Streaming 101: The basics
- Emma McGrath
- May 22, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Jan 16
When live streaming we often run everything on a laptop using a software called OBS!
To put in a very simple way: We plug in a camera source; we plug in a audio source; we give OBS a special 'Stream Key' and then we're good to go!
The details of how we actually get those sources into out laptop often depends on:
What laptop you have?
How many cameras you're running?
what instruments you have/what your performance consists of?
what equipment you have available to you already?
Below are a few setup examples - have a look through them and have a think about what could work for you:
Setup 1:
This setup is really nice and compact however it does require a pretty powerful laptop!
The clever part of this setup, and the reason your laptop will need a little more processing power, is the internal audio routing. As you can see from the diagram:
your instruments will go directly into an audio interface/sound card;
you will then mix your audio inside of your prefered DAW (Logic, Ableton, etc)
finally you will send the mixed audio to OBS via a virtual interface which you can learn about over at 'Streaming 101: The Virtual Interface'!
Connecting a camera is really nice and simple, as long as you're using a camera with an HDMI output! You will need to get yourself a 'capture card' but those are pretty inexpensive.
*please note - if your laptop has an HDMI port you still need a capture card! HDMI inputs and outputs do different things. Your laptop almost certainly only has an HDMI output and to get video into your laptop we will need an input!

Setup 2:
This is the setup I would recommend for bands with lots of instruments or even just people that don't have access to a powerful enough laptop to run setup 1.
This setup takes the audio processing away from the laptop allowing the laptop to focus on processing the livestream.
This setup obviously requires a mixing desk. I recommend one that has at least some basic FX such as reverb, compression and a simple EQ.

Setup 3:
I really love this setup as it provides the flexibility of mixing inside a DAW but without the need for a crazy powerful laptop that's trying to handle it all. You do however need two laptops and two audio interfaces/sound cards!

Multi Camera Setup:
Now, I hear you - What if I want to use multiple cameras on my livestream?
Using multiple cameras requires a video mixer. These can be expensive so I recommend renting one - FatLlama is always a good place to look when renting equipment!
I recommend using something like an 'ATEM mini Pro'. It allows you to plug in multiple cameras and outputs the mixed visuals via USB, directly into your computer!
The reason I'd go for the ATEM mini Pro and not just the ATEM mini is because the ATEM mini Pro has a multi-view out. This is really useful when video mixing as it allows you to see all your camera sources at once! You can plug the multi-view out into any screen that has an HDMI input such as an external computer monitor or even a TV!
Here's a diagram of how that setup might look:

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Thanks, Emma!
Nice!