The latest version of Skype allows you to send video streams to other applications using NewTek's NDI tech technology. This article explains how to receive those video streams in Isadora.

Before You Begin:

  1. Ensure you are using Isadora 3.0.7 or later.
  2. Please download and install the NDI Watcher actor from our plugins page.

Set Up Skype for NDI

  1. Before your Skype call, tap or click for Settings
  2. Select Calling then Advanced
  3. You will see “Allow NDI® Usage” turn the toggle on. (A banner will appear in your call letting everyone that you are potentially broadcasting or recording the call via NDI).

Receiving Skype Video in Isadora via NDI

Once you've established a connection to one or more people in Skype, you use Isadora's NDI Watcher actor to receive a separate stream for each person connected, as well as for the stream that shows the person who is currently speaking

  1. Establish your Skype connection(s)
  2. In Isadora, add both an NDI Watcher actor and a Projector actor
  3. Connect the NDI Watcher's video output to the Projector's video input
  4. Click in the box to the left of the 'ndi source' input in the NDI Watcher actor..
  5. A list of all of the available NDI Streams will appear in the popup menu as shown below. There will be one stream for each person you've connected to, as well as a stream for the local camera (Local), and finally a stream that will display the active speaker (Active Speaker).
  6. The selected video stream will be sent to the Projector actor and will appear on Isadora's stage.

What About Audio?

Currently (April 6, 2020) Isadora does not allow you to receive and re-route the audio for an NDI Stream. Because the coronavirus outbreak has created an urgent need to work with remote video streams like the NDI streams provided by Skype, we have prioritized an improvement to the NDI Watcher actor that will allow route the audio to any available sound driver. Stay tuned to our Facebook or Instagram page, and the TroikaTronix forum for announcements regarding our progress.

In the meantime, we can offer one workaround now for macOS:

  1. Download and install NDISyphon from our friends at Vidvox.
  2. Select a Skype stream in the top left hand view under NDI® Clients
  3. Click the Enabled checkbox to the right.
  4. Choose the destination for the audio using the "Audio Output" popup menu.
  5. If you send the sound to a sound routing driver like Sound Flower or BlackHole, you can use the macOS Only Core Audio actors to receive the audio in Isadora using the Sound Input actor.