it’s all operated from this touch screen interface. 

[00:01:40] Also, since you’re shooting on full size cameras, that means you can always record internally in the cameras, in 4K or 6K — whatever your cameras are capable of — so you can repurpose your live content later, starting with the highest quality. I’ve built this set much like you might for a live vertical show. I have my main camera here, which as you can see is normal landscape mode, and I’m cutting the middle out of that. 

[00:02:02] This over-the-shoulder camera is mounted vertically, giving me tight shot of the tabletop, but also a taller shot showing some more of my setup. You can see here that I have a large computer monitor that is mirroring the Instream interface. That can be nice to have, or you can set this to show the Program out — the Program is what your live audience sees — so you have a confidence monitor of exactly what’s going to air. That’s up to you. 

[00:02:27] Then I have a nice boom microphone running into a professional audio interface which is then routed through the camera, which ensures that audio and video are perfectly in sync. You could however run the audio into the Instream directly in the line in or microphone inputs, and if you do that, you have audio delay controls in the Instream, so you can ensure that your audio and video are in sync. 

[00:02:47] Now let’s talk about the video inputs I’m bringing in, and how they’re configured. I’ll actually disconnect HDMI-1 so that we can completely reset it and start from scratch. You see the video comes in sideways, because the Instream assumes you’re going to just rotate your camera 90˚, which makes sense. You don’t have to, and I’ll show you how to “fix” the image if you don’t, however for most uses, you should rotate the camera as that’ll give you the best quality. Let me explain why. 

[00:03:14] The cameras come in in full HD, or 1920×1080 pixels. This camera, coming in vertically, is already rotated, so we have a 1080 wide by 1920 tall image. Instagram and TikTok both live stream at 720 wide by 1280 tall, which is basically HD “light”. So this camera coming in at 1920 tall means you can crop quite a bit into the shot without losing any quality — which is in fact what I’ve already done here, when I go from the wide shot to the tight shot. Awesome. 

[00:03:44] But now what happens with this camera, that I chose NOT to physically rotate. First, I need to rotate the orientation of the camera in the Instream, so I’m upright. So let’s do that first. I’ll just rotate that 90 degrees three times… and there we go. This image is now 1920 wide by 1080 tall — but remember, 1280 tall is the full resolution of the live stream. 

[00:04:07] It’s no problem to crop it in, but you will be scaling up a little bit. All I have to do is go in to the crop tool… I’ll leave it centered, tap “fit to screen” — that will fill the screen with the image — and the tap “Done”, and there’s my new camera angle, so there I have my tight shot.

[00:04:23] We are now scaling that 1080 vertical resolution up to 1280, but given the quality of the source image, and that the audience is viewing on their phone, it’s perfectly fine. So, why bother cropping from wide at all? Well, I can cut two shots from a single camera, remember… So let’s say I was interviewing a guest, and we’re side by side; I could set a crop on each side, like this… I’ll go in and set a new crop, push this all the way to the side, fit to screen, and done — and now I’ve got a second angle from that one camera. You could even use this wide shot as a two-up and combine it with another angle or another source to fill the frame. 

[00:04:59] Next, let’s check out some of the video layout options we do have. To do a picture in picture or split screen, you have lots of options. To create them, I’ll start by tapping on “Add video source” and then I’ll choose this is “2-View” and I’ll start with this source, and this one here. Tap “Done”… looks like they’re in the wrong place, so I’ll swap the video, and now I’ve got a great 2-up layout showing the close-up of my Instream and the wide shot of here.

[00:05:23] If I wanted to rearrange them a little bit, I could change the separator position — but it looked pretty good the way it was. I could change the border color, change the border thickness or even take it down to zero if I wanted to, but I like it the way it is. And as you can see, there’s a lot of other options in here as well.

[00:05:39] Next, let’s take a quick look at graphics. There’s some really cool built-in options, or you can import your own artwork. I’ll switch to the graphics tab, tap the PLUS button, and let’s start with a lower third. You can see there’s quite a few to choose from in here, so I’ll just grab this one and change the title. Let’s change this one to “Subscribe” and we’ll change the subtitle to “PhotoJoseph” — that is of course a very subtle hint.

[00:06:05] You can change the font of this, you can change the text color, the background colors — whatever you’d like in here. Change the size, the positioning the offset, drag it down wherever you want in the scene, and when you’re done, tap on the Done button and that gets added to your overlays. Tap on the overlay to load it up and that’s all there is to it.

[00:06:24] You can also add pre-created graphics as PNG files that are loaded onto the SD card. To do that, tap on the Plus, use image overlays — there’s one that I created earlier — tap Done, and Done, and now I’ve got that graphic loaded and ready to go. You’ll see that I can also add a web URL overlay. This allows you to use a third-party service to generate text on a web page that is automatically parsed by the Yolo box. It’s a pretty cool setup.

[00:06:51] And finally we have in here the ability to add a countdown timer so you can have a countdown timer ready to go for your live show. You can even queue up edited videos that are ready to play back in the middle of a live show, like say, a sponsor’s ad. To do that, scroll down and choose “Add video source” — I’ll choose “local video” and grab this one off the SD card. Before I play it, I want to make sure the audio is on, so I’ll go to my Local Video, turn on the audio, make the levels a little bit lower here and let’s go ahead and play that— and now you’re playing your ad! And, this really actually is an ad!

[00:07:24] I’m actually doing a photography workshop in India this year and I would love for you to join me on this. If you love travel photography and the idea of going to one of the most dynamic, most colorful places in the world is interesting to you, then check it out at photojoseph.com/india.

[00:07:39] I also want to show you the Auto-Switch feature. This allows you to completely automate your multicam show. Here you can see I have video sources HDMI 2-1 and 1-1 already selected. I have their timing set for just two seconds each… I’ll go ahead and start that, and now I can hands-off, and let it run this show completely automatically. That’s a pretty great way to run a multicam live show with minimal effort. And once you’re all set up, you’re ready to go live.

[00:08:04] As you can see both Instagram and TikTok are already in place, so let’s fire up Instagram! To make the page bigger so you can see what’s going on, swipe up from the bottom and then tap the double headed arrows, then just like when you’re on your phone, to go live, tap on the plus, swipe over to LIVE and there’s the Instream’s input.

[00:08:22] I’ll go ahead and bring this back down to a small window, bring up my graphics for my countdown timer, and tap the “go live” button. It checks the connection, and just like that, we’re now in a practice live session. That’s all it takes to go live on Instagram or TikTok using the Instream and professional cameras.

[00:08:39] Vertical live video is definitely a growing trend. if you want to bring the best quality to your production, this is how you do it. Now, I didn’t dive DEEP into all the intricacies of the Instream settings, like all the graphics or audio controls, or show off all the video layouts or even green screen keying! I’ve actually covered all of that before in my extensive YoloBox Complete Tour video, which you can watch here.

[00:09:02] The Yolobox is the big brother product to the Instream, made for traditional widescreen streaming and has many of the same features. So, watch that one next.