iPad/Sidecar as broadcast monitor?

Can iPad be used with Sidecar as a broadcast monitor with Flame?

Not just to use it as a secondary desktop monitor, but a no GUI full-screen display?

If Flame can’t do it, any idea if Premiere or Resolve can?

Thanks!
Matt

iOS has an NDI Monitor App for $9.99. That works well in Flame 2022.

I’ve setup iPads for a second monitor but I don’t believe Flame can send a broadcast monitor out to it.

For science:

The latency as seen here is actually pretty decent. There does seem to be scaling jaggies on the iOS device.

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What is the resolution of the output from Flame in your demo?

Thanks for taking the time to record that, by the way. Great to see an example in action. Much appreciated!

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That was 1920x1080 10bit 23.98p.

Those scaling artifacts are unfortunate and surprising at that output resolution. Don’t suppose the iPad app has some sort of filtering it can apply?

I know right? I checked. Only one button. And that’s to choose sources. Dangerously close right?

Yeah. Frustratingly so.

A bit more on what I’m looking into…

Basically, feeding an iPad a pre-edited video stream live on set, which will then be used by talent during shooting. For a few reasons, we are exploring this approach rather than replacing the screen content in post. I’d need to be able to quickly change/update the video being played in the iPad screen during the shoot, so being able to control it via playback would be a big plus.

I was looking at Sidecar because it’s a first party solution and has seemingly very low latency. Also, it looks like it does adhoc networking, so if I didn’t have to have a wifi router in the middle during a shoot that’s another plus.

If Flame supported it, great! That would be my first choice. However, finding information on whether or not Premiere, Resolve or even FCPX can use a Sidecar iPad like a broadcast monitor output is proving to be harder than I thought it would be. The hardware I have around is all too old to support Sidecar, which complicates things even more. Time to call in some favors from local friends, I guess. :slight_smile:

NDI looks like an interesting fallback, so thanks for that. Not sure if the scaling issues could be worked around at all on the Flame side (lower output res? higher output res?) but it’s good to have options.

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What about Airplay?

Does Airplay let you target an iPad as a destination? I thought it only sent to AppleTV devices but I’d love to be wrong about that.

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Okay Ive got good news and bad news. Bad news is iPads for Airplay is a source, not a destination.

Good news is I found the magic button in iPad OS / Settings / NDI Monitor / to enable H-Res NDI and Retina Display.

It actually looks really good.

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Hah! Magic! Now I feel better knowing that we both learned something today. :slight_smile:

Does sound come along for the ride to the iPad?

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Audio included!

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Also, Premier totally has preferences that list NDI, and, when I launch Premier, I do get a Premier like thing in my source window for NDI Video Monitor. Whilst I didn’t actually see Premier video on my iPad, it should work.

Give me a few minutes, lemme check on it.

Dayum Matt today is your day. Premier works.

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So, Premiere outputs to NDI natively, just like Flame 2022?

Yup.

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Well, AFTER you install the NDI Tools, then that likely allows it.

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Nice. Options are good.

I have a call into a friend to see if I can borrow his newish (Intel) MBP so I can explore Sidecar. But it’s great to know Flame/Premiere and NDI is a solid option to have. Thanks!

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My friend came through and loaned me his 13" MacBook Pro (2018). It’s definitely underspec’ed (8 GB RAM, only built-in/integrated GPU) but I figured I’d give it a whirl anyway.

Sidecar works pretty well. The latency is really good – I’d swear there was a wire connecting them but there is not. Both iPad and Mac have to be connected to the same wifi network* and be signed into the same iCloud account. But when it is working, it’s really a second monitor for the Mac in nearly every way.

I tested with Premiere first and it worked. I could set the second display as the broadcast out in Premiere’s preferences without any hassle. Playback seemed fine. But I really dislike Premiere. :wink:

I then installed Flame on it. After some dicking around with the stone+wire config file (why?) I got it to run. Flame can treat the second monitor/sidecar display as a broadcast out just by selecting it in the preferences. Easy enough. Playback works but I’m pretty sure I’m seeing some dropped frames on it. I know the system is underspec and everything but I didn’t notice this in Premiere. I might revisit things tomorrow with fresh eyes and a fresh start for everything but aside from the few dropped frames it seems to work.

Sound does not travel to the iPad, which makes sense since it is really just a monitor when doing the Sidecar thing. There were no scaling issues that I could see outputting 1080 source material to a 13" iPad Pro.

I will also be testing just how much wifi plays a role in this. Since both devices must be signed into the same iCloud account AND have to be on the same wifi network (Apple doesn’t say this in their Sidecar system requirements but I quickly found that to be a thing) then that means an on-set solution needs to include wifi. I have a little cell hotspot thing that I plan to test with to see if that impacts performance at all, which should be interesting. My tests so far have been with a nice eero Pro wifi setup.

Really wishing Flame would support the M1 because I’d love to have an excuse to get an M1 MacBook Air. :slight_smile:

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