EZ Streamer-Pi, from all-volunteer outfit PixCams, supports any standard camera in live streaming to social platforms and websites. Currently, most people use a software tool like OBS Broadcaster, which requires a fairly powerful dedicated PC to run. EZ Streamer-Pi cuts this out: with a single Raspberry Pi and free software, you can reduce your hardware footprint and live stream from up to four cameras.

This means you could simulcast across four different YouTube, Twitch, or Facebook accounts (or a combination) at the same time. You could also maintain a long-term multi-angle live stream of a building site project to get people excited about a new community centre or train station, or multiple views from a countryside hotel on the booking website to entice visitors. Personally, I’d use it for a better doggy cam solution. My dog hardly ever sits within my fixed camera’s range, and if I pan around the lounge he evades me by leaving the room.

The EZ Streamer-Pi software is free and there are installation instructions to help you load it on your Raspberry Pi’s SD card. It’s designed with 24/7 live streaming in mind and supports up to 1440p, whereas most live streaming encoders on the market stream at a maximum of 1080p HD. It’s also optimised to work around network drops with its Keep Alive feature. The Raspberry Pi will detect a network dropout and replace the live stream with a standby image until it can pick the stream back up and continue broadcasting. And yes, you could easily create a cluster and go nuts with the number of cameras you can simulcast to.

All of the wildlife, all of the time

The PixCams people themselves are in this first and foremost to make it as easy as possible for people to watch nature. You can browse their impressive array of live wildlife cameras, showing everything from bald eagle nests to bird feeders; there’s an adorable racoon family snuffling around the deer feeder right now. Maybe don’t look if you have important stuff you need to get on with.

Build your own or buy readymade

You can build your own streaming unit using a Raspberry Pi 4 and some extra bits like a heatsink, case, and power supply. You could grab the files to 3D print an EZ Streamer-Pi branded case if you want to go full fanboy. Alternatively, you could wait to purchase a ready-built unit, which will be available from pixcams.com soon.