Video Streaming Settings when using OBS for Live Performance
My name is Katerina Vitaly, I am a Video Designer for live performances and over the past year, I have switched to streaming for live events. I get emailed a lot for streaming advice by theaters and programmers, so I thought it would be helpful to compile a little list of references to streaming settings I use, advice on how to troubleshoot a laggy stream and some OBS plugins I use.
First and foremost, when it comes to streaming, timing is key. So you want to make sure you are setting yourself up for success with the interface you create. The preparation for the streamer would normally start at least 30–40 minutes prior to getting on the zoom call with the collaborators, as there is more to prepare once you get on a call with people.
For the virtual meeting platform you can use Zoom or Skype. I’ve used Skype only once for a performance at the Ensemble Studio Theater back in October 2020. That decision was helpful to me, as Skype has an NDI feature as part of the system which meant that I can have all of my actors be their separate AV channel. Which surely takes away the issue of reshaping the boxes every time you bring in a new actor / managing one audio channel. However, I need to note that over the past year, Zoom has been the general platform people have been using, so naturally the crew’s comfort levels have been overthrown by Skype. From my experience of using both Zoom and Skype, I would suggest going the Zoom route as it is easier for streamers/programmers to adapt and take an extra step than sacrificing the crew’s comfort. At the end of the day, most performers are not technical people and having to act to a screen rather than a live person is already enough of a challenge.
Normally, I set up my OBS and turn on OBS Virtual Camera and then send the virtual camera back into my Zoom window (change where you change the camera) — it works as a great help for actors to be able to see themselves as they will look like when streamed as well as showing the director the scene you are working on.
Alternatively, you could use Syphon Virtual Camera to bring in the feed back into zoom.
Here are the settings I would recommend to use for live streaming:
CBR Rate Control lets you customize your bitrate.
I suggest starting at 12000 kbps and dropping if your computer can’t handle encoding that much. With the computer I have, I most likely will be dropping to 2500kbps if there are more than 2 people being streamed out,
Here are some numbers I would normally recommend for streaming bitrates:
1080p at 60fps = 16000kbps
1080p at 30fps = 12000kbps
720p at 60fps = 7000–8000kbps
720p at 30fps = 6000kbps
These settings would look different for OBS Recording, so only reference those if you are streaming an event.
If you have a laggy stream, it normally means you are getting some dropped frames. To understand whether it is your internet problem or your computer’s — look at the stats dock to oversee your stream health to figure out what it is you should be troubleshooting.
Encoding is how fast your computer sends out the produced image into the live stream and Rendering is the way your computer creates the image that you are sending out.
If you stream on YouTube or Vimeo, there is a feature under your streaming window that shows whether you have excellent, good, or unstable connection. More often than not, when I get asked for streaming advice, the problem lays within the encoding speed of the computer. The ways to resolve it would have to mean sacrificing quality of the image but realistically it is better to drop the quality rather than having a laggy stream/ choppy audio.
If you get a lag:
- Try bringing up the CPU usage from veryfast to ultrafast.
- I usually recommend dropping to 720p in Video Settings. Again, not ideal, but better than a laggy stream. The key here is to resize both your Base (Canvas) Resolution and Output (Scaled) Resolution. Otherwise, your computer would need to take an extra step to resize between your image and the image streamed. You want to save as much of the CPU for the stream itself rather than having to resize.
- If your canvas is at 1080p resolution, it means that your computer is still encoding the 1080p quality image but it doesn’t need to if you send out 720p image now. That means you will have to rescale all of your scenes created, but from my experiences it sure will help resolve the lag.
These 3 steps should surely resolve a lag unless you have an internet issue.
AUDIO
I am not going to go into as much detail about audio delays in this post, but the audio plugins I use to control my audio channels are iShowU or Blackhole. If there is a lag only on one participant you can delay their channel specifically.
What I usually do is I record my OBS, ask an actor with delay to clap, save that video, and then drop it in any editing software, for ex Premiere Pro where you can see how many frames the person’s audio is behind / ahead.
Here you can convert the FPS to ms to see how big of an audio delay you should set.
https://www.hextobinary.com/unit/frequency/from/fps/to/fpms
Also, I want to share some OBS Plugins that can uplift and support any stream, so I hope you find these useful !
Move transition
Gives you some smooth animated transitions
https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/move-transition.913/
OBS Transition Matrix
https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/obs-transition-matrix.751/
Allows you to set custom transitions — has a great interface
Websockets
Websockets has an online tablet remote brings out all your scenes for you and you can control your OBS over the IP of your computer. So you can control your stream through and IPad or your phone. It has an easy button interface that you can use to switch between scenes, use transitions etc.
https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/obs-websocket-remote-control-obs-studio-from-websockets.466/
https://t2t2.github.io/obs-tablet-remote/
Shader Filter and Motion Effects has a ton of cool effects.
https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/obs-shaderfilter.775/
https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/motion-effect.668/
So if you are doing a show that is effect-heavy or just has some room for you to play around in — I highly recommend it! @Defrag on YouTube has a lot of tutorials walking through these effects and how you can use them in gaming.
I hope this post helped in getting some clarity for your streaming needs. If you find this helpful, let me know and I am happy to continue with this blog. If you are looking to resolve some more specific questions, I can be reached at vitalykaterina@gmail.com
