Combine multiple live streams

What is Multicamera?

Multicamera is a free feature used to combine two or more live streams. You deliver several streams at once, and a user can switch between them using a button in the player. 

This feature is useful when you need to stream the event simultaneously from several angles or in different languages. 

Multiple angles. You are broadcasting a film award ceremony. Your audience wants to see not only the stage, where the host announces winners but also the hall with celebrities. With a Multicamera, you stream from two cameras at once — one shoots the stage, and the other films the hall.  Each viewer can click a button in the player to switch between cameras at any time. 

Multiple languages. You are broadcasting for a multilingual audience: Germans, English and French. You create three live streams dubbed into English, German and French, respectively. You send these streams through Multicamera, and viewers get the opportunity to instantly switch between different voice-overs. 

Enable the Multicamera feature

Please, send us the request to activate the option via support@gcore.com or the chat window in the bottom-right corner of our website. Specify your ID in the request so that we can identify your account. You can find it on the main page in the Gcore Customer Portal.

The message template: "Good afternoon! Please enable the Multicamera feature for an account with ID … (your ID)".

We will notify you when we activate the Multicamera feature. After that, you will be able to work with several live streams in one player.

Configure Multicamera

Create at least two live streams before you configure the Multicamera. To do this, you can use our guide: Create a live stream. 

1. Click Create a multicamera, enter the name (it will be displayed only in the Gcore Customer Portal and will be invisible to viewers), and select the live streams you want to combine. Click Create.

You can also select only one stream. 

A new window will open. Do the remaining steps in it.

2. Select a stream status. The status determines what a viewer will see in the player:

• Live — your stream
• Waiting for Start — a black screen with the "Waiting for Start" message or a screensaver from Step 4 of this guide
• Paused — a black screen with the "Paused" message or a screensaver from Step 4 of this guide
• Ended — a black screen with the "Ended" message or a screensaver from Step 4 of this guide

You can change the status as you stream. For example, in case of a technical problem, set the "Paused" status to suspend your stream. When you fix the issue, change the status to "Live", and the broadcast will be continued. 

3. If you enable the Players feature, you can select here a custom player. 

4. Set the order of the live streams. When a viewer opens the player, they will first see the first live stream from the list, and then will be able to skip to others by clicking the buttons. At this step, you can delete and add live streams. 

5. Upload a screensaver if you want to show an image in the "Waiting for Start", "Paused" and "Ended" statuses instead of the text message. 

6. Copy the iFrame code and embed it into your webpage code.

7. Click Save changes.

The player will show the primary stream, and your users will be able to switch to other streams using the button in the corner.