Introducing OBS Studio
The gold standard for home streaming software is open source, powerful and really easy to learn. It’s a triple whammy threat!
Lets start by trying desktop OBS before moving on to running it a Raspberry Pi. Largely as OBS is in the Ubuntu repositories, and probably in those of whatever distro you’re using too. But it’s always worth getting the latest version (27.0.1 at the time of writing). OBS maintain its own Ubuntu repository (the wiki covers this, as well as distro-specific instructions, at https://obsproject. com/wiki/install-instructions#linux), but since there’s a Snap package you’d be as well to use that. The Snap package includes support for hardwareassisted video encoding, virtual cameras and all sorts of other treats you probably wouldn’t get if you compiled it yourself–something Pi users will have to do as we’ll see over the page… You don’t have to be on Ubuntu to use Snaps (but if you are you’ll find the OBS Snap in the Software Centre), so once you’ve got the Snap daemon installed it’s just a matter of:
$ sudo snap install obs-studio
Well, that’s not strictly true. In order to talk to the appropriate interfaces and hardware, the Snap needs to be connected, like so (this happens automatically if you install from Ubuntu’s Software Centre):
$ sudo snap connect obs-studio:{alsa,audio-record,avahicontrol,camera,jack1,kernel-module-observe}
If you don’t like Snaps there’s a Flatpak available too. That’s what we used, with great results, on our Pop!_OS laptop. Pop supports installation from Flathub straight from its own software centre (Pop! Shop), and so might your distro. But if it doesn’t then install the Flatpak daemon and then install and run OBS with:
$ flatpak install flathub com.obsproject.Studio
$ flatpak run com.obsproject.Studio
When OBS starts you’ll be greeted by a setup wizard (and if you use the Snap, some weird questions about resetting the UI and setting a password for the Websocket server, which you shouldn’t worry about). Choose “Optimize for streaming”, and go with the default Base resolution of 1,280x720, unless you have strong feelings otherwise. Unless you’re confident your
machine can handle it (and your viewers will notice the difference) dial down the FPS to 30, at least for now.
Next you’ll need to choose a streaming platform. This will require you to have an account, and bind you to the terms and conditions of that platform. A key is used to make sure it’s you and not a stranger connecting their camera to your streaming platform. Click the Get Stream Key button, log in to your platform, copy the private stream key from the web page and paste it into OBS. Leave the Estimate bitrate checked. OBS will see what it thinks of your bandwidth situation and CPU power, and set the encoder settings accordingly. Your platform will then take this stream and serve it, as well as offering lower bitrates, to the masses. Go with the settings OBS suggests (you can always change them later) and you’ll find yourself in OBS’s main interface. If you have a Linux-friendly camera and microphone attached then these will be automatically set, and you will see what the camera sees in the preview window. See the next page for a guide to what’s going on here.
Getting started with your hardware
It’s good to keep things simple to start with, at least until you’re sure everything’s working. So start with just a camera and microphone. These will be listed as Video Capture Device (V4L2) and Audio Input Capture (Pulseaudio) in the Sources section. We set the base canvas resolution to 720p earlier, which might be different to your camera’s native resolution. You can change this by right-clicking the V4L2 source and choosing Properties. You might not want to fill the canvas with camera input, in which case choose a lower resolution here. You can put some decorations in the blank bits of canvas later.
The currently selected source appears surrounded by a red frame (unselected ones have a blue frame) and it’s possible to drag and resize this (even during a live broadcast) using the handles. Bear in mind that rescaling video is an expensive operation, and if you’re planning on using the same source at different sizes (to go fullscreen with a game, say) it’s more efficient to make use of Scenes. That way you can set the source up at different resolutions for different Scenes.
If you’re only interested in one video source, you can right-click its preview frame and choose Resize Output (source size). This will set the base and output resolutions to that of the camera, so that it appears full screen. Video is sent to the streaming platform at the output resolution. If your computer handled it during set up it’ll be the same as the base resolution (the size of the canvas), otherwise it will be less.
You might be planning on doing a purely audio stream (for example, to Mixcloud) in which case there’s one less class of media to worry about. Either way, make sure that your recording levels are good and be sure to familiarise yourself with the ways of muting the microphone. Given the pandemic and its plethora of virtual meetings, you might already know this particular drill.
OBS saves your sources and scenes automatically, so it’s easy to jump back in after a streaming break. Still, it’s worth coming up with a better name than “Scene” for your first scene, which you can do by rightclicking and selecting Rename. You might want to rename some of your sources, too.
In addition to getting hold of the stream key, your platform will offer all kinds of options for your broadcast from its dashboard. Twitch, for example, enables you to mark your content as mature, set latency settings or store your broadcasts. YouTube’s
Studio section makes it possible for you to edit your video online, or add a soundtrack.
We won’t tell you how to make a good broadcast. To be honest we don’t know, but if it’s anything like making a good feature, then plan what you’re going to cover and probably don’t wing it all at the last minute (hang on!– Ed). Clicking in the Scene Collection box is easy during live broadcasts, so if your Scenes are all set up nicely before you start you won’t have to fumble around switching between sources and clumsily repositioning them on the fly. Once you’ve got the hang of Studio View then it’s easy to create smooth and professionallooking inter-scene transitions too.
AUTOMATIC CONFIGURATION “OBS will see what it thinks of your bandwidth situation and CPU power, and set the encoder settings accordingly.”