Larix Broadcaster for Android
Android app for live capturing and streaming
Encoding and streaming features
The core of our tools is Larix streaming library.
Key content streaming features include:
- NDI®|HX2 output (premium feature)
You can use your device as NDI source, see details below. - SRT publishing in Push (Caller), Listen and Rendezvous modes
with streamid, latency, maxbw parameters and more via libsrt version 1.5.0. - RTMP and RTSP publishing.
RTMPS/RTSPS support for RTMP and RTSP over SSL. - New: Enhanced RTMP spec is supported to deliver HEVC via RTMP (premium)
WebRTC output with WHIP signaling. (premium feature)
See more details below.- RIST protocol Push mode support: RIST Main and Simple Profile, librist 0.2.7.
Use "rist://ipaddress:port" for new connection URL. - Multiple simultaneous connections to several destinations. (premium feature for 3+ connections)
- Pause and Stand-by modes, see description below.
- Talkback for Larix Broadcaster allows getting audio return feed from studio. (premium feature)
- Adaptive bitrate (ABR) video is supported via logarithmic descend, ladder ascend, hybrid approach and variable FPS.
Read respective Q11 in Larix FAQ to learn more technical details. - Insert SEI time metadata and specify NTP server, this allows synchronizing streams on server side.
(premium feature)
Use Advanced menu to operate it. Watch video tutorial to see it in action.
Minimum supported Android version is 6 (Marshmallow), API 23+.
Codecs:
Video is encoded with interleaved H.264/AVC everywhere.
H.265/HEVC is available on supporting devices.
This includes transmission over Enhanced RTMP which allows publishing HEVC into YouTube, with HDR on supported devices.
HEVC is a premium feature
Audio is encoded with AAC everywhere except WebRTC. In WebRTC, the codec is Opus.
NDI®|HX2 output (premium feature)
You can turn your mobile device into NDI source
for just $19.99 per month in-app subscription:
- Output streaming via NDI®|HX2
- Preview stream support
- Discovery Server and connection metadata
- Handle zoom from NDI Studio Monitor
- NDI SDK 2023-04-10 r134150 v5.5.4
WebRTC output (premium feature)
- WHIP signaling is used for communication with server side.
- H.264/AVC video and Opus audio encoding.
- VP8 and VP9 video encoding is supported but depends on your hardware capabilities.
- Multiple simultaneous connections via any protocols.
- Tested with Cloudflare Stream, Dolby.io and Nimble Streamer
Watch Ingesting WebRTC from Larix Broadcaster to Nimble Streamer tutorial and also read Dolby.io article to learn about WebRTC usage on iOS which is applicable to Android implementation.
Larix Grove format allows you easily distribute your connection and encoder settings via deep links and QR codes.
Full support for Facebook Live, YouTube Live, Twitch, Wowza Streaming Cloud, Amazon Interactive Video Service, Periscope, Dacast, Akamai, Limelight and other online services. All popular authentication methods are supported. Check docs reference for setup instructions.
Image, audio and other features
You can use streaming capabilities for free using our fully-functional Larix Broadcaster apps.
Besides encoding and streaming features, Larix Broadcaster uses full power of mobile devices:
- All features of Larix streaming library
- Landscape and portrait various modes support with device dynamic orientation.
- "Always vertical" and "Always horizontal" modes.
- Watch image and stream rotation tutorial.
- Front and back cameras with hot switch.
- Multi-camera support for Android 10+: you can choose which physical and logical cameras to flip between.
- Concurrent cameras support for Android 11+: side-by-side and picture-in-picture streaming from front & rear cameras simultaneously. This requires devices which support concurrent camera usage, like Google Pixel 5.
- Video+audio, video only and audio only modes.
- Background streaming when app is not in focus. Watch video tutorial to see it in action.
(premium feature) - Pause the stream: when streaming, long tap on Start will pause the stream without disconnecting it.
Video track will contain a black screen, audio track will contain silence.
A separate set of overlays can be mapped onto pause. - Stand-by mode: when stopped, long tap on Start will start stream in pause mode, waiting to start with the camera image.
A separate set of overlays can be mapped onto stand-by. - Input audio gain control
- Audio-only capture mode: disable preview, stream from background, no video in output stream.
- Both fixed and variable FPS are supported, full list of supported FPS values is created specifically for each user device.
- 60FPS support: most devices with 60FPS cameras don't provide this capability to third-party apps. So if your device has that support, we do not guarantee Larix to provide it.
- Full camera control - focus, exposure, white balance, anti-flicker etc.
- Recording stream to file, making split files and saving screenshots.
On Android 8+ it's possible to select any folder, including SD cards. - Support for OTG USB devices as video and audio sources.
- Pinch-to-zoom.
- Custom volume key function setup via Settings / Advanced options / Volume keys menu.
- Bluetooth audio.
- Flash light.
Overlays support:
- Image layers with external URL and local images;
- Web widgets;
- Text and HTML widgets;
- Timestamp support as defined on unicode.org, e.g. <%date('MMM dd, HH:mm:ss', en_US) %>
- Assign layers for all mode: streaming, pause and stand-by;
This tutorial shows the setup of outgoing connections in Larix Broadcaster.
Documentation and FAQ
- Visit documentation reference page to learn more about Larix apps setup and usage.
Docs page has a huge number of setup instructions and tutorials.
Also watch our YouTube playlist with various video tutorials. - Larix Broadcaster FAQ has most popular questions about mobile streaming technologies.
- Best practices for Larix Broadcaster production deployment for live streaming from mobile devices..
- Contact our helpdesk regarding our mobile technologies.
Larix Screencaster free app
Android allows capturing the screen of user device, so Larix Screencaster uses streaming capabilities to capture the screen, encode and stream it.
- All features of Larix streaming library.
- Encode screen content in H.264/AVC and H.265/HEVC.
- On Android 10, record audio from apps which support external recording. Choose Audio -> Sound settings -> Media sounds.
- Select sample rate and stereo/mono for audio.
- Saving the stream to file.
- Larix Grove support.
Visit documentation reference to learn more about Larix Screencaster setup.
Larix Broadcaster SDK
You can create your own mobile solutions and customize our solutions to your streaming use cases and scenarios.
Go to Larix Broadcaster SDK for Android page
This product uses SRT library distributed under MPL-2.0 license.
This product uses librist library distributed under BSD 2-clause "Simplified" license.
iOS Larix Broadcaster uses Scrollable Segmented Control distributed under MIT license.
This software uses libuvc library and libusb libraries. This software is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group.
This software uses Mbed TLS library distributed under Apache-2.0 license. Library source code is available at github repo.
Larix Broadcaster uses Pion implementation of WebRTC API. Special thanks to Sean DuBois and all Pion contributors.