Using Presenter with Ecamm
June 3, 2024
I’m considering using Presenter solely for lower third music lyrics. Does anyone know if this will work with Ecamm or have any tips/suggestions/comments on using it with Ecamm? Thanks for any help. Mark
July 16, 2024
After seeing no replies to this post for some time, I decided to add the steps I went through to use Presenter with Ecamm Live to display lower-third lyrics over our livestream. Hopefully, this will help someone out down the road. Here are a couple of caveats:1. This is a simple setup with one Mac and its display running Presenter and Ecamm and a second monitor attached to the Mac. We don't use projectors, congregation monitors, or stage displays in our worship service. This setup is simply for sending out lower-third lyrics over your livestream. We use a base M1 Mac, and it has no difficulty running Ecamm and Presenter at the same time.
2. There's likely a better way to do this, but this procedure worked for me. Please feel free to add any suggestions or improvements in the comments.
Using Presenter to display lower third lyrics with Ecamm
1. Connect a second monitor’s HDMI cord to your Mac using the HDMI port (Mac mini M1) or the Thunderbolt port using Apple’s USB-C Digital AV Multiport adaptor.
2. Proceed to System Settings > Displays on your Mac. You should see your Mac monitor and the second monitor you just connected to. You can drag the displays to arrange them as you like but don’t drag them on top of each other, or you’ll have a mirrored display, which is not what you want. Ensure the second monitor is set up for your live stream resolution and as an extended display.
3. Download the NDI Scan Converter from https://ndi.video/tools/ and install it on your Mac. Once installed, please open it and leave it running for the next step.
4. Open Presenter and close the Stage Display window if it’s open.
5. Proceed to the Screens drop-down menu and click Configure. In the Resolution box, select your live stream resolution.
6. Select Main Audience Output, choose the second monitor as your Display (Display 1), and click Save.
7. Add your songs and the lower third lyrics as you usually would, but add a “Green” background to each slide. You can do this by editing your song in the Cue list (Pencil Icon), clicking Media, clicking the Free Stills tab, and then scrolling down the stills to find the solid green still background (Named Green 02) between the white and Blue still backgrounds. Click this Green background and then click the Launch button. Your lyrics slides should now have a green background. Repeat for the other songs.
8. Return to the open NDI Scan Converter by Leaving the Presenter application open on your primary screen. In the menu bar, select the Capture drop-down box. Find “Presenter” in the menu and choose your second monitor’s display. It will have the resolution you specified in Step 5.
9. Now, open Ecamm Live. In the Scenes box, select the Scene that contains your live stream camera. This might be called “Live Cam” or something else. The Ecamm window should show live footage of the sanctuary.
10. Next, go to the Overlays window and click the “New Camera Overlay” icon at the bottom. You’ll notice that there is now a New Video Overlay under the “Show In Current Scene” title. It will display your computer’s name, dot, and local and have “Scan Converter” in Parenthesis: MyMac.”Local (Scan Converter). Click the small gear icon next Eye icon and change the source for the Overlay to the NDI Scan Converter’s name for your second display. The Scan Converter now acts as an NDI camera that provides Ecamm with the content from your second monitor. Also, ensure the “Eye” is open so the lyrics will be visible along with the live camera.
11. Finally, click Ecamm’s Camera Effects icon (Magic Wand) and check the Green Screen and Transparent boxes. Then, close this window.
12. You should now see the lyrics on the Ecamm main screen; the green background will be invisible. You can now drag the lyrics window and resize it within the main Ecamm window. The Camera Switcher window in Ecamm should also show two cameras. One camera will be your live stream camera, and the second will be the Scan Converter “camera.” If the NDI “camera” is not showing the green background, you need to quit the NDI Scan Converter, restart it, and add the Presenter monitor display again via the Capture drop-down box.