Skype, starting from version 8.2x, has a new feature called NDI which allows your Skype audio and video stream to be shared with other software or hardware. This technology is developed by NewTek Inc., and is being used by Skype to provide this stream sharing feature. Using this feature, you cannot share the Skype stream with just about any software or hardware – it must also have NewTek NDI features enabled. There are already many such streaming software like XSplit, OBS and others.
Before you can start using this NDI feature to share your Skype calls with streaming software, you must enable it in Skype. Here is how it is done:
- Launch Skype for Desktop. Click on your user profile picture and select Settings from the menu.
- From the settings screen, first select Calling and then Advanced.
- Enable Allow NDI usage from the list of features.
- Select a position for displaying Skype watermark in the shared video stream.
- All done.
Once NDI has been enabled in Skype, it will become available as Skype NDI (or similar name) in all the NewTek NDI enabled hardware or software. You can add this new stream in the source mixing or perhaps just use it alone for livestreaming over Youtube or Twitch. The Skype stream contains a transparent Skype logo to show that it is coming from a live Skype session.
NDI is short for Network Device Interface and NewTek NDI actually makes the Skype calls available to other software and hardware in form of a networked device. This streaming is available on the same subnet which restricts the access of the stream on the local network only. While NDI can be readily used in software like XSplit just by selecting Skype as the source stream, some software like OBS require that you download an addition plugin before NDI features are made available.