OBS Workshop

  • Title: CNCF Member Webinar: How to Conduct a GREAT Live Stream
  • Presenters: Alex Lustenberg (alustenberg at gmail.com), Jorge Castro (jorgec at vmware.com)

Abstract

Open Source projects are no strangers to collaborating remotely. However, as technology has advanced an explosion of streaming technologies have pushed community interactions into an entirely new dynamic environment. CNCF Projects need the skills to embrace more live-streaming and multimedia based approaches.

This webinar is intented to show CNCF Member projects how best to use technologies like YouTube, OBS, and Twitch in order to engage their communities.

Expected audience: K8s streaming team, TGIK hosts, CNCF member projects looking to move their meetings to a streaming format. CNCF member projects looking to run their own office hours. Anyone who now needs to be a pro (competent?) at livestreaming.

Content Outline and Intros - 15min, :15

This first session we'll be getting a general feel for the audience, what do you want to see, etc. There's no way we can fit everything into one session so we'll shoot for most bang for the buck, we can always schedule a subsequent session to deep dive into certain topics.

  • Hello!
    • Jorge
    • Alex - Long time AV geek, SCUBA Addict by Choice, Linux Sysadmin by Trade. Started in video production back in the late '90s when you still had to correct your time bases, white balance was something you did on a pre amp, and non linear editing was the exception. Spend most of my time being a Linux sysadmin, but still dabble in Video Production after two years as Technical Director at Pcper.com
  • Set and setting - target viewers
    • pro?
    • fun?
    • frequency?
  • What's the Budget?
  • Fix problems at the edge
    • congratulations, you're tech savvy. delegate.
    • trust, but verify
    • cross check, peer review, dry runs

Safety First - 5 min, :20

  • Fire safety
    • fire extinguishers on the exit path!
  • Trip hazards
    • gaff tape and rugs
  • Power / Cooling
    • check your room amperage
    • know how to shut it all down

Audio Hardware - 15 min hard timebox, :35

This is gonna turn into a side bar discussion, second talk. keep it general and high level.

Video Hardware - 15 min ish, :50

  • Good luck getting a webcam right now! Use what ever you can get your hands on.
    • old reliable, 920/922 logitech
    • ELP/Industrial Cameras
      • Color is pretty bad.
    • stuck using a laptop? elevate.
  • White Balance
  • Clean HDMI and Capture
    • DSLR gotchas
    • target 1080p
    • multiple capture optons
      • usb $100~$200
      • pci $200 single
    • when in doubt, dedicate
      • hdmi splitter is $15
      • hdmi cable 3 pack is $15

General Podcast layout - 5 min, :55

  • single hot seat
    • have a trusted 2nd in command
  • local group / couch setting
    • mic crosstalk issues
    • multi shot logistics - sidebar?
  • free form remote
    • local gating is essential
    • police the mute button
  • directed remote
    • side bar for this. massive rabbit hole.

Guests / Remote - 5 min, 1:00

  • the network is not reliable!
  • latency is the great oppressor
  • local record if possible?
    • do it live vs fix it in post
  • switching
    • zoom
    • vmix
    • other?

Streaming / OBS Settings - 15 min, 1:15

  • Bitrate / Resolution
    • 1080p
    • dry runs!
    • See bandwdith test in Twitch
  • Audio Chains if not in hardware
    • Noise gates
    • side chain ducking for desktop audio - doubtful this is needed in context
  • OBS Layouts
    • overlays
      • you can buy a good set of graphics on fiverr for surprisingly cheap
    • wipes and transitions
    • Adding text and chat
    • The first four minutes of this video for scene setup and creation: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWaLpPrmokA)
      • this should be promoted to top of section. great overview of inital setup.
      • only gotcha is i'd argue for 1080p output :/
    • Sharing layouts between teams: Scenes and layouts can be exported as json files but images/assets aren't exported. Use well known paths to fix this e.g. C:\OBS or /srv and/opt
  • OBS Setting
    • Hardware acceleration(!)
    • Managing your streaming keys
  • Plugin
    • Rich plugin system
    • Browser Source opens up lots of intergation points
    • Automatic Scene Switcher is dope (regex powered)
    • NodeCG is a framework for building browser based broadcast graphics
  • OBS vs SLOBS
    • OBS is the upstream

Studio Set Up - 10 min, 1:25

  • Talkback
    • discord
    • slack
    • mumble
  • Lighting
    • Softbox
    • Greenscreens
  • Camera layouts
    • when in doubt, mount far and slightly high
  • Screen presentation
    • OBS local
    • NDI remotes
  • Computer noise
    • keyboards
    • fans
    • rtx voice (black magick heresy I decree!)
  • Task loading
    • checklists will set you free

Logistics - stop timeboxing, fly by seat from here on out.

  • Preflight and testing
    • do not go in cold! review the show notes.
    • turn off the phones / PD
  • Going Live
  • Rundowns

YouTube

Twitch

  • You can perform a bandwidth test by appending ?bandwidthtest=true to your stream key. You won't get to see your output but you can evaluate if your connection/encoding etc is working
  • Be conscious of upload speeds. If you do something like docker push while streaming, you might drop frames. Spencer uses this tc script to limit bandwidth on the home dev machine during docker push.
  • Followers and subscribers
  • Raids and Hosts
  • Emotes
  • In general you want to talk to your chat on Twitch as much as possible. Watch out on speaking usernames/text without reading them closely as sometimes they'll try to trick you into saying something you don't want to say.
  • We have a twitch team for DevRel Collective hit up @nibalizer to get added to it

futher reading

booth junkie LTT's editor's howto post videos

Open Questions?

Followup?

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