Airlive

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Receive Airlive Camera (iPhone) streams on a Mac, switch between them (multicam), and re-publish the chosen PROGRAM to any production tool — NDI / OBS / SRT / RTSP — with remote camera control built in.

One bridge turns several iPhone feeds into a live switcher with a standard output every tool understands.

It incorporates the GPL-3.0 AirPlay receiver UxPlay, so the whole app is GPL-3.0 — see LICENSE and THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md.

Why

Downstream protocols (NDI/SRT/RTSP) are one-way video out — they can't send control back to the iPhone. So remote control (ISO/WB/lens/tally…) lives in this app. One bridge → works in vMix, ProPresenter, Wirecast, OBS, Resolume, TouchDesigner, etc.

Install

Download Airlive-Bridge.dmg from Releases and drag Airlive Bridge to Applications. The app is signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so it opens normally — no right-click → Open dance.

From then on it updates itself: Airlive Bridge checks for new versions in the background and offers the standard Install and Relaunch, verifying Apple's signature plus our own before replacing anything. You can also check on demand from the menu bar (Airlive Bridge → Check for Updates…).

Build from source

brew install xcodegen cmake openssl@3 libplist
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/airlive-project/airlive-bridge.git
cd airlive-bridge
./scripts/build-deps.sh          # openssl + libplist static libs (min-macOS 13)
./scripts/build-airplay-lib.sh   # AirPlay receiver library (vendored UxPlay)
xcodegen                         # generate the Xcode project
xcodebuild -scheme AirliveBridge -configuration Release build

Sources — what you can connect

Two kinds of iPhone source:

Airlive Camera (our iOS app; App Store release coming soon) — the full path. Install it on the iPhone, pick a channel, done. Connects over Wi-Fi (Bonjour _airlive._tcp) with two-way remote control (ISO / shutter / white balance / lens / tally) and a cool, low-power stream tuned for long shoots.

Airlive Camera → Airlive Bridge:

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/30b79c7c-c103-4462-b067-66cfeca66173

Any AirPlay camera app (e.g. Blackmagic Camera) — the universal path. On the iPhone: Control Center → Screen Mirroring → pick the Bridge channel (shown as Cam N). Works with any AirPlay-capable app. Note: Screen Mirroring sends whatever is on the phone's screen, so use the app's own clean / external-output mode for a frame without its on-screen UI. Video-only — no remote control on this path.

Blackmagic Camera (via AirPlay Screen Mirroring) → Airlive Bridge:

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/d4cbecb8-fb2c-4378-ba60-5c92ccdf0e75

(A wired HDMI / USB capture device can also be a channel.)

Either way the source becomes a channel in the switcher, and the program feeds every output - Virtual Camera / NDI / SRT / RTSP / HDMI.

Model

• You create channels (receiver slots) — not a list of pre-found cameras. Each channel advertises Bonjour _airlive._tcp; the iPhone connects to the one you pick. Channels carry an order index (ord) so the iPhone lists them in your Bridge order (drag-reorder), independent of their names.
• A broadcast multiview switcher: PREVIEW (staged, green) + PROGRAM (on air, red) on top, all cameras as thumbnails below; CUT sends Preview → Program.
• One program bus. PROGRAM feeds the outputs — created once, sent continuously, so switching the source never re-creates the sender (no flicker / re-discovery).
• Per channel: a live preview with a hide-preview toggle (don't render video you don't need — saves CPU/GPU) and camera control.

Usage

1. Add channels (Channels rail +) — one per iPhone you'll connect. On the iPhone, pick the matching channel; it shows Available / Live.
2. Reorder by dragging in the Channels list — the multiview grid and the iPhone's channel list both follow.
3. Switch: click a thumbnail to stage it in Preview, then CUT (Space) to take it to Program; double-click a thumbnail to hot-cut. Selecting a channel on the left also stages it to Preview.
4. Fullscreen Multicam (button above the grid) opens a clean multiview wall in its own window — drag it to a second monitor.
5. Publish (Outputs rail +): add the Virtual Camera, an NDI sender, SRT, RTSP or HDMI (see Outputs). The program publishes continuously.

Outputs

• NDI — decodes the program and sends it as an NDI source; pick it up in OBS (via DistroAV), vMix, Resolume, TouchDesigner, etc.
• Virtual Camera - the program as a Mac camera named "Airlive Bridge Virtual Camera", paced at a steady 30 fps. In OBS add it as a Video Capture Device; any app that takes a camera can use it.
• SRT — H.264 passthrough over SRT (caller / listener, configurable latency).
• RTSP — built-in RTSP server; point vMix / VLC / any decoder at the URL.
• HDMI — clean full-screen program out on a second display.

Airlive Bridge program → OBS:

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/e855d1e5-ffff-4490-a67b-6f993a7c8647

Shortcuts

In-app by default; flip "Work in other apps" (Input Monitoring) to fire them globally with a fixed ⌃⌥ prefix (so they never hijack typing elsewhere). Defaults: Space = Cut, 1–9 = camera → Program, ⇧1–6 = lens of the focused camera. Every action is reassignable — open the key icon in the title bar, click a chip, press the new key (Esc cancels); conflicts are refused.

Security

One optional password for the whole Bridge (title-bar lock / Channels footer). Cameras must enter it to connect (per-connection HMAC challenge-response, no TLS — it's LAN access control, not confidentiality). Changing it forces connected cameras to re-auth. Stored in the macOS Keychain.

Not in MVP

• ⏭ Virtual Camera — fast-follow
• ⏭ Windows (the vMix world) — later; NDI/SRT carry over, VCam differs

Protocol

ARLV over TCP (18-byte header, H.264 AVCC) + Bonjour _airlive._tcp + type-2 JSON control. Frozen and published as the open Airlive Protocol (Apache-2.0) — build your own receiver against it.