Frequently Asked Questions

What is iziCast?

iziCast is versatile audio and video broadcaster.

You can broadcast audio from the internal microphone, external audio devices, audio files and Audiobus compatible apps to Icecast, Shoutcast and RTMP servers.
Live video from your camera can be broadcasted to any RTMP compatible service, such as YouTube, Twitch, Facebook and Telegram. Any of the supported audio sources can be combined with your live camera.

When using RTMP you can decide if you want to use one of your device cameras as video source or simply an image.
In case of an image it is up to you if you want to stream a single image, the album cover of the current track or just a black image to save bandwidth. The image can be changed during the broadcast and you can even let iziCast write text like the current song on the image.

What is RTMP?

RTMP stands for Real-Time Messaging Protocol. It is the underlying technology that is used for broadcasting audio and video to YouTube, Twitch, Facebook etc.

Can iziCast stream the live camera to an RTMP server?

Yes, you can select which of your device camera you want to use for live video streaming.

Which audio codec should I use?

MP3:
MP3 is probably the most known and supported audio codec.

Select MP3 if you want your broadcast to be compatible with any audio player out there.

AAC:
AAC was designed to be the successor of MP3. It comes in different flavors.
iziCast uses AAC for bitrates from 96 kbps to 320 kbps and AAC-HE (AAC+)
for bitrates below 96 kbps.
Another advantage of using AAC within iziCast is the low battery usage.
AAC encoding is hardware accelerated and therefore uses much less battery
than the other codecs.

Select AAC if you want better audio quality than MP3 at the same bitrate
and have better battery efficiency.

OGG:
Actually OGG is not an audio codec. OGG is a container format that
can be used to transport encoded audio material from A to B. For historical
reasons the actual codec used behind OGG is Vorbis. Vorbis is a
non-properitary, patent- and royalty-free audio codec. It is known
to have a better audio quality than MP3 and can keep up with AAC quality.
Unfortunately OGG/Vorbis is not as widespread as MP3 and AAC and is therefore
not as good supported as MP3 and AAC.

Select OGG if you want to use a completely free and open audio codec with better audio
quality than MP3 and know that your listeners have compatible audio players.

FLAC:
FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec and as the name indicates it as free
as Vorbis and does not alter the audio information.
With FLAC you can deliver best audio quality to your listeners. But this high
quality comes with a cost though: It needs much more bandwidth than the lossy
audio codecs above. As with Vorbis, iziCast embeds the FLAC audio stream into an OGG
container to transport the audio material to your listeners.

Select FLAC if you want to deliver best possible audio quality to your
listeners and are on a WiFi network or mobile network with an excellent
internet connection.

How can I connect my USB audio interface to my iOS device?

To connect an USB audio device to your iPhone or iPad you need Apples "Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter". Don't be confused by the name "Camera Adapter", it works also for audio interfaces.

If you have an iPhone or iPad with USB-C, you can connect your device without or with a simple USB-A to USB-C adapter.

Which audio devices are supported?

Basically, every class-compliant audio device is supported. Manufacturers will usually indicate whether a device is class-compliant or not.
If you cannot find information about class compliance, a good rule of thumb is that an audio device is class-compliant if it does not need a driver to work on macOS.

So, if your device works on macOS without a driver, it will also work on your iPhone or iPad with iziCast.

List of successfully tested external audio devices:
(There is a very high chance that your device will work with iziCast even if it is not listed here)

• 1010music Bluebox
• Alesis MultiMux 12 USB (Please set the preferred input sample rate to 44100 Hz)
• Apogee jam+
• Apple AirPods (Pro)
• Apple EarPods
• Behringer U-Control UCA202 / UCA222
• Behringer Xenyx 302 USB
• Behringer U-Phoria UMC404HD
• DJI Mic 1/2/Mini
• Elektron Digitakt
• Elektron Syntakt
• Evermix MixBox
• Focusrite Scarlett 4i4
• M-audio Fast Track Ultra Pro
• Pyle PAD30MXUBT
• Roland go:mixer
• Tascam iM2X
• Tascam iXJ2
• Tascam US-1800
• Traktor Z1
• Yamaha SC2 Silent Piano
• Zoom F1
• Zoom H2 Recorder (Please set the sample rate on the device to 48 kHz)
• Zoom H3-VR
• Zoom H4n Pro
• Zoom H6

How can I broadcast audio output from other apps on my iPhone or iPad?

If your app supports Audiobus, you can connect the app to iziCast via Audiobus.

If the app has no Audiobus support, you can use an external audio interface and connect the output directly
to the input and select that interface as audio device in iziCast. In case you want to broadcast audio from a conference
app you won’t be able to broadcast your own voice. To do that you need a more complex setup like a mixer or an audio interface that has a separate microphone input.

My iPhone tells me my USB audio interface draws to much power. How can I solve this?

Please make sure you have a lightning cable connected to the adapter for some extra power. If it still doesn't work, it usually helps to put a USB hub between the audio interface and the USB adapter.

Why does iziCast display a '-' instead of the current and peak listeners?

iziCast can only aquire listener statistics from real icecast and shoutcast servers. Hosting providers which are based on Liquidsoap or similiar do not forward the statistics from the underlying icecast/shoutcast server to a URL where iziCast expects them.

Why does iziCast reconnect directly after a connection has been established?

The reason for this is probably because you connect to a Liquidsoap based server and have “mono" selected. Liquidsoap expects a stereo connection for its input.harbours. You can solve this issue by selecting "stereo" in iziCast even if you have a mono audio source like a microphone connected. If you still want to broadcast in mono to save bandwidth you need to change the Liquidsoap server configuration. Wrap your Liqduidsoap input.harbour(...) into an audio_to_stereo operator like audio_to_stereo(input.harbour(...)) in your liquidsoap.cfg.

Is it possible to connect an audio source to the iPad/iPhone 3.5 mm jack?

Unfortunately not. The iPad/iPhone 3.5 mm jack can not be used as a stereo line-in port. The port is only designed for headphones or headsets like the Apple EarPods. If you plugin a headset with 4 contacts (3 black rings) like the EarPods, the device recognizes the 4th contact as mono microphone and iziCast will list it as an additional audio device. If you would like to connect an audio source to your iPhone or iPad and broadcast the audio via iziCast, you will need an external audio interface which can be connected to the lightning or USB-C port. See question “How can I connect my USB audio interface to my iOS device?” for more information about that.