I’m using OBS on main computer to broadcast our church broadcasts. If someone is using PowerPoint to our smart TV, I use the camera aimed at the TV to broadcast the slides, but I’m wondering if there is a way to have the slides, which are on another computer and being controlled by someone else, easily imported into OBS during the live broadcast?
PowerPoint from 2nd Computer
- Thread starter PaulCroft
- Start date
KUCTech
Member
Hi PaulCroft: I live stream for a church, and we have the same requirement, where the slides (Mac/Keynote in my case), are being run on another computer, and I need to include them in the live stream.
Our setup is such that both computers are are next to each other, so I opted for splitting the HDMI cable from the slide computer, and running one side into the OBS/live stream computer using a capture card. And this works fine.
If the computers are not next to each other, but are on the same LAN, then NDI might be a good option for you.
I hope this helps.
Cheers
Our setup is such that both computers are are next to each other, so I opted for splitting the HDMI cable from the slide computer, and running one side into the OBS/live stream computer using a capture card. And this works fine.
If the computers are not next to each other, but are on the same LAN, then NDI might be a good option for you.
I hope this helps.
Cheers
So they’re next to each other but not running HDMI, but we’re casting to the TV. Can we also cast and use NDI?
KUCTech
Member
Hi Paul: I don't know for sure if you can Cast and use NDI at the same time, but I don't see why not - the processes should be independent of each other. And if NDI is working correctly, it should show you the PowerPoint window as an NDI Source on your OBS computer.
Good luck.
Tony N.
Good luck.
Tony N.
Lawrence_SoCal
Active Member
This is why I run our Service Bulletin PPTx on same computer as OBS Studio (dual monitor setup) ... I run PPT in windowed slide show mode, and capture that window (changed re-scaling method for cleaner text rendering)..
I really don't like all the points of failure that would go with multi-computer setup ...
- One person running PPTx, OBS Studio, NDI PoE PTZ camera, and acting as Digital Usher works fine (after some training, with volunteer, including retirees, that can keep up. entirely doable...)
- 2nd monitor on OBS computer (either touch screen, or alternate PPTx only input device to adjust slides)... ie share computer
But if such isn't viable in your situation (and I wouldn't give up on consolidating that quickly), the multi compute setup I'd consider
- NDI output (but only if you have some someone really knowledgeable on networking, and same or other person on OS firewalls, etc)
- HDMI output & capture from PPT PC to OBS PC
- there are other remote control software approaches (ex VNC) that would let one viewing the Slide Show on OBS PC from PPT PC... but, would require testing, and I suspect PPT slide show text and other clarity would suffer
I really don't like all the points of failure that would go with multi-computer setup ...
- One person running PPTx, OBS Studio, NDI PoE PTZ camera, and acting as Digital Usher works fine (after some training, with volunteer, including retirees, that can keep up. entirely doable...)
- 2nd monitor on OBS computer (either touch screen, or alternate PPTx only input device to adjust slides)... ie share computer
But if such isn't viable in your situation (and I wouldn't give up on consolidating that quickly), the multi compute setup I'd consider
- NDI output (but only if you have some someone really knowledgeable on networking, and same or other person on OS firewalls, etc)
- HDMI output & capture from PPT PC to OBS PC
- there are other remote control software approaches (ex VNC) that would let one viewing the Slide Show on OBS PC from PPT PC... but, would require testing, and I suspect PPT slide show text and other clarity would suffer
Thanks. I’m gonna play with a few things before I commit to anything. Running the PPT on the same computer is not possible at present time. I’m going to attempt the NDI option and play in a test environment before attempting to go live.
My network knowledge is not great, but I can make things work usually and I’m by far the most knowledgeable in our church.
Lawrence_SoCal
Active Member
Beware hardware resource impact with creating real-time encoded video (on the PPTx computer) as well as computation to decode, and render that on OBS computer.
In you case, I'd be curious if there is a way to run something on OBS Studio computer which can act as a receiver for the PPT video you are 'casting' so that computer doesn't have an extra work to do
In you case, I'd be curious if there is a way to run something on OBS Studio computer which can act as a receiver for the PPT video you are 'casting' so that computer doesn't have an extra work to do
I haven’t had chance to do any further testing at the moment. I’m trying to recreate the environment at home, but just haven’t had time to test out the suggestions. I’m not sure if the computer has the capability to cast to two different receivers at the same time. They are both Windows 10 computer with a Sony smart tv.
I really like "separation of duties", because it gives a lot of visibility all at once, simultaneous control, and *some* protection against a random machine going down for whatever reason. if that one machine does everything, then everything goes with it. If it only does one thing, then only that one thing goes away.
It also eliminates some of the problems in getting something from one app to another, if each of those "somethings" has a dedicated 3-ft wire between physical machines:
- For audio, hop over from one soundcard to another, line-out to line-in.
- Yes, analog. Unbalanced even! There are some rules to not get noise into it, but it's really not that bad over such a short distance.
- For video, run an additional "monitor" of an extended desktop into a capture card.
- Just know that there's a logical screen over there, so you don't panic when you can't find the mouse...or set the geometry so you can't get the mouse over there anyway. Corner-to-corner often does that, instead of edge-to-edge.
- Or use a physical monitor so you can verify quickly that it's right...and you can still see the mouse if it does get over there.
If you don't have the space, then you might be forced to combine some things, or to have one or more machines be remote-controlled instead of local (keep the media signals short, and all of the processing plugged into the same grounding point). If you're building new, try to have the space! :-)
I believe NDI is uncompressed. So no encoding, just fast networking.
Lawrence_SoCal
Active Member
Understood... I'm a fan of the consolidating where practical into one basket, and making sure right basket, basket maintained and watched, etc.
Some versions of NDI uncompressed (or more likely lightly or losslessly compressed) with HX being the (more) compressed version of NDI