Question / Help Keynote & OBS

Jimmie Rogers

New Member
I am planning to host a webinar using IOS Keynotes streaming with OBS and I have discovered that keynotes cover the entire screen. This prevents me from seeing my OBS page and having any control over what my viewers would be seeing. I want to be able to manually operate my presentation with the transitions and animations and the presentation fits in the obs window. Someone, please help!!!
 

Narcogen

Active Member
There isn't a way around this. When in presentation mode, Keynote for MacOS or iOS takes full screen and blanks all secondary displays.

Incidentally, the otherwise inferior Microsoft PowerPoint does not do this, but that won't help you if you're trying to use Keynote on iOS.
 

Doug Nix

New Member
I got around this problem by exporting my keynote slides to images. Then I can create a scene with the image, and a video source window overlaid on each other. I start with the slide image full screen, and then I switch to a full-screen headshot with the slide image thumbnailed in one corner or to the side. Works really well. The downside is that you lose any animations. I build slides by making a series of slides with the subsequent build changes, like a series of bullet points that I want to build a point at a time. If you're interested, contact me and I can share more about how I do this. Here's an example video.
 

Matiss Kalans

New Member
I got around this problem by exporting my keynote slides to images. Then I can create a scene with the image, and a video source window overlaid on each other. I start with the slide image full screen, and then I switch to a full-screen headshot with the slide image thumbnailed in one corner or to the side. Works really well. The downside is that you lose any animations. I build slides by making a series of slides with the subsequent build changes, like a series of bullet points that I want to build a point at a time. If you're interested, contact me and I can share more about how I do this. Here's an example video.
Doug, I am very new to OBS but would like to create a similar video to yours. Could you please contact me or reply on how exactly you have done the set-up in sceenes and sources... Thanks a bunch!
 

Doug Nix

New Member
Doug, I am very new to OBS but would like to create a similar video to yours. Could you please contact me or reply on how exactly you have done the set-up in sceenes and sources... Thanks a bunch!
Hi Matiss!
Here is basically what I did:
1) Develop my presentation slides in Keynote (don't use animations as they will be lost in the next step)
2) Export the presentation as JPG files, exporting each build (if you have animations) as a separate file
3) Pick the JPGs you want to use in your video
4) For each slide, create a Scene in OBS Control Room. You can then add the JPG as an image source to the Scene, and you can also layer video feed objects on top to give you the "talking head" in the scene.
5) If you plan to move back-and-forth between you in full-screen and you as a talking head over a slide, create scenes where the only object is the video feed filling the whole screen.
6) When you go to stream/record the video, all you need to do is move down through the scene list to go from slide-to-slide. I'll post a screenshot showing the setup.
 

Doug Nix

New Member
I'll post a screenshot showing the setup.
In Screenshot 1, you can see the initial setup shown in Studio mode. You can see the "live" scene on the right and the "queued" scene on the left. Clicking the transition button moves the queued scene to the live. Below the queued and live scenes, you can see what I have set up.
Module 12 Screenshot 1.png

In Screenshot 2:
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Here's the next scene ready to transition.
Module 12 Screenshot 2.png
 

Matiss Kalans

New Member
I can post another showing a talking head scene set up if you want to see that.
Doug, Thanks a bunch! Please post the talkking head scene set up. :) I am new to this, but this looks great and exactly what I am looking for. I love to learn new things and this is very helpful.
 

Doug Nix

New Member
Doug, Thanks a bunch! Please post the talkking head scene set up. :) I am new to this, but this looks great and exactly what I am looking for. I love to learn new things and this is very helpful.
Hey Matiss!

So I'm glad that you found my explanation helpful. Here are two screenshots showing two different ways of setting up picture-in-picture displays. First, I've got a large talking head, plus the slide inset as a smaller graphic. My students let me know that this made it hard for them to see the points on the slide, so I'm not using that approach anymore. It could work if you had a looping video playing in the small inset or something where the viewer doesn't need to be able to read anything in the inset image. You could also make the inset image larger.
Screenshot 3.png

In the next screenshot, I am using the opposite setup where I have a large slide and a small talking head. I think this works out better for the viewer.
Screenshot 4.png

The key thing to notice here is the order of the objects in the Sources window. The only way to control the way the objects layer is by the order in which they appear in the Sources window.In the first screenshot, you can see the slide image is first, then the video capture device (webcam) is second. This puts the webcam image on top of the slide in the output.

In the second screenshot, the slide comes second, so it sits on top of the webcam image.
 

Matiss Kalans

New Member
Hey Matiss!

So I'm glad that you found my explanation helpful. Here are two screenshots showing two different ways of setting up picture-in-picture displays. First, I've got a large talking head, plus the slide inset as a smaller graphic. My students let me know that this made it hard for them to see the points on the slide, so I'm not using that approach anymore. It could work if you had a looping video playing in the small inset or something where the viewer doesn't need to be able to read anything in the inset image. You could also make the inset image larger.
View attachment 36000
In the next screenshot, I am using the opposite setup where I have a large slide and a small talking head. I think this works out better for the viewer.
View attachment 36001
The key thing to notice here is the order of the objects in the Sources window. The only way to control the way the objects layer is by the order in which they appear in the Sources window.In the first screenshot, you can see the slide image is first, then the video capture device (webcam) is second. This puts the webcam image on top of the slide in the output.

In the second screenshot, the slide comes second, so it sits on top of the webcam image.
Thank you so much! Just recorded my first ever video using your advice. It was really helpful.
 

Trimzik

New Member
What I did is I exported a prepared presentation into HTML (File – Export to – HTML), opened it in a separate Google Chrome window and used "Window Capture" as a source. Some cropping work also needed but it was rather a minor tuning.

Hope it helps!
 

TFE

Member
Nice work-around, but that's a LOT of extra work and you lose the advantage of having a nice Keynote prezo in your show. As someone posted above, a second computer for Keynote (or PowerPoint) is the way to go. I do three live shows a week using this simple, inexpensive set-up: OBS running on a MacBook pro laptop with Logitech c920s as cameras, and an iMac (but you can use most any computer) running the Keynote outputting HDMI through a Black Magic Design Mini-Studio capture card and Thunderbolt into OBS on the laptop. To see how it looks and works, check the videos on www.facebook.com/sailingillustratedblog. Mornings before I go live at 1300 PDT I put the Keynotes together. During the show I have four tasks, but it's not that difficult with a little practice: (1) switch the show on OBS, (2) change the slides on the iMac, (3) monitor the audio and mute/adjust inputs as necessary on an outboard audio mixer, and (4) talk. My 80yo landlord monitors the livestream integrity and the comments on her MacBook and/or iPhone. I regularly have live guests on via Skype (or FaceTime). They come on via the iMac and I just switch from Keynote to Skype for that segment, then back to Keynote. Audio is another issue. I usually embed videos with audio in my Keynotes, which is another advantage of this set-up. Just click to the next "slide" and the video, with audio, plays automatically. I also use lower thirds for many of the slides, and it's just another click to make them appear and disappear. I have a simple Behringer audio mixer with USB out to the laptop running OBS. Inputs are my mic, co-host's mic, headphone output from the iMac for audio from Keynote, and a separate digital audio output (USB, via a DAC) from the iMac for Skype. I mix-minus an aux output from the mixer (not including the input from Skype) that goes back into the mic-in jack on the iMac for audio back to Skype – the guest via Skype hears everything but themselves. Simple, inexpensive, and works great. Hope this helps. Happy to answer any questions.
 
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trappster

New Member
Thank you, Tom! That was a fascinating look into your streaming world and setup! It was great to get the over-the-shoulder shot (I watched episode #292) of your iMac and MBP as you mentioned in this post.

Regarding this thread, I decided to go with (1) exporting my Keynote presentation to HTML on my Mac running OBS; then (2) showing the Keynote in a Firefox window sized appropriately for inclusion as an OBS source window; with (3) OBS source being that Firefox window trimmed at the top and sides so the viewers simply see the slideshow and not the toolbars, etc.

Anyway, thanks everyone for this thread, and major thanks to you again, Tom. Aloha.
 
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