Video consumption has been going through a big shift: more mobile, more vertical. Audiences on TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts expect full-screen immersive vertical content. But many organizations still produce standard horizontal (16:9) livestreams - and now clients often demand both: the classic widescreen version and a vertical version at the same time. That creates new workflow challenges.
In this post we will find out who needs vertical streaming workflows, why it’s harder than “just crop the middle,” how vMix has begun to support some of this - and why MiruSuite is perfectly positioned to fill the gaps.
| Type of Organization | Use Cases |
|---|
| Broadcasters, news, media outlets | Simultaneous delivery to TV / YouTube (horizontal) + social platforms (vertical) |
| Brands & events | Live events, product launches: classic livestream + vertical for social stories, ads |
| Worship / Houses of Worship | Microsites or congregation display vs social feed vertical content |
| Corporate / internal communications | Town halls, all-hands: archived wide version + vertical clips or streaming |
| E-learning / webinars / motivational speakers | Reach wider audience via mobile platforms while retaining traditional formats |
These organizations want to keep using their usual wide-screen cameras and standard workflows, but they also want to serve vertical formats without downgrading quality or putting huge extra burdens on crew.
One might assume you can just crop the center portion of a 16:9 image to get a 9:16 vertical stream. But that runs into several pitfalls:
- Composition & Action: Important action or visual elements may not always be centered. Speakers might look off-frame; graphics, guests, moving objects drift out.
- Safety / Headroom: Widening, zooming, panning behaviors in the wide field may result in poor framing vertically.
- Resolution & Quality: Cropping reduces resolution or forces upscaling, which hurts visual quality especially if original is not super high resolution.
- Latency & Overhead: Real‐time cropping, switching between framing styles, monitoring two versions live is operationally intensive.
- Branding / Graphics / Overlays: Titles, lower thirds, side elements may need redesigning or repositioning - what works horizontally may clash or get cut in vertical.
So the ideal vertical stream shouldn’t be a dumb crop; it needs smart cropping, dynamic framing, ideally auto-guided so operators don’t have to re-frame everything manually.
vMix has made progress in supporting vertical workflows. Key features:
- A Vertical HD preset (e.g. 9:16) so that the vertical portion of the screen is exactly full-HD in the vertical orientation.
- Safe Areas / vertical / square guidelines inside the UI so operators can see what the vertical output will “see” as they work on the widescreen canvas.
- Custom aspect ratios and cropping options in the Streaming Quality settings.
But vMix still has limitations:
- The cropping is generally static or manually adjusted; there’s no built‐in system that auto-analyzes all camera feeds simultaneously and dynamically decides how to crop optimally for vertical.
- If you just crop center, you risk losing action or composition that lies to the sides; manual repositioning per camera is tedious.
- Overlay graphics / lower-thirds etc often need separate design or manual moving for vertical; this is still largely manual in most workflows.
In short: vMix provides good tools and presets, but the workflow is still mostly manual, reactive, and requires skilled operators to manage dual output.
An ideal workflow would have these properties:
- Single wide (horizontal) production flow: Use existing cameras, directors, switching etc as today.
- Multi-aspect outputs: Produce both the horizontal stream (e.g. 16:9) and the vertical stream (9:16) in parallel.
- Automated cropping / framing decision: The system should analyze all camera feeds (and possibly other signals like presenter tracking) in real time, and decide which part of the frame to use for the vertical version - e.g. dynamically shift crop, zoom, pan if needed, depending on where the action is.
- Safe graphics & overlays: Overlays should adapt or be designed to be flexible so they appear well in both formats, or separate graphics for vertical.
- Minimal extra effort / operator load: Operators should not have to manually re-frame multiple cameras; ideally the system helps with suggestions or automatic control.
- High quality, no degradation: vMix support 4k workflows which means that a vertical crop has enough resolution for mobile devices
Here’s how MiruSuite addresses these needs and fills the gaps in current workflows:
- Simultaneous multi-stream production: MiruSuite lets you keep producing your standard widescreen stream exactly as always, with camera operators, framing, movement etc. No need to change your wide-screen workflow.
- Real-time analysis of all video feeds: It monitors all camera inputs and understands where the subject is
- Crops for vertical intelligently: Based on that analysis, MiruSuite tells vMix how to crop the input signals - automatically or with operator assistance - so the vertical stream is always well composed, not just “middle of frame.”
- Reduced manual burden: Operators don’t have to adapt their framing for the vertical stream - MiruSuite does the heavy lifting behind the scenes.
- Less risk of human error in framing the vertical version.
- Save time (and staff) - operators don’t need to reposition cameras just for vertical.
- Better viewer experience - vertical stream feels intentional, composed, not simply cut off.
- Scalable: works for multi-camera, live events, discussions, panels, etc.
Here’s a demo of MiruSuite in action: how it can manage multi-feed input and drive vMix to crop intelligently for vertical streaming:
The demand for vertical content is not going away. Producing both horizontal and vertical streams is quickly becoming standard for organizations wanting to hit both classic platforms and mobile/social. The old “crop the middle” hack doesn’t scale well. Tools like vMix show the way but still rely heavily on manual adjustment. MiruSuite brings the automation, analysis, and intelligent framing that lets organizations deliver both streams smoothly, with high quality, and with minimal extra effort.
If you’re producing live video and want your content to look great everywhere - on TV, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok - a workflow with MiruSuite for dual-aspect output is no longer just optional. It’s essential.
