Using Live Video in Mac Keynote

Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Today let's take a look at the new Live Video Feature in Keynote. 

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So there's a great new feature in Keynote. It's in the latest version, that's version 11.2 for macOS Big Sur or Monterey. This allows you to add a live video element right into your presentation. So your Mac's camera can actually show you, or anything it's pointed at, right on your slides. Let's take a look at how it works first and all the different options. Then let's look at how you may be able to use it and ways that you probably shouldn't be using it. 

To add Live Video to your presentation first go to a slide where you want the live video to appear. So let's go to this slide here. Let's say that I want it to show my camera here in the top left corner. I go to Media and then Live Video and it will add in an element right here. You could see here it's going to show me using my webcam, the webcam I have attached to my MacPro. Chances are you've got an iMac or a MacBook Pro and it's going to show your built-in camera. You can shrink this down, move it to where you want. Then let's take a look at the options. Under Format, Live Video, you can select the Source (and we'll get back to that in a minute). You can Scale so you can zoom in on the video inside of the box. You could also set the dimensions for the Masking shape of the box. So 16 x 9. You could do 4 x 3 cutting off the edges. 2 x 3 cutting off even more making it vertical. You could go with square. You could go with a circle or you could go with Custom. Custom allows you to resize it to be any ration, width and height,   that you want. When you select this, double click it, you see you can also get the Scale or Zoom control right here below. So it works similar to how images work. 

Now you can also set a corner radius. Let's go back to 16 x 9 here. Then I can set the corner radius. I can increase that and you could see it creates these rounded corners. You also have this green dot that you can move to create a nice rounded effect. 

Now in addition to all this stuff specific to Live Video you could also go to Styles and do all sorts of different things. Like add a frame to it. You could select the border just like with Images and videos and things. Shadow. You can even do the reflection like that. So you have all of the options you've got with shapes, images, and videos with Live Video as well. You can also go to Arrange and set things like the exact position. You can even Rotate this and it will work just fine in a rotated orientation. In fact you can even Flip like that if you want.

Now in addition to this you can also select the Source. So you can have multiple sources if you're using a Mac. If you click here you'll see your camera. But you can click the Plus button and I've got two cameras hooked up. The one you're seeing me on here and then this one which is just kind of like a webcam. Let's go and call this one my main camera and I can select from the list of devices. I'll select it and Add. Now I've got two sources here and I can switch between them. So you can have this multi cam feature. You can also do something else which is add an iPhone or iPad. Let's do iPhone and I've got my iPhone hooked up. You have to hook it up with a cable here. So I'll unlock it here and I'll select it as the device. Now I can add it and now it will show my iPhone here. So you can use this to demonstrate things on an iPhone or iPad. If you're doing a live presentation and you want to show your iPhone or iPad you can do it this way. You could see here I could actually, you know, use my iPhone and you see it live there in the presentation. Then you can switch between these as much as you want. 

Now another thing you should know is that if you want to have it appear on multiple frames, like you just want to have it appear across your whole presentation or maybe just a selection of frames, you can easily Copy and Paste. So I've got it here on slide 2. I'm going to Copy and Paste it on slide 3, slide 4. Now if I played a presentation and I advanced to the second slide you'll see me there. As I advance to the third slide it's seamless. Now it will react just like any image or video to any transitions and things you have setup. So those will work as well. If you have your slide slide in you'll see the slide in as an element. So you can add it on some slides and not others. Add it on all your slides if you like. Anyway you want to do it. 

 So what is this good for? Well, it is good in a variety of situations. One that comes to mind is you're presenting in a large room. Something where the screen is much bigger than you are. People in the back of the room aren't going to be able to see you very well. You could set this up so it shows you as part of the presentation. You could have some slides that are you full screen. Other slides that show you in a corner or not at all. That way people in the back of the room can easily see you. Maybe there's an important part of your presentation where you're telling a story and you want to be full screen so people can actually see your face as you're presenting and then other slides where you're not even there or really small because you want them to pay attention to what's on the slides. Of course if you are in a small room, just a meeting room, and you're actually larger than the screen then it really doesn't make sense to use it that way. 

Another situation where you may be tempted to use this is in an online presentation. But it's not ideal for that. For a streaming online presentation like over Zoom or some system like that it, of course, is constantly refreshing the video showing what you're currently putting on your screen. Like your presentation. If you put Live Video in there it's going to be a lot of extra data for it to process every frame. Your connection is going to have to be excellent and so is the connection on the other side and everywhere in-between. Systems like that already have a way to show you in one window and your presentation in another window. Those are optimized for those type of things. So your camera is being streamed in one way whereas your screen sharing is streamed in another. You should continue to use those systems. So if you're using Zoom continue to use Zoom's way of presenting yourself in one window and your screen in another. 

But here is one way where it works really well. That's with recording. So I've got my Live Video here on all three of these frames. If I were to go and Record the slideshow so that I'll start recording and it's not only going to pick up my voice just like it would normally, that's the whole idea of a narrator recording, but it's going to record this video here. So each frame that has Live Video on it is going to record that live video and when I'm done I can stop and I can playback that recording. It's not only going to pick up my voice like it would normally, that's the whole idea of a narrator recording, but it's going to record this video here. So this is a way for you to actually record yourself as part of the presentation. Now when you go to File, Export you export to Movie and you use your recording you'll get your recorded Live Video as part of this.  

So you can kind of make videos just like my tutorials. Instead of showing your screen you could be showing your presentation and then you would see yourself in the corner or in some frames filling the entire screen. It could be a way to make a really cool dynamic presentation that you could then share online like on YouTube. So while this works really well now on Intel Macs running macOS Big Sur it looks like if you're running a M1 Mac you're going to have to wait a little bit longer. The final release of macOS Monterey should include full support for this. I found it works a little bit in the beta on macOS Monterey allowing you to see the Live Video but it wouldn't record properly. So if you're on an M1 Mac note that not all the features will work yet. 

So this is a really interesting new feature and I'm excited to see how people use this. I'm sure in addition to the ways I mentioned people are going to come up with whole new ideas in ways to use Keynote thanks to having this Live Video feature in it. For instance, I can see people having a webcam not pointed at them but at something they're trying to show. Maybe a piece of paper or a small whiteboard that they write on and they can show that on the screen or maybe something they are trying to demonstrate. Some sort of object they are working with or building on a table as they do the presentation. 

Hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching.