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CategoriesInformation, OBS Tricks and Techniques by

OBS Studio 28 Released – Should you upgrade?

Should you update to OBS Studio 28 Now?

TLDR: NO! Unless…

OBS Studio 28 is a MASSIVE update.  This is a great release and advancement in the Open Source platform. Why do we say NO on updating right now? The issue revolves around the Qt 6 which handles the User Interface. This needed to be updated and great that it happened. Some of the side effects of this update can impact some of your current active OBS Systems and actually stop them from working.  For example; Qt 6 will no longer work on the following operating systems so if you have one of these, OBS Studio 28 will no longer work on these systems:

  • Windows 7
  • Windows 8
  • macOS 10.13/10.14
  • Ubuntu 18.04
  • All 32 Bit operating systems

Although this is a disappointment and likely to cause short term pain for many active OBS Studio users, this change should help open up major advances in OBS development for years to come.

 

Another issue when it comes to the Qt 6 Update, even if you don’t use one of the above operating systems, there is a need to make sure you get any plugins you use updated for Qt 6 if appropriate. Some of the big ones here are OBS-NDI. The current 27.x versions of that plugin use Qt 5 UI elements and will not load with OBS 28.

Our recommendation is to hold off on your update for a little while to let all the plugins and operating systems to stablize. A quick change now can shut down your production system, so make sure you experiment on a test configuration.

Horse and buggy broadcast feel like this
CategoriesNew Product, Tools by

Is your Church broadcast setup a bit dated?

Is your Church broadcast setup a bit dated?

Play Video about Horse and buggy broadcast feel like this

Is your Church broadcast setup a bit dated? Does it feel like it is time to update to make your productions snap? Click the link for more information on how your organization can be one of the first to get this new cutting edge technology. Horse and buggies were good in their day, but wouldn’t it be nice to drive a Ferrari!

 

Join our Discord to stay up-to-date on the impending release of this new technology. Click the button below.

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CategoriesStreaming Tips & Tricks by

How do I live stream

How do I live stream

What is live streaming?

Before we can talk about how to do a live stream, we need to cover what we mean by live streaming. When content or an event is broadcast over the internet (or over the airwaves incase of a TV Production) to viewers of that content in near real-time. It is not possible to stream in real-time as there is always a delay in the content being transmitted to the viewer. In general this delay may be 1 to 20 seconds depending upon your streaming service. The issue with live streaming is more about there being no editing of the content before the consumer sees it. Like a live football game, the actions is broadcast live. But on the other hand, a movie is usually highly edited before the content is available to the viewer (Pre-recorded, recorded, or published content).

How to live stream

First understand the content and needs for your stream. Are there multiple people that will be active in the live stream? Is it just one person speaking on camera or no speaking at all? How do you get the best camera shot of your active or content; webcam face shot, top down table shot, multiple cameras for different areas, PTZ Cameras to follow action or reduce the number of cameras you need. You should also considered if your content needs to be live streamed vs pre-recorded.

We have a few articles of specific recommendations for some applications which may help:

Once you have figured out your needs, you can purchase set up your cameras to cover the content you will provide. Certainly consider our Jimcom line of PTZ cameras if that is in your budget. You will need Audio as well as many cameras will provide the video portion. Some webcams have a built in Microphone but depending on your content or activity, this might not be the best solution for you. A separate USB Microphone or something similar might help improve your content.

The last critical part of live streaming is the software needed to connect your equipment together and broadcast it out to the internet for others to view. Generally, this software connects to a Content Delivery Network which is a geographically distributed network of computers to allow thousands of users to watch in real time. There are many big companies such as YouTube, Twitch, Vimeo, FaceBook, and many others that provide this service. Many of these services are free, but your views are subject to advertisements and possibly limit what you can broadcast. 

There are many commercial applications that can be used to link your content stream to these services. In our desire to help lower the barriers to entry and ongoing service costs, our recommendation is OBS Studio, an open-source community supported streaming/recording solution. This application does just about anything you can need for recording content as well as live streaming content. You can refer to our Get Started with OBS Studio article for help with that application.

As noted above, OBS Studio allows you to live stream to all the CDN, Content Delivery Networks, listed earlier in this article.  Some of those CDNs are free such as YouTube, but others such as Vimeo require an annual fee. There are many more free video hosting services which are much more cost effective solutions if you don’t need to stream your content live. 

Consider if your content is timely such as a news broadcast, worship service, or town meeting. If the content is just as relevant tomorrow as it is today, you might want to opt for recording your content rather than live streaming. Post processing/editing your content might increase its quality making it a better product. Many publishers of content will do either live stream or recorded content depending upon their topic. A timely news update might be live, where their other content is pre-recorded with improved quality.

Summary

The general steps in setting up your streaming:

  1. Determine your needs and if you need to Live Stream your content
  2. Setup your needed camera(s) and audio equipment for the production
  3. Find a CDN to stream your live content, or a service to upload your pre-recorded content
  4. Acquire broadcasting software such as OBS Studio to record and/or broadcast your content to the world

Watch for our articles we have planned in the future, the next article being Post Processing of recorded content. We will give tips & tricks on how to do this with little or no money invested.

CategoriesOBS Tricks and Techniques, Streaming Tips & Tricks by

Get started with OBS Studio

Get Started with OBS Studio

OBS Studio is the leading Open Source and Free Video Broadcasting software Packages. Use OBS with your Jimcom IP or NDI PTZ Cameras to get the most of your investment for your House of Worship, eSports, DJ & Music Production, or business broadcast.

A tool like this can easily get your local Town Government / Selectmen streaming to the town, Church streaming to its parishioners, eSports events out to fans, produce your next music video, or create a business video for market your product and services.

OBS Studio allows broadcasters to create scenes with multiple inputs on the same screen allowing picture-in-picture. This tool will help create professional broadcasts and bring in multiple guests/videos via different sources. There are move advanced features that can be enabled such as being able to change your video source order, rotate them, or even add filters.

With the addition of Plug-Ins, the main program can be extended beyond the base product. Jimcom USA recommends you add the NDI plugin to connect your cameras via a low latency for your broadcast. The OBS Studio 27 release has new feature such as Undo/Redo, Improved Display Capture for Laptops, Missing Files Dialog, Source Visibility Transitions, and many more improvements. This project is community support and new features and add-ons are being created all the time.

This tool can even be run as a Portable Application. This enables having OBS on a thumb drive and able to get started on almost any PC with no installation. It also facilitates multiple “versions” of OBS with different plugins and configurations if your site needs different styles for different equipment, etc.

Other related Stories:

What is the best camera for your Church?

What is the best camera for your Town Meeting, Council Meeting…?

5 Major Reasons to use NDI Technology

Why NDI Summary
CategoriesStreaming Tips & Tricks by

5 major reasons to use a NDI PTZ Camera | Why NDI | NDI PTZ Streaming Cameras

5 Major Reasons to use a NDI PTZ Camera

Why NDI? Why use NDI PTZ Streaming Cameras?

This video will help you understand why selection of #NDI capable PTZ Cameras are good for your facility/church. The cost of the NDI upgrade needs some explanation as to the value for your organization. Why should you consider choosing a PTZ camera that supports the NDI protocol?

There are 5 major reasons to consider using the NDI protocol within your facility:

1) NDI Cameras are discoverable to simplify installation.

2) They provide a Professional Broadcast Quality for both streaming and recording.

3) NDI is the newest video standard.

4) For new installs, NDI would use Cat-5 or Cat-6 cabling so the cameras don’t require any special cabling and they are easy to move to a new location.

5) They have a low latency and are easier to sync a separate audio channel with the cameras video feeds.