OBS for IDs and Instructors Have you ever wanted to record your desktop or your webcam output,...
OBS for IDs and Instructors
Have you ever wanted to record your desktop or your webcam output, or both? Have you wanted to seamlessly switch between desktops or programs while recording? Have you wanted to stream to YouTube live or Twitch? If so Open Broadcasting Software (OBS) could be a useful tool in your instructor tool kit.
To download this open source (free) software visit obsproject.com. After initial setup, you can choose studio mode for home recording or streaming mode for online streaming.
Capturing your Screen and Building a Scene
To capture any screen attached to your computer you will need to create a scene and add an input – both features in the bottom left corner of the typical OBS setup (most elements can be resized and moved). Click on the + button and add a display. Now choose the display you want to capture and save. Click the + button again and add a camera. Choose your webcam. Now that you have built this scene, you have everything you need for a one display, one camera set up.
Start Recording
To start recording, just click “record” in the bottom right hand of the screen. In settings you can determine your recording fidelity (1080, 720, etc), file type (MKV, MP4, etc), and your output location. To stream, you will need to have the requisite stream key from your account in Youtube, Twitch, etc, and after entering this key, beginning a stream is as easy as clicking “stream”. You can also record the stream locally while broadcasting (though this will use more system resources).
Switching Between Scenes
To switch between programs while recording or streaming without exposing your desktop, you would need to have the target program open in another display. You now click on a new scene, add a display input using the method detailed above (you can also capture programs directly), and add a camera if needed (you can use the same camera for both scenes). While recording you would begin in “scene 1”, and to switch to “scene 2” you first click on “scene 2” to cue the scene in the left-hand box (using the studio rather than streaming setup). To take this scene live, you will click one of the transition options that appear between the two windows in studio mode. Now that scene will appear in the right hand box, where all live (recorded or streamed) content displays.
You can build out many scenes using this method. One use of this approach could be to have powerpoint open in scene one, with your camera in the bottom corner. You could have a Zoom conversation in scene two – perhaps another host, or a co-instructor. The Zoom audio could be added to both scenes, but you could switch to a spotlight of the Zoom speaker by clicking on scene 2, and back to the powerpoint by clicking on scene 1. You can also feed the video output of OBS back through to Zoom by downloading an extension called “virtual cam”. To add a video to this mix, you could create a new scene, add a media source such as an MP4, and switch to that scene when needed.
There are many ways to make use of OBS in education and lots of features that I haven’t covered in this short introduction. The best way to learn about OBS is to download it and follow a few of the steps outlined above. I have found many useful OBS tutorials on YouTube through my time with the program, and I have listed two of these tutorials below that will help you to get started with screen recording.
YouTube Tutorials
How to capture your screen with OBS (Similar information in another flavour).