USB cameras and capture cards
Any camera the operating system can see appears in the camera list. Webcams, USB cameras and capture devices all behave the same way.
For cameras with an HDMI or SDI output, you need a capture card. A single USB capture stick handles one camera and costs very little. The more useful purchase is a multi-channel PCIe card — four, eight or sixteen inputs on one card inside the computer.
That is the purchase that replaces a hardware switcher. Every camera plugs into the card, every camera arrives as its own source, and the switching happens on screen.
Phones as cameras
Install the free Skynat Cam app. Open it on the same Wi-Fi as the studio and the studio appears in a list — there is nothing to type, because the desktop application broadcasts its presence on the network.
Tap the studio, enter the four digits shown on the studio screen, and that phone is an input. Up to eight at once.
The app talks back. The phone shows a red border when its shot is live, so the person holding it knows to stop moving. You can send them a line of text from the studio, and they can press Attention to signal you when they have something worth cutting to.
It also records locally while it streams, so if the Wi-Fi drops you lose that angle from the broadcast but not from the edit.
If your team already uses DroidCam, Camo or Prism Lens, those work too.
Network and Wi-Fi encoders
For a camera too far from the computer to cable, a small HDMI encoder puts it on the network instead. The camera HDMI goes into the encoder, the encoder joins your network, and it publishes into Skynat Live as an RTMP source.
This solves the problem every venue has: the camera at the back of the room or up on a balcony where running HDMI is impractical.
Contributors anywhere
For a guest who is not in the building, open Remote Camera. The studio shows a code carrying its address, the slot and the key. They scan it and connect.
The router is negotiated automatically using NAT-PMP or UPnP. If your connection genuinely cannot accept an inbound guest — some mobile and fibre connections put you behind carrier-grade NAT — you are told before the event rather than during it.
Their feed is an ordinary input. It can be graded, it goes through the audio console, and it records to its own file.
The green room
Before you put a guest to air, open the Green Room. You can see and hear them, set their levels and fix their framing, and they cannot be seen or heard by the audience.
This is the single most useful habit to build. Nobody should ever appear on Programme for the first time.