So sorry for this basic, novice question from an old-school novice. I am a camera operator/editor who works remotely for international broadcasters (= still in the Triassic period of tv i'm afraid!), usually with bgans, avi-wests (or similar celphone network technology) and, rarely but still, sometimes, satelite trucks and tv studios for live transmissions. OBS has come to my attention recently as yet another possible option but I see it being used to stream to platforms like Youtube, Twitch and others. I would like to be able to stream directly to broadcast studios for them to be able to onpass the stream into their live broadcast. In my opinion, this would offer much better image control than Skype or (worse) Zoom, because we could be using broadcast cameras (with proper lenses, gain and iris control etc) instead of webcams or celphones. Can this be done via OBS? - ie I stream on OBS to another computer with OBS in a master control room that can then switch the stream for live broadcast? Maybe this question has been asked a million times but I just can't find it anywhere in this forum. Cheers.
Just the Cameraman... want to livestream to studio for onpassing to live broadcast
- Thread starter gdurnin
- Start date
FerretBomb
Active Member
This can be done a number of ways, yes.
What you'll need to set up is an RTMP ingest or relay server, as well as some manner of player. The most popular (read: free) are nginx-rtmp and jPlayer. You can also use VLC to pull a stream from the nginx-rtmp server. This will allow you to set up OBS to stream to your server just like OBS normally streams to Twitch/YouTube/etc.
This is probably the best option. It also doesn't require much of a server to handle it (a Raspberry Pi can handle the job) but will require tech know-how to get nginx-rtmp set up, configured, and secured. You can run it on whatever bitrate you have available, and get solid video.
I believe Amazon has a private-livestream-server offering available for commercial uses, at commercial prices.
If you have GOBS of bandwidth to work with (read: CONSUMER-GRADE CONNECTIONS NEED NOT APPLY) as in gigabit point-to-point or better, you could consider setting up the obs-ndi plugin and send in an NDI feed. Most studios should probably know how to catch one of those and insert it into the prod pipeline. That said, most sat-links and on-sites don't have that kind of throughput.
Other end of the spectrum, you could use the obs-virtualcam plugin and whatever VoIP software you choose, using the OBS output as the 'camera feed'. Popular with people stuck using Zoom or Skype lately, and the easiest of the bunch to set up. Chances are good that studios already have provisions for remote Zoom/Skype feed ingests.
What you'll need to set up is an RTMP ingest or relay server, as well as some manner of player. The most popular (read: free) are nginx-rtmp and jPlayer. You can also use VLC to pull a stream from the nginx-rtmp server. This will allow you to set up OBS to stream to your server just like OBS normally streams to Twitch/YouTube/etc.
This is probably the best option. It also doesn't require much of a server to handle it (a Raspberry Pi can handle the job) but will require tech know-how to get nginx-rtmp set up, configured, and secured. You can run it on whatever bitrate you have available, and get solid video.
I believe Amazon has a private-livestream-server offering available for commercial uses, at commercial prices.
If you have GOBS of bandwidth to work with (read: CONSUMER-GRADE CONNECTIONS NEED NOT APPLY) as in gigabit point-to-point or better, you could consider setting up the obs-ndi plugin and send in an NDI feed. Most studios should probably know how to catch one of those and insert it into the prod pipeline. That said, most sat-links and on-sites don't have that kind of throughput.
Other end of the spectrum, you could use the obs-virtualcam plugin and whatever VoIP software you choose, using the OBS output as the 'camera feed'. Popular with people stuck using Zoom or Skype lately, and the easiest of the bunch to set up. Chances are good that studios already have provisions for remote Zoom/Skype feed ingests.
Wow... thanks "FerretBomb" for taking the time to reply with all of that. Mostly thanks for confirming that an RTMP is the way to go. I had already landed in that general terrain but just couldn't quite decipher the terminology enough to figure out I was where I needed to be. Hopefully my client MCR's will have at least one savvy type able to handle the setup and flow. That is, I'm guessing the ingest/relay server would be in the receiving end's MCR and I would be connecting to it via the OBS software from my end. Is that correct? Or maybe it doesn't matter where the server is because it is an intermediate step? Maybe I want the server on my end... and the receiver just has player? Definitely don't have gobs of bandwidth for the NDI and while some clients might have the budget for the commercial Amazon product, I think I need to do some showing-things-working first, hence nginx or iplayer via OBS (or something similar if it exists) seem like the most likely candidates for now. I did see the obs-virtual cam option and that may end up being the way things ends up going because, yes, clients are already doing skype/zoom feeds... but, personally, I just loathe the way skype/zoom look on the air. Still...that would solve the camera issues I mentioned. I am seeing a few youtube explainers for setting up an rtmp in obs, some mentioning nginx. Is there one or two in particular you could recommend for the scenario I am describing? I really appreciate you taking the time to explain this stuff to the aged and decrepit. Cheers.
FerretBomb
Active Member
Optimally the MCR would have the RTMP server hosted on their LAN, and the remote would connect in over whatever WAN link was available.
If you're working with multiple endpoint clients though, that would be less feasible and running your own would probably be the way to go, but also come with a multiplied server bandwidth cost to consider (in from the remote, and out to the/each MCR). That could also add other network path considerations into the mix, going between your server and each client MCR.
Unfortunately setting up nginx-rtmp is well outside the scope of the OBS Support forums, it's very much not associated with the OBS Project. There are quite a few tutorials out there, but it's very much geek territory. Especially when it comes to securing them.
If you're working with multiple endpoint clients though, that would be less feasible and running your own would probably be the way to go, but also come with a multiplied server bandwidth cost to consider (in from the remote, and out to the/each MCR). That could also add other network path considerations into the mix, going between your server and each client MCR.
Unfortunately setting up nginx-rtmp is well outside the scope of the OBS Support forums, it's very much not associated with the OBS Project. There are quite a few tutorials out there, but it's very much geek territory. Especially when it comes to securing them.