PowerPoint Add a live video source (webcam, RTSP stream, etc...) to a slide
This would be very useful for teachers (for instance) needing to show something to the whole class via a webcam.
For example: a chemistry class where a specific reaction is shown, or a biology class where micro-organisms are presented through a microscope (with an usb camera attached).
This could also be used to integrate live capture cards, or other "live sources" like RTSP streams from the network.
This should be an easy process, as a "Live camera (source)" button could be added to the "Insert" tab in the ribbon. It could be a quite powerful feature to have.
Gregory
shared this idea
3 comments
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John Ellis
commented
Absolutely, to have a camera feed treated as an object within a slide would allow positioning, crop-to-shape, and just avoidance in general of the awkward positioning of a webcam image above the rest of the slide.
People could add text or animation on top of the video footage. It would be ideal for teachers and anybody presenting/training during Working From Home.
And the ability to select a source for the live-video object between teacher/presenter and other feeds e.g. microscope cam... Great.
I'd also suggest an option of a keying colour to be selected so people could remove their background if needed.
For me it would be even better if PowerPoint could then "Present" as a webcam feed to Teams etc. Using a normal video feed before the slides start but then mixing slides with real-time video as desired. Especially if the webcam output would then allow me to go back to using my screen for presenter view - I miss it so much presenting from home on a single monitor.
Genuinely this would/could be excellent.
With a little fiddling OBS can do this (it's great, Scott Hanselman form MS does amazing videos on his personal channel in how to achieve it) but for many of my colleagues that's a step too far.
I appreciate what MS is trying to do with Viva etc. for the new way of working but ideas like this would bring Office along for the ride!
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John Korchok
commented
PowerPoint does a relatively crummy job of picking up video feeds in Windows to use as the webcam in recording a slide show. I currently have OBS Studio set up as a VirtualCam. Zoom sees it as a source, Microsoft Teams sees it, but not PowerPoint. Others have posted on answers.microsoft.com about valid video sources that aren't seen by PowerPoint as a webcam. Please fix!
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Alyss Swanson
commented
Including live video support into PowerPoint would be a welcome feature for live-stream worship media teams. It would allow the entire worship script, including hymns, prayers, to be displayed alongside live-video content. Hopefully, this could be made available for both Mac and Windows.
