OBS allows users to compose a broadcast program with multiple video, image, and audio sources, and then switch between them for different looks during a live broadcast.
In my first post “ How to Produce a Livestreamed Event,” I focused on how to produce a basic livestream using the Zoom video conference platform, the importance of prioritizing accessibility and inclusion in the design of a livestreaming event, and why the free and open-source video conference platform Jitsi Meet is a good alternative to Zoom for financial reasons and/or ethical and pro-social reasons.įor those producers who wish to increase the production quality and creative possibilities of their livestream event design beyond Zoom and Jitsi Meet’s built-in livestream capabilities, this part 2 will present a brief overview of how to use OBS Studio. Hopefully, this ethos will emerge into the mainstream for nonprofit arts and cultural sectors grappling with their own purpose and relevance in this moment of severe challenges and the possible futures they want to help create. The paradigm of an open-source project opposes artificial scarcity, centers value-creation that’s available freely to all, and thrives on collectivism and community stewardship. OBS Studio is software created by a large and passionate community of volunteer creative technologists and it enables anyone to create broadcasts, which have the potential to rival traditional corporate broadcasting in terms of production value-and accomplish all of this for free. An excellent example of this alternative economic and cultural model-which is frequently embodied as open-source software development-is OBS Studio.
The ability to create professional broadcast programming similar to what is seen on television has finally been democratized thanks to the countercultural dynamics of commons-based peer production.