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Welcome back for the third installment of our series on Open Broadcaster Software, an open-source and free Mac, Windows and Linux app that can be used for live or recorded video production. In the first installment, we discussed what OBS is all about and why it’s a good alternative to commercial apps. The second chapter of our story showed how to download and install the app, then make initial settings. Today, we’ll discuss two of the key ingredients in any video production: sources and scenes.

Sources are exactly what the name implies — the sources of video or audio content that is used in OBS to create a livestream or recorded broadcast. Scenes, on the other hand, are video canvases that are made up of one or more visual (and audio) elements from those sources. All of these elements can be resized, repositioned, or filtered. Many OBS users start with a single scene, then add multiple scenes to add production value to their streams or recordings.

OBS Studio is software designed for capturing, compositing, encoding, recording, and streaming video content, efficiently. It's distributed under the GNU General Public License v2 (or any later version) - see the accompanying COPYING file for more details.

Sources

Much of the power and flexibility of OBS comes from the variety of sources that are available to the user:

• Audio input/output capture makes it simple to capture sound from an input like a built-in or external microphone or from a source like a Mac app
• Built-in webcams like the FaceTime camera in most MacBooks and iMacs
• External USB webcams, like those from Logitech and many other manufacturers
• High-resolution video cameras, usually connected to a Mac through some sort of interface. An example would be the OBS “Blackmagic Device” source, which adds support for a variety of cameras, capture cards, and more from Blackmagic Design.
• BrowserSource, which is a web browser extension to OBS that renders any website or HTML source directly into OBS.
• ColorSource — a solid color screen, useful for background colors or for providing a tint to a particular scene using alpha compositing
• Display Capture is perfect for capturing an entire monitor screen and sending it out on your livestream
• Game Capture — many gamers love OBS as a way to stream gaming sessions with titles, overlays, comments, etc, and game capture uses a game as the source of video
• Image — Take any type of image, in .bmp, .tga, .png, .jpeg, .jpg, and .gif formats, and use it as a video source
• An Image Slide Show is another source that uses a series of images in the above formats and displays them with a time delay and transition between each image
• Media Source — Have a pre-recorded audio or video file that you want to use as a source? OBS supports .mp4, .ts, .mov, .flv, .mkv, .avi, .gif, and .webm video formats as well as .mp3, .aac, .ogg, and .wav audio
• Scenes — As I described earlier, an OBS “scene” is a video “canvas” onto which you paint with sources. Well, would you be surprised to know that any OBS scene can be a source?
• Text sources are used to add text to scenes. For example, a text source could add a simple title or overlay a scene with a quote
• VLC Video Source uses the popular open source VLC media player as an alternative source to the Media Source. This requires VLC to be installed on your Mac in addition to OBS
• Video Capture Device is a source that is kind of a “catch-all” for adding webcams and video capture cards into your production
• Window Capture allows a specific window on a Mac to be captured as a source. For example, Window Capture can be used to grab multiple Skype or Zoom windows to act as sources that can be switched between in a scene.

As you can see, there are a lot of ways to add visual and audio content to a scene! The variety of sources adds a tremendous amount of flexibility to your OBS productions. You simply need to learn how to mix and match those sources in your OBS scenes.

Creating an OBS Scene

Now that we know where we can get all of the video and audio inputs — the sources — we can use them on our OBS canvas to create a scene. In this example, we’ll create two simple scenes — a “stream start” scene that is just a repeating promo for the stream we’re going to blast to the world, and a “talking head” scene for our announcer/host in which he/she will say various things with a lower-third title at the bottom of the screen.

1 – Launch OBS. If you haven’t installed the app yet, be sure to read the last article to find out more about installation and configuration. Here’s what the app window looks like:

2 – We need sources before we can have scenes, so let’s add a few easy sources. To do this, click on the + button below the Sources pane at the lower left. Of course we’ll need sound so that the host can be heard on the livestream or recording, so let’s start with an audio source from the menu that appears (see below):

Selecting Audio Input Capture, we can select Add Existing (Mic/Aux) to add the built-in microphone of a MacBook Pro to OBS as a source.

Now let’s add an Image Source. We’ll use a “card”, basically just an image we’ve created that tells viewers that we’re about to go live with the show. These can be created in many apps, both Mac and web apps like Canva. The card is 1280 x 720 pixels in size — basically 720p resolution.

I chose to create a new Image Source and named it “Going Live”. Selecting the file from the Downloads folder, it’s now available to OBS:

Now let’s add a live video source, and to make this as simple as possible, we’ll use the built-in FaceTime camera in a MacBook Pro. We add a new source, select Video Capture Device, create a new source we’ll name “FaceTime Camera”. We select the device (FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in) and use a preset resolution of 1280 x 720, once again 720p and the best resolution possible from this camera.

One more source to add before we start making scenes — a simple PNG “lower-thirds” title. PNG graphics provide for transparency, meaning that your title can “float” above the video in the background. There is a built-in text source in OBS, but I found that it was quite limited and also crashed the app if I tried to change the font! Once again, I used Canva to create a nice script font PNG lower-third in bright red, and created a new image source for it.

3 – Now that we have our sources set up, it’s time to create our first scenes. Actually, when we added the sources OBS created a default scene onto which all the sources were added. We actually want two scenes: the “Going Live” scene that we’ll show prior to going live (we’ll call this “Preshow Roll”), and the second with sound, the live video from FaceTime, and the lower-third title that we’ll call “LiveStream”.

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We can rename the existing “Scene” by right-clicking on it, selecting “Rename” from the pop-up menu, and typing Preshow Roll. Next, we’ll create a second Scene by clicking the + button at the bottom of the Scenes pane and naming it Livestream.

We have four sources and two scenes; we need to make sure that the proper sources are assigned to each scene. Our Preshow Roll scene has all four of the sources, but we really don’t need all of them. We’d like it to be “silent” (no sound input) so our viewers don’t need to hear us before the livestream goes live, and we just need that “Going Live” image source.

Click on Preshow Roll, then — using the minus sign ( – ) button — remove the sources you don’t need (Mic/Aux, Lower Thirds, and FaceTime Camera). Next, click on LiveStream, and make sure that the Mic/Aux, FaceTime Camera, and Lower Thirds sources are added. For all of these items, there will be an existing source that’s saved in OBS and just needs to be selected.

4 – At this point, make sure that you save everything. Oddly enough, there is no “Save…” menu item in the Mac version of OBS. What you need to do instead is save both a Profile and a Scene Collection that you can choose from the menu the next time you use OBS.

The Scene Collection holds all of the scenes and sources you have added, as well as any global sources. A Profile, on the other hand, holds all of the OBS settings but not scenes or sources. A profile can be built for each channel you’re streaming to (Facebook versus YouTube Live, for example) or for different recording or streaming settings. Any time a setting is changed in OBS, it’s saved to whatever profile is currently active.

Best free project management software for mac 2018. To “save” the default Profile and Scene Collection you’ve been working with so far, select Rename from the Scene Collection menu and give it a name — I named my example “RocketYard Live”. Do the same with the Profile; here I gave it the name “Rocket Yard” (original, huh?).

What’s Next?

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In the next installment of this series, we’re going to talk about output from OBS in the form of either streams or recordings. Part of the discussion will be about transitions from one scene to the next, then we’ll make a short recording, and finally, we’ll set up a Facebook stream. In the meantime, have fun creating your own scenes and adding sources.

Related:
• Video Production with OBS: What It Is and Why You Should Use It
• OBS Chapter 2: Installing and Configuring the App
• OBS Chapter 3: Sources and Scenes
• OBS Chapter 4: Recordings and Streams
• OBS Chapter 5: Hotkeys, More Sources, and Resources
• OBS Chapter 6: Open Broadcaster Software Limitations and Alternatives

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Over the past several weeks, we’ve been discussing Open Broadcaster Software (OBS), an open-source video product application. You can catch up on the previous articles and learn how to use this free application:

• Video Production with OBS: What It Is and Why You Should Use It
• Open Broadcaster Software (OBS): Installing and Configuring
• OBS Chapter 3: Sources and Scenes
• Open Broadcaster Software – Part 4: Recordings and Streams
• OBS Chapter 5: Hotkeys, More Sources, and Resources

Now, OBS is quite powerful and adequate for many consumer and even professional video live-streaming or recording use cases, but it can have its limitations. In today’s article, we’ll discuss why it may be more advantageous to look at commercial apps and talk about the features of some of the more popular Mac video production apps. In addition, if your budget is limited to the free OBS application, we’ll talk about how to get support.

Reasons to Not Use OBS

At the end of the last article in this series, I noted that “while OBS is a great way to start getting into livestream production, it’s an example of ‘You get what you pay for’ in that it lacks good support, unexplainable bugs sometimes crop up, and it doesn’t have built-in features that can make your livestream work even easier.“

One of my pet peeves was when I was looking for plugins for OBS. I’d see one that added a feature I really wanted, only to find out that it was only available on the Windows version of OBS. When I run apps, I no longer want to run them in a virtual machine or have to reboot my Mac into Windows running on Boot Camp. Especially with video, the best performance comes with a native app or plugin. Not having access to many of those plugins will crimp my style a bit, but at this time I’ll have to make do with those plugins that work on the Mac platform.

For companies or individuals who are using OBS for profit, support can be an issue as well. Let’s say you have a scheduled show ready to go live in two hours, and all of a sudden OBS is crashing every time you boot up. Although you can get support through the OBS community, chances are good that your show will not happen. Commercial software companies can provide you with real support, although that often comes at a cost.

Finally, there’s another limitation — the user. Many people just getting into live-streaming can find sources, scenes, overlays, and even just setting up a single stream to something like YouTube to be overwhelming. The user interface of OBS isn’t exactly its top selling point, and trying to remember hotkeys or even which Stream Deck button to push can be confusing in the middle of an on-air interview.

Let’s take a look at three alternatives to OBS.

mimoLive

The first alternative I’ll discuss is mimoLive from Boinx Software. The app is free to try for 14 days, and if you’ve tried OBS as a result of this series, you’ll be familiar with the setup and terminology. Pricing is $20 per month for non-profit organizations (mimoLive Non-Profit), $70 monthly for commercial use (mimoLive Studio), and $200 per month for broadcast organizations (mimoLive Broadcast). Boinx offers discounts for annual and three-year purchases that are quite reasonable.

For your average person or business that wants to set up a daily or weekly livestream, monetize a livestream on YouTube, government organizations and universities, churches, and so on, the Studio version is perfect. That $70 monthly subscription gets you a lot — an app that is optimized for Mac and constantly updated, has a wide range of built-in features, and support. The Broadcast version comes with what’s called “Fastlane Support”, which is expedited support for those TV stations and other broadcast organizations that need answers immediately.

What you get with mimoLive is a full-featured live video suite. As you can see in the image at the start of this section, you have the familiar “Program Output” window, which is what the audience will see, as well as a number of other sources. Boinx provides other sources as well — mimoCall is a way to have other guests show up on your show (audio only) by just opening a URL in a web browser, while mimoLive Reporter is free iOS software that works with mimoLive to give “roving reporters” a way to send video back to your studio.

Many of the fancier features of mimoLive are based on its ability to “stack” various sources: start with a live feed, then add a lower-third graphic or perhaps an animated news ticker. The graphic below shows a “news show” with an anchor live feed, an animated green screen backdrop, and an “infoboard background” with titles in the corners and a lower-thirds graphic.

eCamm Live

Next up as an OBS option is eCamm Live from eCamm Software. Like mimoLive, eCamm Live also comes with a 14-day free trial. There are two versions: Standard ($15/month or $120/year) and Pro ($25/month or $240/year). The difference between the two versions is that the Pro version offers a virtual webcam, 4K streaming, widget overlay support, live video monitoring to any display, auto Facebook page crossposting, real-time bandwidth statistics, and VIP tech support.

Of the OBS alternatives we’re looking at, eCamm Live seems to be the best for people who don’t want the complexity of a solution like OBS or mimoLive, and just want to have good looking streams with anywhere from one to six people participating in a discussion.

eCamm seems to have put a lot of work into making sure that many popular DSLR and mirrorless digital cameras can be used as high-quality video sources, and it’s the only product to add support for Restream.io’s chat aggregation. The latter feature means that you can see and even display chat comments from up to 20 different social media platforms.

eCamm Live also records the video locally for posterity, editing, or redistribution to other sources, and is probably the most “Mac-like” of the OBS alternatives. My only concern is eCamm Live’s use of Skype for video connections — in my experience, Skype is about the least useful and most technically problematic of the video conferencing apps.

Wirecast

Really want to go pro? Telestream’s Wirecast is a solution that’s used by such big names as Fox Sports, the British Prime Minister’s office, and France Télévisions, as well as by some top vloggers. Available in both Studio ($599) and Pro ($799) versions, Wirecast is quite impressive in what it brings to the game.

Wirecast users can add an unlimited number of inputs and use a proprietary videoconferencing system called Wirecast Rendezvous to bring up to 7 remote guests (2 for Studio) into the broadcast. It handles up to 4K project resolution and can encode at 4K as well, features social media integration, and can provide users with custom transitions or video playlist capabilities.

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I think one of the best features of Wirecast has to be its integrated Stock Media Library. Let’s say you’re doing a livestream and talking about farming. Want some stock footage of a farm harvest or wheat waving in the wind? You’ve got it — access to over 500,000 royalty-free images, videos, songs, lower thirds templates, and more. That access is dependent on a support contract ($299 annual cost) but is well worth the cost to livestream professionals.

Telestream also adds NewBlue Titler Live Express for creating your own animated titles and graphics, and the Pro version upgrades that software to Titler Live Pro.

Wirecast also supports unlimited output destinations and the ability to record the stream to multiple disks simultaneously. For the most efficient bandwidth usage, you’ll probably still want to use Restream.io or Telestream’s own Telestream Cloud service to send your stream to multiple services.

Having used a previous version of Wirecast, I know that it has a bit of a learning curve. Spending some time going through the huge number of video and PDF resources about Wirecast is a great idea if you want to learn how to use this tool.

We hope you have enjoyed this series on Open Broadcaster Software. If you are currently using OBS or another video production alternative to livestream a show, please let us know about it in the comments.

Related:
• Video Production with OBS: What It Is and Why You Should Use It
• OBS Chapter 2: Installing and Configuring the App
• OBS Chapter 3: Sources and Scenes
• OBS Chapter 4: Recordings and Streams

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• OBS Chapter 5: Hotkeys, More Sources, and Resources
• OBS Chapter 6: Open Broadcaster Software Limitations and Alternatives

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