Guide · Live production

Stream Blackmagic Camera live with Airlive Bridge.

Point a Blackmagic Camera iPhone at your Mac and it becomes an ordinary source in the switcher — no capture card, no cables. Bridge receives the phone over AirPlay, then restreams it to NDI®, SRT, RTSP and OBS.

Airlive team 4 min read

How it works

Airlive Bridge runs its own AirPlay receiver. Each channel you add is published on the network as a separate “Apple TV” named Cam N. Your iPhone — running any app, including Blackmagic Camera — sends its picture with the system’s built-in Screen Mirroring. Nothing extra is installed on the phone.

Inside Bridge that shows up as a channel of type Screen Mirroring (or Screen Mirroring + Remote Control, when the same phone is also running the Airlive control channel). From there the phone behaves like any other camera in the mixer.

Any camera app works. Because it rides on standard AirPlay Screen Mirroring, whatever is on the phone’s screen is what Bridge receives — set Blackmagic Camera to a clean, full-screen preview and it comes in as a broadcast source.

The whole flow — Blackmagic Camera mirrored into Bridge as a channel.

Step by step

Two short sides: set the phone to mirror, then pick it up as a channel on the Mac.

On the iPhone

  1. Open Blackmagic Camera and frame your shot.
  2. Open Control Center → Screen Mirroring.
  3. Pick Cam 2 from the list — the name Bridge published for the channel.
  4. The phone’s screen now mirrors into Bridge.

In Bridge (Mac)

  1. Add a channel: on the channel rail press ＋ → “Screen Mirroring” (a Cam 2 appears).
  2. Wait for the picture to fill the channel tile.
  3. CUT that channel to Program — button, spacebar, or double-click.
  4. In the right rail, switch on the outputs you need.

Same setup — plus tally and remote control. Run the free Airlive Camera app on the phones and the same Bridge multiview gains tally lights and remote exposure control from the Mac. Even a phone that stays on Blackmagic Camera picks them up when it runs the Airlive control channel alongside the mirror. The multicam guide covers both kinds of sources.

Where Bridge sends the signal

Whatever is on Program — including this AirPlay channel — goes out to every enabled output at once. The Blackmagic Camera phone is now just a source in the switcher, and the switcher feeds your stream.

  • NDI®Over the local network
  • SRTOver the local network
  • RTSPOver the local network
  • OBS“Airlive Bridge” plugin, same Mac
  • HDMI / AirPlayTo a second screen

Sending to OBS? Add the Airlive Bridge source and it connects automatically — see the OBS plugin guide. Whatever you CUT to Program in Bridge shows up in OBS.

Screenshot · 16:9 · 2560×1440

Bridge multiview with the Blackmagic Camera phone live on Program.

Related guides

All articles