The Broadcast Console

The Broadcast tab is a live production console built for a church service: cameras, scenes, overlays, audio, recording and streaming in one place.

It is free on every plan, including Free. Nothing in this page requires a subscription.

The layout

Preview is what you are lining up. Program is what your congregation and your stream are seeing. Nothing reaches Program until you take it there: press Cut, or one of the other transition buttons, or Enter.

Sources

A source is anything you can put on screen. Add one with + Add Source.

Right-click a source for show/hide, lock, duplicate, remove, and, for video, play, pause and restart.

Video and media files: what plays

Use H.264 video in an .mp4 or .mov; .webm and .m4v also play. A file RheoCast cannot play is refused the moment you add it, with a notice saying why, so nothing ever sits black in a scene:

• .mkv and .avi are refused on every platform. Re-export as an H.264 .mp4 (any editor, or HandBrake's default preset, does this).
• On macOS, a video over 1 GB is refused. The Mac build loads a video whole into memory so that its audio can play, and a file that size would freeze the machine. Trim the file, or re-export at a lower bitrate; a two-hour service recording at a streaming bitrate is well under the limit. Windows has no size limit and plays large files directly from disk.
• PowerPoint decks over 256 MB are refused. Decks with embedded video are the usual cause; export the video as its own source instead.

Videos that are not in the live scene are released from memory after a minute or two idle and reload, at the same position, when their scene is next used. Nothing about this is visible on air.

Source properties

Open Properties on any source for per-type controls. Cameras get resolution, rotation and exposure compensation. Phone cameras get pairing and address.

Scripture, Sermon Note and Scripture Lower Third sources have a Style picker here: choose one of that family's templates for this source alone, or leave it on Default to follow the template applied in the Overlays panel. Applying a template in Overlays restyles every source of that kind and clears the per-source picks, so one scene can run a minimal panel while the rest keep the house style. Countdowns are different: each one chooses its style when you place it and keeps it, and a countdown you designed yourself in the Overlays gallery appears in that list beside the built-in ones.

Camera and video sources also support chroma key (green screen): pick the key colour (there are Green and Blue presets), then adjust similarity, smoothness and spill suppression. This runs on the GPU, so it costs very little.

Tip: Lock a source once you have it framed. A locked source cannot be dragged out of position by accident mid-service.

Scenes

A scene is an arrangement of sources: "Worship", "Preaching", "Announcements".

Scenes run along the top of the panel as tabs. Create one with + Add Scene at the end of the row. It opens the scene editor so you can arrange it straight away. If you have more tabs than fit, the arrows at each end scroll the row.

The scene you are previewing is amber. The scene on air is solid red and labelled LIVE. Red means it is going out to the congregation, and nothing else in the strip uses red.

Careful: double-click takes a scene to air immediately. To edit a scene, use the pencil beside its name, or right-click the tab and choose Edit Scene.

Each scene can be bound to a number key, 1 through 9. Pressing the number puts that scene in Preview, and the tab strip scrolls to show it.

What is in a scene

Below the tabs, the selected scene's sources appear as live thumbnails, front-most first: the leftmost card is the layer on top.

• Click a card to bring that source to the front, so you can see what it is
• Hover a card for bring forward, send backward, show/hide, properties, and remove
• The card marked TOP is the layer drawn over everything else

Right-clicking anywhere in this panel gives you the same scene menu as the tab.

Putting sources into a scene

Three ways, no dialog needed:

• Drag a source from the Sources panel on the left onto a scene tab, or onto the sources area
• Drag an image or video straight from Finder or File Explorer onto a scene. It becomes a source in that scene
• Use + Add Source, which places it on the scene you are previewing

Dropping a source that is already in the scene does nothing, rather than adding it twice.

Arranging a scene

The pencil beside the scene name opens the scene editor, where position and size live. Drag layers around the stage and resize them with the handles. You can:

• Reorder layers (bring forward / send backward)
• Set per-layer opacity and fit mode (cover, contain or stretch)
• Use Fit content to frame to snap a layer to fill the canvas
• Show or hide individual layers
• Set a background colour

Transitions

Choose how Preview replaces Program:

The duration slider covers 400–2000 ms with presets (anything shorter reads as a glitch on a projector rather than a transition, so the range simply does not go there). Cut ignores it, and a stinger runs for the length of its video.

A stinger needs a video file with a transparent background: HEVC with alpha, in a .mov or .mp4. Set it under stinger settings.

Audio

The mixer sits in the Controls column with meters for Master, Mic, and one channel per audio source. Each channel has a mute button, and per-source gain lives in that source's properties.

Auto-ducking is the setting most churches want on. With it enabled, the moment someone speaks into the mic the music or video bed drops automatically, and comes back up when they stop.

Preview tools

• Safe area guides on the Preview monitor show the action-safe and title-safe regions, so lower thirds do not get cropped on a TV.
• Slide and deck sources get transport controls under the monitor: previous/next, auto-advance, zoom, and panning around a zoomed page.
• Video sources get play, pause, restart and a scrub bar.
• Countdowns get start, pause, reset and +1:00 / +5:00 to add time mid-service, but only duration countdowns. One set to a time of day counts down on its own, so there is nothing to start or stop. Give it a duration in its properties if you want to drive it by hand.

Choosing what the controls drive

A scene can hold several things worth driving: two decks, a video, a timer. The monitor shows one set of controls at a time, for the source you are working with, and names it so you can tell.

Pick that source either way round:

• Click the layer in the Preview picture. This changes nothing about the scene. It only points the controls at that source.
• Click its card in the scene panel. This also brings it to the front, which does change the layer order.

If you select something with no controls of its own (a camera, a still image, a time-of-day countdown), the monitor keeps showing the nearest source it can drive, and tells you why.

Tip: use the Preview picture when a service is running. Clicking a card restacks the scene, and the layer order is what your congregation is looking at.

Output to a second screen

Output opens a fullscreen window showing Program. Drag it to a projector or TV and it becomes your house feed, the same picture your stream is getting.

The third screen

Right-click any scene and choose Send to Third Screen to put it on its own window, independent of Program. The usual use is a preacher's countdown: build a scene with a Countdown source, send it to a display the preacher can see, and run the timer from the Preview monitor.

The submenu lists your displays. Pick one and the scene goes fullscreen there; displays already carrying the Program output or the scripture display are greyed out so you cannot cover them by accident. New Window opens a movable window instead, which you can drag anywhere.

• Sending a different scene to the same display just cuts to it, no flicker.
• The scene that is on the third screen carries a small monitor badge on its tab.
• Close it from the right-click menu (Close Third Screen), with Esc inside the window, or — if you opened it as a New Window — with the window's own close button. (The fullscreen mode has no titlebar; that is what Esc is for.)
• Deleting the scene that is on the third screen closes the window automatically, with a notice saying why.

Timer warning colours

A duration countdown changes as time runs out, everywhere it is drawn:

• Amber at 5 minutes left, pulsing red at 1 minute. Timers shorter than 10 minutes scale those to the last 20% and 10% instead.
• At 00:00 it keeps going, counting up in flashing red (+00:47), so the preacher sees exactly how far over they are. Reset clears it.

Both thresholds and the after-zero behaviour are per-timer, in the countdown's properties: Warn at, Danger at (blank = the defaults, 0 = off) and After zero (count up, or hold at 00:00).

External Output (NDI)

External Output in the right-hand Controls column sends a second feed out over your network as an NDI source, picture and sound — point it at another computer running OBS, vMix, or a hardware decoder, or use it as a webcam and microphone in a meeting app. Like everything on this page, it is free on every plan.

RheoCast sends one NDI feed at a time. The Present tab has its own NDI Source in Settings, which publishes the verse display, picture only. If that is on, External Output refuses to start and says so; switch the other off first.

As a webcam in Zoom, Meet or Teams

Meeting apps cannot receive NDI directly, but the free NDI Tools include NDI Virtual Input, which presents an NDI source to the computer as a camera and a microphone. There is a step-by-step version of this in Use RheoCast as a webcam.

What you need

• NDI Tools 6 or later, free from ndi.video, on the computer that runs the meeting app. Older NDI Tools on macOS used a camera plug-in that recent macOS versions no longer load; version 6 ships a camera extension. If no NDI camera appears, update NDI Tools.
• On macOS, a one-time approval of NDI Virtual Input's camera extension in System Settings.
• NDI Virtual Input open for the whole meeting; it lives in the menu bar (macOS) or the system tray (Windows). Closing it takes the camera away.
• External Output switched on in RheoCast, and the Present tab's NDI Source switched off: RheoCast sends one NDI feed at a time.
• The meeting app and RheoCast on the same computer, or on two computers on one wired network.

1. Install NDI Tools and open NDI Virtual Input. On macOS the first launch asks you to approve its camera extension in System Settings under General, then Login Items & Extensions, then Camera Extensions. Keep the app open; it lives in the menu bar.
2. In its menu, pick RheoCast Program as the source.
3. In the meeting app, choose NDI Virtual Camera (some versions call it NDI Video) as the camera and NDI Audio as the microphone. Restart the meeting app once after installing; after that it updates on its own.
4. Switch External Output on before you open the meeting. It is off after every launch of RheoCast, on purpose, like every live feed into someone else's software.

Your own preview is mirrored. Meeting apps flip your self-view horizontally so it behaves like a mirror, and only your view: text on the feed reads backwards to you and the right way round to everyone else, and to a recording. If it bothers you, untick "Mirror my video" in the meeting app's video settings. Nothing about the feed is wrong.

• Pick what it carries: Program, Preview, or any scene — and switch it live; the feed cuts to the new pick.
• Preview is sent as a clean feed: no safe-area guides, no draft overlays, just the scene you have cued.
• Name the source (that's what receivers see on the network) and choose 720p or 1080p.
• It needs the free NDI runtime (NDI Tools) installed on the machine; the app tells you if it's missing.
• Like the Present tab's NDI output, it is per-session: it never switches itself back on after a relaunch.

This runs alongside the Present tab's scripture NDI output — two separate sources on the network at once.

The web remote

Turn on the web remote in Controls and RheoCast shows a URL. Open it on a phone on the same Wi-Fi and you can switch scenes, take, and start or stop recording from anywhere in the building.

Note: the remote is on your local network only. It is not reachable from the internet.

Present and Broadcast together

Two switches connect the tabs:

• Transcript Overlay puts live captions from Present onto Program. The captions sit at the bottom centre unless you move them: the gear beside the switch, or right-click the row for Top, Middle or Bottom, or Adjust position, opens two sliders, one across and one down, with Left, Centre, Right and Top, Middle, Bottom presets. The pill is never dragged on the picture, and it stays inside the frame's safe margins whatever the sliders say. Changes show at once.
• Live Feed lists the verses recently shown in Present. Click one to put it back on any Scripture source.

Add a Scripture (Live) or Scripture Lower Third source to a scene and whatever Present displays appears there automatically. You do not need to do anything in Broadcast during the sermon.

Next

• Streaming & Recording: going live and capturing the service
• Overlays: lower thirds, countdowns, announcements