OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) Studio is free, cross-platform streaming software that you can use with Vito. It allows you to cue up different scenes and easily switch between them. You can also add overlays like text, images and much more.

First you need to download OBS Studio from their website. The software is free to install and there are versions available for Windows, Linux and Mac. Select the logo for your operating system, and then click to download the installer, open the file, and follow the instructions on screen to complete installation.

Once installed, you may want to explore and configure your settings. Open the software and navigate to the Settings section, accessible from the Controls menu in the bottom right of the screen. There are quite a few menu items, many of which you don’t need to worry about too much when you’re starting out.

OBS Studio and most other streaming software allow for adding a Custom Stream Key. Vito’s streaming provider, Mux, provides us with an RTMP (Real-time messaging protocol) URL and a unique stream key specific to a hub. This is what you need to enter in OBS Studio to set up our stream.

OBS Studio is now connected to the Vito hub, and you’re ready to stream.

The large preview section at the top of the screen in OBS Studio displays what will appear on your stream. There is a scenes column on the left-hand side. Each scene is a different section of your livestream — for instance you might have a scene for a title slide, one for your webcam, one for a pre-recorded clip, etc. Click the plus icon to add a new scene, and name it. It should easy to identify so you know which scene you’re selecting during your stream.

Now you should select sources for each scene, which you can do in the next column along by clicking on the plus icon. Sources are where you will pull the images or audio from. Here are some useful options and what they allow you to do:

You can right-click on any scene or source to rename it, and you can click on the eye icon next to a source to hide it. You can also drag to resize and reposition all your sources.

In the third column you can customize how the scenes transition between one another, choosing from options like cut, fade and swipe.

For more help with setting up your stream in OBS Studio, check out their Quickstart Guide, Overview Guide and the rest of their documentation.

We recommend running at least a couple of test streams ahead of your live event, to make sure you’re happy with how everything works. Vito automatically saves a copy of the stream file to your hub so that you can watch it back afterwards.

To test your OBS Studio livestream in Vito, first confirm that you’ve entered the correct livestream key for your hub. Then open up your livestream channel page in Vito.

In OBS Studio, you can click to start streaming under the Controls menu on the right-hand side. You'll see the stream status in the hub change to Buffering for up to 20 seconds, and then to Preview mode. To reveal the stream to your participants in the hub, ensure the view mode is set to All participants.

When you’re ready to stop broadcasting, click to stop streaming inside OBS Studio.

For more general tips on running a livestream, including what to do before, during and after, check our ultimate guide to livestreaming.

A copy of the stream file will be saved to the Watch page in your Vito hub automatically. By default it will be visible to Collaborators only, but you can edit the visibility settings if you need to.

It can also be useful to save a copy of the stream file locally to your computer too, so that you can trim or edit it if you need to. In order to save a recording of your stream locally, just click to start recording in the Controls section in OBS Studio, and then stop recording when you’re done.

You can also configure OBS Studio to automatically record your streams. You’ll find this option under the General tab in the preferences section. Check the boxes that say “Automatically record when streaming” and “Keep recording when stream stops”. Under the Output tab in the preference section, you’ll find options to change where your recordings get saved and in what format.

The instructions for OBS Studio are correct at the time of writing. Please check their documentation for the latest information, and let us know if this article needs updating.

Questions? Search our documentation, email support@vi.to or chat to us in-app.