Open Broadcaster Software (OBS)

This document has instructions for making recordings or doing live streaming with OBS Studio for Intergalactic FM. This is free and open source software which runs on Windows, macOS and Linux.

1 Summary

In general, these are the technical specifications:

• resolution: 1080p (preferred) or 720p
• frame rate: 30 FPS
• video quality: 5 - 10 Mpbs
• audio quality: 256 kbps, 320 kbps (preferred) or higher
• audio sampling frequency: 44.1 kHz

2 Installation

Install the latest version of OBS from their website.

For Linux, use their PPA to get the latest version and automatically keep it up to date. Many Linux distributions ship OBS, but this is often an older version.

2.1 Configuration

When starting OBS for the first time, an auto-configuration wizard is started. Choose a Base (Canvas) Resolution of 1920x1080 and 30 for FPS. For both, preferably not the Use Current version, but only these values.

Because resolution and frame rate has been set here, other settings will follow this and usually do not need to be set to this too.

2.2 Cameras

First, make sure the needed docks are shown. Go in the menu to View and under Docks check at least Scenes, Sources, Audio Mixer and Controls.

Connect two or three USB cameras. Then, create Scenes for each camera. For each scene, go to Sources and add one camera as a Video Capture Device. Then, drag and drop that source into the video preview and resize the view to match the entire preview.

If a camera has a microphone, mute the microphone in the camera settings. Also disable autofocus of the camera as it usually has unintended effects.

If you are certain the camera is at the desired resolution and frame rate, keep those settings at Leave Unchanged. Otherwise, set these explicitly. Note that many cameras offer only trade-offs between resolution and frame rate, preventing setting both to maximum.

To test the scenes, choose to Studio Mode in te lower right of the screen. Then, switch between the scenes by selecting them. The buttons for Transition and Cut in the middle of the screen will swap the view from the program scene to the previewed scene. This might need some practicing. Best is to have someone else to the switching of cameras while you perform.

Note that some cameras can also capture audio. Double check that this audio is not being used in the audio mixer. Also disable autofocus of each camera and use a fixed focus.

If you are performing by yourself, an automated scene switcher such as Advanced Scene Switcher is very helpful.

When another application is used to mix the video, for example Resolume, only the resulting video should be added as RTP or NDI.

These methods of importing video into OBS can also be used of you do not have a webcam and are using the camera from your smartphone, for example.

Use hard copies of a Siemens star to help manually focus all cameras.

3 Recording

To make a recording to send in for exclusive broadcasting, make the following steps.

Go in the menu to File and choose Settings. Then under Output, choose Advanced for Output Mode.

3.1 Output Recording

Then, in the Recoding tab, set the recording path to what you prefer. Essential is to make the settings:

1. Set the Recording Format to mp4 and enable the audio tracks you use.
2. Set Encoder to x264
3. Only when working with another resolutions, enable Rescale Output and choose 1920x1080. *
4. For Rate Control choose CBR (probably already set to that).
5. Below that, set a Bitrate of 10000 kbps. (10 Mbps) *

If the computer on which OBS is running or your power supply is unstable, choose mkv for Recording Format, but convert the result to mp4 later with Remux recordings from the File menu. This is relatively easy to do and in case OBS crashes, you have still a part of your recording.

3.2 Output Audio

In the Audio tab:

1. Set for all tracks the Audio Bitrate to 320. *

See also the overall audio settings.

3.3 Video

In the Video tab, set all resolutions and frame rates as is desired.

3.4 Alternative settings *

In case your device cannot cope with these settings, make the following changes to settings indicated with an * under Recording:

• set Rescale Output to 1280x720 or better make all settings 1280x720
• set Bitrate to 5000 kbps (5 Mbps)
• set Audio Bitrate to 256 kbps

3.5 Fixing delay

Choose in the menu Edit the menu item called Advanced Audio Properties. There you can set a positive or negative Sync Offset in milliseconds for each audio source.

3.6 Recording, texts, logos, etc.

Record without any logos or text in the video! Also, do not make announcements in the audio.

A recording by a DJ should be minimally 30 minutes and maximum 60 minutes long. A live production ha a maximum of 45 minutes. Good to do some proper testing before doing a recording. Close other applications and mute notification sounds from your device. View your recording before sending it in to double check all went OK. Also, do not wear flip-flops on camera.

Again, plan enough time, preferably a few days before you record a set, to test your specific OBS setup. That way you have time to let us help you solve any issues before your start recording.

To avoid audio clipping, make sure the volume does not go into the red, also for any sound cards in between. As a safety precaution, use an independent MP3 recorder to records the audio of your set too. this has proven very useful.

Use a clapperboard or simply clapping your hands in front of all cameras to help you fix their delay with the audio. If you have forgotten this at the beginning of the recording, add it at the end of the recording for the most important camera.

If you have, for example, two artists recording directly after each other at the same location, make two separate recordings from it please.

Provide the following text the accompanying message when sending in a recording:

• artist's name, in proper upper and lower case characters and spaces where needed because we don't want to guess the correct spelling
• English name of the city and country where the recording was made

If desired, also send in a logo as a PNG or PDF file. Use a transparent background when needed. If your logo consists of words and is very wide, try to make a version that is more square. E.g. for logo as

Abcdefghij Klmnopqrstu

try to make a version in this way

Abcdefghij
Klmnopqrstu

IMPORTANT: When you send in any recording, you agree with exclusive broadcasting rights until two weeks after the first broadcast. Then your recording will be added to the online archive. From then on, you can share it all you want. Do not leak or share the recording before that. Doing so will exclude the recording from broadcasting.

If you have any questions, such as personal upload instructions or help setting up OBS, please contact us via email or in the chat.

4 Streaming

Instructions for live streaming will be added here soon.

5 Acceleration

A video card or GPU can accelerate the video processing, rendering, conversion decoding or encoding. For Linux, you can install the VAAPI driver for your Intel or AMD card, e.d.

sudo apt-get install intel-media-va-driver i965-va-driver

For NVIDIA, you can install for example

sudo apt-get install libnvidia-encode-465 libnvidia-decode-465

The following tools can inform what capabilities your machine has

sudo apt-get install vainfo vdpauinfo

Installation of drivers on Windows or macOS is differently. Probably your computer already has installed what it can handle.

When all is installed correctly, the Streaming and Recording tab under Output will offer extra options. Normally these are x264 (which we use) and FFMPEG (which we do not use). Added can be NVENC or VAAPI. Note that not only will this speed up OBS, it will reduce the load on your CPU significantly. This prevens OBS from aborting with errors or failing in other ways. Also it decreases the number of dropped frames.

6 Tools

In some cases the following free and open source tools can be useful:

• FFmpeg
• Audacity

If you have improvements for this document, please create an issue for it.