Online Broadcast Software - An Introduction

The pandemic forced me to learn how to live stream bringing a large group of people together online simaltaneously including presentations from up to 4 different locations. I am not particularly tech savy although I have been able to adapt to a number of ways to turn on a TV. So, I needed a simple way to do what I needed to do. As well, I had $0 for a budget so I had to use what equipment I could scrounge. However, the result had to have good quality audio and visual. I found OBS.

Two things attracted me to OBS. First, it was free. Secondly, I could use it with what little skill I had and learn as I used it to improve what I produced. OBS can produce something as simple as a slide show put to music or as complex as a video with animation, voice over and special effects. Many of the more sophisticated video editing programs are more efficient, but they cost and are more difficult to use. I have learned to use OBS in conjunction with Open Shot Video Editor, which is also free. The combination makes things even easier.

With this post, I wanted to briefly introduce the OBS system. I suggest that you download the program and begin to mess around with it. Upcoming posts will explain what you see and how to use it.

When you open OBS you will see something like this.

Obviously, there is a screen where you can view your work. This can be modified. There are 4 main action sections. Scenes is where your work is organized. Sources is where you create things for your production. Scene Transitions determines how you link all the parts of your production. Controls provides all the settings and actions for your work.

In the next four posts, I will give an overview of each one of these 4 areas. My intention is to give the basics so that by yourself, you can "Keep on Fishin."