Castreon Studio — live production on the server (scenes, graphics, audio, guests)
Updated 26 Oct 2026Castreon Studio is a live production control room right on the Castreon server. You put your sources (channels, cameras, streams, files, browser guests) into scenes, switch them on air with transitions, add live graphics (titles, a news ticker, a clock, a score) and mix the sound. Everything runs on the server: the browser only gives the commands. No separate production software, no control-room computer.
Available from Castreon 2.0.0, in the Pro and Enterprise editions. Browser guests are in the Enterprise edition.
How a studio goes on air
- In the Studio menu, click New studio. Choose the name, the format (720p or 1080p, 25, 30, 50 or 60 frames per second), the bitrate and the encoding.
- Add the sources, build the scenes (from templates or with exact positions) and the graphics. Save.
- Create a Castreon channel with the Studio source and pick the studio. The channel delivers the studio picture like any channel: HLS, HTTP-TS, push, DRM, archive.
- Open the studio desk and switch the scenes.
The studio starts when a channel reads it or when the desk is open, and stops one minute after nothing uses it any more.
Sources
A studio has up to 16 sources:
| Source | What it is |
|---|---|
| Castreon channel | a channel on this server, read from its HTTP-TS output (add it in the channel editor if missing) |
| Stream address | SRT, UDP, RTP, RIST, RTMP, HLS or HTTP-TS: an encoder, a phone app, another server |
| IP camera (RTSP) | an IP or PTZ camera, directly, with user and password (see below) |
| Library file | a clip, looped or once (the last frame stays until “From the start”) |
| Clip playlist | up to 200 Library clips in order, optionally looped; from the desk you jump to the next or previous clip |
| Image / Color | a fixed background |
| Web page | a page with graphics (score, poll, weather) rendered on the server, optionally with a transparent background, over the other sources of the scene |
| Guest (browser) | a guest who joins from a link with their own camera and microphone (Enterprise) |
| Replay | plays the last seconds of a source at the chosen speed (up to 4 replay sources) |
Scenes and transitions
A scene has up to 6 sources, laid out from templates (Full screen, Picture in picture, Side by side, Halves, Three, Four) or with exact positions, with a border and rounded corners. A studio has up to 24 scenes.
On the desk: clicking a scene puts it in PREVIEW, TAKE puts it on PROGRAM with the chosen transition, CUT without a transition, a double click puts it straight on air. Transitions: Fade, Dip to black, Cut and Stinger: a short Library clip (up to 5 s, ideally with transparency, ProRes 4444 or WebM VP9 with alpha), with the cut point you choose.
Shortcuts: Enter or Space = TAKE, C = CUT, 1–9 = scene to PREVIEW.
Live graphics
Up to 12 elements: Lower third (name), News ticker, Clock (in the time zone you choose), Score, Logo and Text. You switch them on and off air from the desk, and the texts (the guest's name, the score, the ticker news) change on the spot, without stopping anything. For richer graphics, a Web page with a transparent background sits over the picture like any graphic.
Audio
The Mixer has a strip for every source with sound, plus Background music (from the Library, looped) and Master. Each source can be Auto (heard only when on air), On or Off, with a volume between −60 and +12 dB.
The FX button of each source opens the source audio: a delay of up to 1 s (so the lips match the picture), a 3-band EQ (120 Hz, 1 kHz, 8 kHz) and a compressor (threshold, ratio, make-up gain) with a gain-reduction meter. Set it in the editor or live from the desk.
Browser guests (Enterprise)
- Add a Guest (browser) source and put it in a scene. WebRTC must be enabled in Settings.
- On the desk, under Guests, copy the guest's link and send it to them. You can also revoke it.
- The guest opens the link in a browser (computer or phone), picks the camera and microphone and clicks Join the studio. Without a camera they can join with audio only: the studio gets a picture with their name.
The guest sees what is on air and hears the programme without their own voice (mix-minus), so they can answer. The page shows them when they are ON AIR, and under the buttons what they are sending (resolution, frames per second, bitrate, delay) and whether their network or processor reduces the picture. Recommend headphones, so the sound does not echo. Until they join, the source on the desk shows “waiting for the guest”.
For guests on the internet, the panel must be opened over HTTPS (browsers only give the camera and microphone that way).
IP cameras and PTZ
The IP camera (RTSP) source takes the camera picture directly:
- the RTSP address without user and password (if you paste it with them, they move to their fields by themselves), transport TCP (recommended), UDP or automatic;
- the password is kept separately: it is not shown after saving, it does not leave through the API and it does not appear in errors; empty field = the saved one stays;
- Test the camera says what the camera sends (codec, resolution, frames, audio);
- Find cameras (ONVIF) finds the cameras on the local network and the right RTSP address from their profiles; Use, with PTZ control also fills in the camera control.
G.711 audio, common on cameras, becomes AAC in recordings and replays.
PTZ control (on IP cameras, stream addresses or channels): ONVIF, VISCA over TCP or VISCA over IP. On the desk, the PTZ cameras panel moves the camera while you hold a button (at the chosen speed), zooms and has presets 1–8: a press = the camera goes there, Store + a number = saves the current position. With ONVIF and no password of its own, the control uses the camera's password.
Replays
Tick Keep replays on a camera or a stream: the source always keeps the last 3 minutes. On the desk, the Replays panel picks the source, the length (5, 10, 15 or 30 s) and the speed (100 %, 50 % or 25 %), and Cue the replay puts it in the Replay source. You take it on air with its scene, like any source.
Recording
The REC button on the desk records PROGRAM and, separately, every camera and stream (ISO), without re-encoding, to the first enabled storage location of the Library (folder Studio/<name>/<date time>). The desk shows the time and the size. When you stop, the files appear in the Library, ready to edit or to put on a channel from files.
Encoding
The studio encodes the picture once (H.264 with AAC) and the channel delivers it onwards. Encoding can run on the processor, on the NVIDIA graphics card (NVENC) or automatically. If the card cannot encode (busy, driver), the studio switches to the processor by itself and says why. The desk shows what it is encoding with right now.
Web page: Chromium on the server
The Web page source needs Chromium or Google Chrome on the server (headless, started by Castreon); without it, the editor says what is missing. On Ubuntu or Debian, for example, install the Google Chrome .deb package with sudo apt-get install -y ./google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb. The page is rendered at the studio size, without sound, and reloads by itself if it stops.
Common problems
- The guest does not appear: check they clicked Join the studio and that WebRTC is enabled. The source shows “waiting for the guest” until they connect.
- The guest picture stutters: look at the “Sending” line on their page; if it says their network limits the picture, the problem is their connection.
- A small delay behind reality (under a second on the desk) is normal; on the channel the player buffer adds to it (a few seconds with HLS).
- The web page does not start: install Chromium or Google Chrome on the server; the error on the source gives the reason.
- The IP camera does not connect: Test the camera, then check the user, the password and the transport (TCP).