Open Broadcaster Software or in short OBS is a free and open-source cross-platform streaming and recording program built with Qt and maintained by the OBS Project. There are versions of OBS Studio available for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux distributions. We recommend using OBS on a computer with minimum Intel i7 CPU, 16 GB RAM, and an Ethernet connection. Publishing live video over Wi-Fi is not recommended. Here is an explanation of how to configure OBS to stream to Videolinq:

Step 1:

Download OBS for your operating system and install the software.

Step 2:

Add a video source. You can select a webcam, capture card, or recorded media.

Step 3:

Login to your Videolinq account and in a new or existing channel create an RTMP source and name it OBS.

Step 4:

In the channel enable the OBS RTMP source. Look for the Encoder tab under the preview video window and copy the RTMP path and stream key.

Step 5:

In OBS click on "Settings" and click on the "Stream" tab in the left navigation bar. Drop down the menu and select "Custom". Paste below the RTMP path and stream key copied from the Videolinq dashboard.

Step 6:

Click on the "Output" on the left navigation bar. Drop down the "Output Mode" and select "Advanced". Confirm you select rate control: CBR. Adjust the bitrate to at least 4000 Kbps, and assign 2 keyframe intervals. Depending on your computer adjust the CPU Usage Preset to medium or more to reduce resources.

Step 7:

Click on the "Video" tab on the left navigation bar and adjust the video resolution size you send to Videolinq.

Step 8:

Click "OK" and start streaming. Confirm you see the video in the Videolinq channel preview player. Start destination(s) and click "Go Live". The video will be sent to the destination(s) you selected. You can also create a player and embed it in your website as explained here.

Tips & Tricks:

When you have a dedicated GPU card (for example Nvidia card), you can use hardware acceleration instead of the software H.264 codec to improve the stream quality. When the hardware option is selected, do not use CBR but rather the VBR option, and adjust your settings as follows:

If you use rate control VBR and not CBR, do not enable Adaptive Bitrate (VBR) on the Videolinq channel Player tab.

Troubleshooting:

The default settings mentioned in this article may not work for all computers. After you begin streaming watch the lower right part of the software window. OBS will show the stream quality. Watch for CPU usage and frame loss. High CPU or frame loss are an indication that your computer can not handle the encoding task properly. Ways to reduce CPU spike and frame loss - close all applications except for OBS, reduce screen resolution, increase CPU value to higher settings, or reduce stream bitrate. If all adjustments don't help you simply need to use a more powerful computer.

There are many things you can do with OBS. Start by watching this video.