OBS Studio

Is anyone successfully using OBS Studio to stream to the church streaming service? I was surprised that it didn't seem to work while being very similar in setup to wirecast.

mitchrichie wrote:Is anyone successfully using OBS Studio to stream to the church streaming service? I was surprised that it didn't seem to work while being very similar in setup to wirecast.

Just now tested OBS with the church's system and it worked fine.

In OBS under File --> Settings --> Stream set the Service to Custom..., set Server to the RTMP URL given in the church's MWC Event page, and set Stream Key to the Stream Name shown the MWC Event page. Keep Use authentication unchecked.

Again, in OBS under File --> Settings --> Output --> Streaming, set the Video Bitrate to a maximum of 2100 and the Audio Bitrate to 96.

When ready, hit Start Streaming and give it a good couple of minutes to change You may begin encoding now to Currently Streaming in the church's Event Details page.

Just now tested OBS with the church's system and it worked fine.

I'll have to do more testing. When I tried it OBS would say it was connecting and then almost immediately disconnect and attempt to connect again, and then fail. Are the bitrate settings strict?

mitchrichie wrote:When I tried it OBS would say it was connecting and then almost immediately disconnect and attempt to connect again, and then fail. Are the bitrate settings strict?

I'm afraid so. There's a little wiggle room, but not much. If you exceed their limits, then OBS will do exactly as you described.

Thank you! Changing the bitrate did the trick.

hey there.

a bit more about obs studio please:

I'm using the latest version of obs studio, and having a terrible time getting a smooth, sharp result.

ie:

what video resolution (and frame rate) are you pushing (you mentioned audio at 96kbps)

what do you have under the 'advanced' settings for 'rate control' (the option above 'bitrate') ?

there are other settings available too, depending on what options you have selected.

thank you for sharing!

pbelb wrote:I'm using the latest version of obs studio, and having a terrible time getting a smooth, sharp result.

Basic things first. Do you have enough upload BW available? (5Mb/s or higher for the highest church portal settings.) Not trying to use WiFi to stream? Total CPU utilization below 70% when streaming? Any of these may cause upload disruptions.

pbelb wrote:what video resolution (and frame rate) are you pushing (you mentioned audio at 96kbps)

Generally, 720p @30fps is a good place to start. Don't exceed around 2.2Mb/s or you may have your stream suddenly stop. (The church pays for the usage of streaming servers so they will stop a stream that exceeds their bitrate limit.) You can try testing a private stream to YouTube to work out the bugs in your setup. No scheduling ahead of time or waiting for servers to spool up and it's totally free.

pbelb wrote:what do you have under the 'advanced' settings for 'rate control' (the option above 'bitrate') ?

In my testing of OBS I haven't needed to use the advanced settings. Constant Bitrate (CBR) and Variable Bitrate (VBR) are probably the most common. CBR used to be the norm, but most everything has gone VBR (or some variant).

hmmmm. Well, I have been able to get 1080 30p to work somewhat reliably, limiting sent video stream rate to 2000kbps, but, the 30p result is quite 'choppy' compared to 60p, which, as far as I can see, is not possible currently, as, the stream playback is unable to be maintained. ie: it plays for a couple of seconds, and grinds to a halt.

meanwhile, the webcast portal stats web page shows that the server is happily receiving 2mbps, but it's only supplying around 300kbps to any clients, and seems to know that clients are having problems receiving, while it continues to say that the stream to the server is 'good'.

I have plenty of bandwidth, and even tried playing back via a 2nd provider, with no change observed. so, I have to think that this is some kind of rate limiting thing that's happening at the rtmp server end of things.

if there is an encoding limit, I wonder if they also have a network imposed hard limit per client connection that's causing a problem?

as I mentioned earlier, I can originate and consume youtube full hd video all day long without any trouble.

I tried hooking up a teradek vidiu encoder via hdmi, and unfortunately, it would handle 720 60p, or 1080 30p, but not 1080 60p.

have you actually tried streaming 1080 60p to the church rtmp servers? care to give it a try and report back to compare notes?

your help is appreciated

Is it possible to use OBS as the source to publish to gospel stream

ijessop wrote: Fri Aug 22, 2025 6:37 am Is it possible to use OBS as the source to publish to gospel stream

Only Zoom meetings on the Church-provided Zoom accounts can be published to Gospel Stream. So, to use OBS, you'll need to find a way to use OBS as an input to Zoom.

Several years ago, there was an older streaming page on the Church website that didn't use Zoom – that was the original topic of this forum thread – but that older streaming page no longer exists (and it was never connected to the Gospel Stream app).

sbradshaw wrote: Fri Aug 22, 2025 4:07 pm

ijessop wrote: Fri Aug 22, 2025 6:37 am Is it possible to use OBS as the source to publish to gospel stream

So, to use OBS, you'll need to find a way to use OBS as an input to Zoom.

To use OBS with Zoom, start the OBS Virtual Camera in OBS Studio, then select OBS-Camera as your video source within your Zoom meeting's video settings. This sends your configured OBS scene, including any added media or graphics, to your Zoom meeting as your webcam feed.