There are five IzzyCast actors (plugins/modules) inside Isadora that are used for various purposes having to do with IzzyCast. Below are brief descriptions of the IzzyCast actors.
Note: You can get a more detailed description of each IzzyCast actor’s functions by right-clicking one in Isadora and selecting the top option (“Show Actor Help in Browser”) from the contextual menu. In the case of the IzzyCast Create Session actor, this will show more specific instructions on how to use the IzzyCast actors inside Isadora.
IzzyCast Create Session Actor
To start an IzzyCast Session, the host must enter their IzzyCast Account Key into this actor, along with a unique IzzyCast User Name, and then set the ‘session enable’ input to ‘on’. Optionally, the host can put in a Reserved Session ID to start a pre-created IzzyCast Session (useful for making sure you use the same IzzyCast Session ID for every rehearsal/performance on a given project and for distributing the IzzyCast Session ID to participants ahead of time).
Alternatively, enabling the IzzyCast Session with no Reserved Session ID typed in will create a Single-Use Session ID that the host will need to distribute manually to the participants.
IzzyCast Join Session Actor
To join an IzzyCast Session, the participant must enter the IzzyCast Session ID provided to them by the host as well as a unique IzzyCast User Name into this actor then set the ‘session enable’ input to ‘on’.
IzzyCast Broadcaster Actor
This Isadora actor can be used by a user connected to an IzzyCast Session to send one stream of video, one stream of audio, and one or more streams of data. Other users connected to the same IzzyCast Session can then receive this video, audio, and data by putting the sender’s IzzyCast User Name into an IzzyCast Receiver actor.
IzzyCast Receiver Actor
This Isadora actor, once an IzzyCast User Name is typed into it, receives the selected user's video, audio, and data streams which can then be used inside of Isadora.
IzzyCast Devices Actor
This Isadora actor lists the video and audio devices recognized by IzzyCast and allows the selection of a video input device, an audio input device, and an audio output device via numerical inputs. This can be used to send the list of a participant’s video and audio devices to the host via data streams in the IzzyCast Broadcaster actor which, with minimal programming, would then allow the host to use their own IzzyCast Broadcaster actor to send the participant back a number for each device in order to remotely control which devices a participant is using, (e.g., allow the host to programmatically switch between three different camera angles for a participant being interviewed or cycle through multiple cameras, microphones, and speakers as a performer moves around a large space or into different rooms).