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Calling all streamers! If you are looking for a portable and user-friendly multi-source recording and streaming switcher, wait no further. YoloLiv has a fascinating solution that we have been playing with that might just hold your interest. It is the YoloBox Pro Portable Multi-Cam Live Switching & Streaming Studio (by YoloLiv) — or just YoloBox Pro for short.

This switcher is a magic little touch-screen device that makes all of your video switching simple as touching a live input on the screen (via its preview thumbnail). Kind of like carrying OBS around in your pocket (only not as many features, yet).

This is a powerful device that comes with a lot of connectivity on the back for its size. Quite similar to some of today’s fancy Thunderbolt docks. Only this is for recording locally or straight to the internet via some of your favorite platforms like YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook (as well as other RTMP-supported services).

Other than a connection to the internet (for streaming) or an SD card (for recording to file), and your actual video sources, there isn’t much else that you’d need for a multi-camera experience. Simply plug in up to three cameras or camcorders, and even a USB webcam. Have some videos on an SD card? They have you covered there as well.

On the back, there are a total of three (as mentioned) HDMI inputs on the back, as well as a USB port that supports a good number of webcams that don’t require drivers for use. We tried a number of popular Logitech models, as well as some options from Microsoft, NexiGo, Movo, and Razer. These are just four of the inputs that you can use as sources.

There is a gigabit Ethernet connection for wired internet access (for streaming or updates), an HDMI out for a confidence monitor, USB-C connection, a 3.5mm headphone connection (for monitoring) two 3.5mm inputs (one for mics and the other for line-in sources), and then a second USB-C that is reserved for powering the device.

You can even send it back to a computer via the initial USB-C as if it was webcam-like video source and use it with some of your favorite meeting solutions like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Skype.

It does come with two USB cables (one USB to USB-C and a USB-C to USB-C) that can be used for either charging or for one of the other USB ports/devices.

Along the front, there is an SD card slot that is for recording files locally (if you don’t want to stream). This can also be used for playback sources as well. This means that you can take a video that is already on the card and use it as a source you can switch to and display. You are able to pull in up to videos from the SD card at a time during your record/stream session. We are sure that they could have allowed for more than that but this is likely a concern for processing power more than anything.

Then there is a SIM card slot that accepts a nano-type SIM card that opens you to giving it 4G access from a supporting carrier.

If neither Ethernet or SIM is available, it also supports Wi-Fi (both 2.4 and 5Ghz), providing every (normal) opportunity out there for internet access when streaming. Making it a beast of multiple redundancies.

Then there is also a power button as well, which can turn the screen on and off with a single click, and shut it down or boot it up with a long press.

It doesn’t take long to get started. When you first turn it on, it walks you through a few screens setting language and timezone. It also asks you to either log in or register for a free account. This is required if you are going to stream with this. And at this price, there is little reason you wouldn’t be using it to stream. So its worth taking a few moments to quickly setup an account.

You are able to join it to your Wi-Fi or connect an Ethernet cable to quickly accomplish any of this. Once you are in, you can poke around some of the basic settings, get some of your information setup for some of your favorite networks, and verify anything else you might have missed.

Once it has a connection to the internet, it doesn’t take long for it to let you know if a firmware update is available or not. There was both an firmware and an app update waiting for us when we started off. Not only that but just looking at some of the chatter surrounding this toward the end of last year, you can tell that the company has been actively working to update it wherever it can. So this is a good sign.

Many things have been updated, including some of the things mentioned in the above photo. They have also touched on the general support of connecting it to a computer via USB, as well as a number of other features. Like using it while it is charging (which sounds like something they didn’t support in the beginning). That last one is clearly an important feature to have and we have confirmed that it can indeed be used while it is charging. So you don’t have to rely on the battery if you don’t need to.

When you want to start using it, it gives you the option of either creating a live stream (streaming online) or monitor mode (recording locally). So if you aren’t looking to stream and just want to save to file to stream or edit later, you can.

You are able to adjust the encode options within settings, which is incredibly important. At the end of this story (under the conclusion) we have an unboxing video that demonstrates what a recorded project looks like out of the box. This means we didn’t adjust any of the encode settings. It looks great, but clearly could look better. So if you need better quality video and your internet connection or SD card can handle it, then you can increase it within settings.

The default values included 5000kbps and 30 frames per second, which felt a bit compressed. So afterward, we immediatly set this to 60fps and 10000kbps for any future uses. It’s a good place to start and we can always increase the kbps a little higher if we wanted to.

Once you have chosen your method (ie, Monitor Mode), you can start setting up your sources. Just click on the + icon and start adding from what is offered to you. Available options are lit blue, with video sources lighting up as you plug them in (the above image was taken before any of the video sources were switched on so it didn’t see them yet).

This is where you can pull from the HDMI inputs or the USB (ie, webcams). You can use virtually any source that supports HDMI or USB (either directly or via adaptations) without the need of drivers. So cameras, webcams, mobile devices, video game consoles, blu-ray players, and more.

Then you have the (up to) two files that you can pull from an SD card, as well as a PDF, or even a live stream.

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It doesn’t stop there, though. The switcher also has a number of overlay graphics that can be used and you can (of course) add in some of your own. This includes lower third graphics, logos, and social graphics. It even has some animated overlays for countdowns, covering both breaks or “starting soon” features.

You even get chroma key support, which allows you to quickly kill your background and replace it with something else, as long as you are using the right backdrop.

The list continues on from there as it also has a scoreboard feature with display, in case you want to have fun with any guest interactions. It even supports displaying comments from certain streaming options, where you could highlight one to talk about.

Your sources you setup aren’t limited to just straight inputs. There are also a number of multi-view options where you can configure picture-in-picture, various split views, as well as a few side-by-side and news layouts that can take background images or animations.

The only thing it is missing is a 2×2 (four windows) of side-by-sides for when you are bringing multiple people into an vidcast chat session, for example. You can only do a 1×1 (two windows). We were surprised to see this missing, but I am sure they will likely add it eventually (unless this would be too much for the onboard resources).

Once you start building your sources out, they are will be available at the bottom left with the active source displaying above it. To switch between any of them, you simply have to touch one of them (or double-tap if you enable it settings).

All of your direct or multi-view configurations will appear here, as well as anything you choose form the SD card. The switching is quick and responsive and you can build out as many as you want it seems. Although we haven’t quite tested that theory out just yet. I believe the most we have built out was around eight.

The sources in queue all feature a lag to them. Actually, they are simply just displaying at a lower frame rate to conserve resources and focus on the active source (top left source). This way the pending sources are causing any delay to the active source (which makes perfect sense).

Of course, what good video switcher doesn’t offer the same for audio? You can configure your audio mix from the audio mix icon where you can assign what levels you want from what sources. That way you can use multiple sources for audio, including HDMI, USB, and analog audio.

We did find that there was a slight bit of delay between video content and analog audio (we had used an external wireless mic for our audio source in the unboxing video below). It isn’t terrible, but it is noticable if you have the slightest idea of what to look for.

When it comes to streaming, it is free to register with an account that enables you to be able to stream to any of the supported services. The company also has its own YoloCast service that can offer a little more professional experience with a long list of features. Although this option does require a monthly subscription, where simply streaming to YouTube, Facebook, or Twitch (or any RTMP service) doesn’t require any subscription.

You will want to make sure you have a reliable connection if you are going to use Wi-Fi or SIM. If you have the option of Ethernet, it is always going to be preferred when sending anything to the internet. Also, the better the connection, the higher the settings for your encode.

When recording locally, this isn’t an issue so you can immediatly start playing with your encode settings to find the best balance between quality and the speed of your SD card (and the slot itself). You can also use an external USB drive in place of the SD card slot, which is yet another noticable (and well-expected) perk.

It is quite user-friendly when it comes to setup. Assuming you have used anything like this (or a similar software option like OBS). It doesn’t take long to quickly setup some of the sources. Some of the more complicated options might take a little longer. The audio mix is easier move around and setup as well. The only thing that worked against its user-friendliness was that there are no savable presets for the sources. So you can’t save your source configuration and re-use it later when you have everything connected again. This is a a major blow for us as repetitive streamers are likely going to want the same setup many of the times. So they will have to manually set all the sources up each time.

Thankfully, it does save your selected overlays. So you can always recall those back onto the screen (text and all).

It supports up to 1080p@60, so no matter the quality of your sources, this will be the max output this is capable of achieving. This was unfortunate since the world has well-adopted 4K already and continues to expand into this territory. However, you won’t have to adjust anything on your source devices, at least. If you plug a 4K source into it, it will automatically downsample it to whatever setting you have your record/stream set to (1080p or less). Adding to the user-friendliness of it.

The lack of 4K likely has to do with processing power as well. 4K does take a lot of power to play with compared to 1080p. With everything happening on the screen at the same time, it likely wouldn’t be able to keep up with 4K. Of course, that doesn’t mean the company won’t dabble with 4K in the future via newer models as affordable processors catch up.

All-in-all, this is a great solution for keeping your footprint small when recording or streaming with multiple sources. No need for a computer, although you do have options if you want to include a computer in one direction or the other (source vs destination). It’s quite user-friendly, and offers so many switchable scenarios,

There are so many options to pick from and it feels very fluid when poking around the screen. Quite similar to any modern tablet experience. It can be used while plugged in, encode settings can be modified for improved image quality, and did we mention it’s awesome?

It isn’t perfect. It isn’t 4K, there is a slight latency to the analog audio compared to video, and there are no savable presets for the sources. The latter two options can easily be fixed within a firmware update, but the 4K would have to wait for a future model sadly. It would also be nice to have additional multi-source templates, as well as the ability to play/review recordings from the screen. You can see a list of recordings on the card, but you can’t open them to review them. Both of these can be worked on via firmware updates as well. So it does have some improvements that could be made. Thankfully, most of which are more than capable of happening at the rate the company is improving on it at (via updates).

We really do like this switcher and plan to keep a close eye on the company as it works to improve on it, as well as any future versions that roll out. It can easily ride to the top of the list when it comes to available switcher/streamer combos. You can find something from Blackmagic at half the price, but it doesn’t come close to the number of modern and user-friendly features that the YoloBox Pro has to offer. I might get jabbed for saying it, but it’s true.

*Average price is based on the time this article was published

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Designer, Editor and Product Reviewer Poc Network Ryan is an avid gamer that spends most of his time either commanding teams on the Xbox One or out on the grass kicking the soccer ball around when others are willing to take the challenge. He comes with a bachelors in electrical engineering and a hobby in the installation of advanced audio-video environments.

This is way better than what I use

I’ll have t talk to our boss about this one. Maybe I can convince her to add a few to our inventory.

That looks like a lot of fun. I thought about using it for convention work but it only has one monitor out so you couldn’t do anything tricky like presentation view and notes on another. I only say that since he says image pro in the video.

I’m more of an audio head than video, but I think even with an image pro (and assuming you are referring to PowerPoint, which is kind of obvious), the notes view has to be sent separately to a monitor via another laptop vs running a single connection to the switcher and being able to get both views for two different monitors. I could be wrong though. Then you run both laptops together on the same clicker via something like a Perfect Cue. Again, I could be wrong. You can likely get more options out of something like a Pulse switcher. Either way, that isn’t what this switcher is meant for. It’s meant for multiple in, and one out (outside of streaming, which is can send to multiple sources at the same time). You can hit an HDMI splitter to send to multiple monitor sources. However, all of these destinations and streams will still see the same master feed.

I noticed your using a GH5. Good camera. Is that what you usually use?

It depends. In the studio, not really. At least, outside of b-roll and other odd activities. In this case, we swapped out for use with the switcher since we had easier access to the HDMI signal without adapting from SDI.

Me too. But can’t afford it so it will have to be a future thing. Hopefully a near future thing.

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