Question / Help Is independent camera switching possible?

[veggiet]

Hi, I'm seriously looking at replacing Wirecast with OBS, however I'm not sure if it will work with our set up. I've been looking through the forums, including the tools, and scripts sections and I can't seem to find what I want.

Is there a way that I can load three camera angles into one source, and then switch between those three camera angles independently of the main scene changes?

Here is the situation:

Each week we broadcast our church service, we create custom slides and videos that are unique to our online broadcast and are separately controlled from our local program, this program contains 30+ "slides", which can be images, lower thirds, videos, and audio clips, and at least one webpage.

We also have three separate camera angles.

What we need to be able to do is advance through the 30 slides, occasionally going back to an older one, and also adding in overlays on top of those slides occasionally at will when an "unscripted" event happens, all while switching between the three cameras underneath the slides and the overlays.

What I'm understanding is that with OBS vanilla to accomplish this I'd need to create each slide as three scenes, one with each camera underneath, and then I might need to create extra ones with an overlay or two on top, this sounds unmanageable at worst and unwieldy at best.

If there is a way to bring all three camera angles into one source to do the switching that would be great, or if someone can think of a different solution that would be great.

 

[koala]

I cannot give exact details how to accomplish this, but these OBS features that might help:

• you can switch on/switch off a source by clicking the mini eye icon next to his name in the sources list
• you can position sources over other sources. The topmost active source will be displayed, the bottom sources are hidden (obscured) by the source(s) on top.
• you can use scenes as sources for other scenes, so if you change the source contained in a certain scene, all scenes that contain that scene will change accordingly
• you can use groups to insert the same content (sources) into different scenes, so if you change the source contained in a group, all scenes that contain this group will change accordingly. The difference between this and inserting a scene as source is the scaling and how it merges with the other sources in the scene: if you change the size of a group, the result is different to the resizing of a scene that is used as source.
• you can use "studio mode" of OBS to prepare multiple changes to the currently displayed scene without the viewers actually seeing you making the changes. Only after you activate the changes by clicking "transition" button all changes go life at once.

I assume with 3 separate camera angles, you mean you have 3 different camera sources. You could for example stack them over each other in the same scene, so only the topmost will be visible. You can activate/deactivate them individually by clicking their eye icons, so if you want to show the middle source, you deactivate the top source and activate the middle source. And you can hide any such changes in progress by using studio mode.

 

[Narcogen]

One way to do that would be to dedicate one PC with an instance of OBS running on it to capture your cameras and send a camera feed to another machine using NDI over a local network, and another machine that would run your slide deck(s) and drive the final display.

There are multiple methods for switching scenes or inputs remotely via a handheld device (phone, tablet, or any device with a browser).

This is more complex in terms of hardware but achieves everything you want with minimal added complexity from the standpoint of operating OBS. You'd set up a browser or a mobile app to control the camera angle, and then run the slides as you currently do, with a live camera as one of. your available scenes.

https://www.touch-portal.com

Mobile app that integrates with desktop versions of OBS on Mac or Windows.

OBS Websocket

Browser interface control for OBS, crossplatform, required for Touch Portal to work or can be used without.

https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/obs-websocket-remote-control-of-obs-studio-made-easy.466/

OBS NDI

Cross platform plugin that lets OBS send and receive via local network.

https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/obs-ndi-newtek-ndi™-integration-into-obs-studio.528/

 

[koala]

I just saw that I proposed an overcomplicated solution. Do it with groups:

• create a scene with everything and the first camera. Group everything except the camera source into a group.
• For the next camera, create a new scene. As first source, add the group you just created (with the "add existing" option). Then add the second camera as additional source and put it in the same spot where the camera source in the first scene is.
• For the third camera, create a third scene, add the group and add the third camera as source.

Now you can switch the cameras by switching the scenes. The sources in the group are global for every scene, so wherever you change anything in them, is immediately mirrored in all scenes.

 

[Narcogen]

That is an elegant solution.

 

[squidbilly]

Sorry to revive an older thread, but I am trying to do the exact same thing as the OP (in church as well). However, I cannot seem to wrap my mind around the solution that was given. I have several overlays that need to be shown at certain points in the service (like scripture readings, announcements, graphics, song titles, etc.). Rather than have a scene for each overlay over each camera (3 scenes per overlay as I have 3 cameras), I would like something simpler if possible as the scene list gets really long. Hence I came upon this post. However, I do not understand the "create a scene with everything". Create a scene with all my overlays on top of each other? Thanks in advance.

 

[WHUMPB]

You could set up the camera angles as presets then use the obs http-cgi commands. In this case

http://[camera ip]/cgi-bin/ptzctrl.cgi?ptzcmd&poscall&[position number] using your preset number in the position number. Set a source for each preset.