This chapter explains how to operate a pre-recorded video or live RTMP stream on the stage. See the section on Streaming for information about how to set up and send an RTMP stream to UpStage. Note that this is different to using the Jitsi meeting tool or individual Jitsi streams – see the Meeting tool chapter for information on streaming using Jitsi.
Show your stream on stage
Click on the Stream tool in the left-hand tool bar. This opens an overlay at the top of the screen showing icons for any RTMP streams and pre-recorded videos that have been assigned to this stage, as well as a “Refresh” button. Note that streams that are not currently live will show as their QR code, and you cannot place them on the stage unless they are live. When the stream is live, you’ll see a thumbnail of that stream.
Drag the thumbnail of your stream or video onto the stage. You may see a buffering icon before the image appears.
The stream has the same ‘light bulb’ icon as props and avatars; until you activate this (it’s green when activated) your stream isn’t visible to anyone else. It will show as black and white to you, so that you can adjust parameters such as its size, position and opacity before turning on the light bulb to make it visible to everyone.
Once you’ve turned the light bulb on, turning it off doesn’t make the stream invisible to others. It allows you to make changes to the stream (such as size, position and opacity) that won’t be visible to everyone else until you turn the light bulb on again. They will still see your stream while you’re making the changes.
Adjust size, position and opacity
The green frame around your stream allows you to adjust the size, position and opacity of your stream – the same as you can do with props and avatars. If you don’t see the frame, click on the stream and the frame will appear around it.
- Drag and drop to move the stream to another place on the stage.
- Use the corner and side handles to scale the stream to be larger or smaller.
- Click and hold the white circle at center top, then drag it to rotate the stream.
- Move the slider on the left-hand side down to reduce opacity (fade out) and up to increase opacity (fade in).
- Right-click on the stream to access the context menu with more options, including horizontal and vertical flip and shape.
- for pre-recorded videos, the right-click menu includes pause, play and loop options.
Mute
The speaker icon at the lower right of the stream is a local mute button. Clicking on this will mute the audio of this stream only for you. Use this to mute other people’s streams if you don’t want to hear them, for example if you start to get feedback from someone else’s stream.
To mute or control the level of your audio stream for everyone else, you must adjust it in the streaming software (e.g. Larix or OBS). Note that audience members don’t see the local mute button.
Stream shape
Video streams are rectangular. If you’d like your stream to appear as a circle or oval, right-click on the stream. A context menu appears with the circular frame option at the top of the list. Click on the circle to give your stream a circular frame.
A rectangular stream will become an oval. To make your stream round you will need to choose square dimensions in your streaming application’s resolution settings. See the chapter Sending an RTMP stream for more information.
Remove a stream from the stage
Right-click on the stream to see the green frame, then click on the cross. The stream will disappear from the stage. It’s still available in the stream toolbar if you want to put it back onto the stage.
