Syphon (Mac) and Spout (Windows) share live video streams between apps as VPT sources or outputs

Syphon (macOS) and Spout (Windows) are inter-application video-sharing frameworks: an app publishes its output as a named server and any receiving app subscribes by name. VPT works in both directions. As an input, a Syphon/Spout source lets VPT receive the output of another tool (Processing, OpenFrameworks, Max, VDMX, Modul8) and use it as a source on a layer. As an output, VPT can publish its own output as a Syphon/Spout server for other apps to consume — notably Syphon Recorder, which captures the stream and so records VPT’s output. This makes VPT composable inside a larger live AV toolchain rather than a closed application.

Examples

Publish a Processing sketch as a Syphon server, then in VPT add a syphon source, set the server name and assign it to a layer. Or enable Syphon out and record VPT’s output in Syphon Recorder.

Assessment

Explain the difference between using Syphon as an input to VPT versus as an output, giving one use case for each. What is the Windows equivalent of Syphon?