Remote guests, right inside OBS

• A Windows 10 or 11 computer (64-bit). Live Studio is for Windows only.
• OBS Studio 32 for Windows, with its WebSocket server switched on: in OBS, Tools › WebSocket Server Settings › Enable WebSocket server. Live Studio finds the password by itself.
• Headphones for you, and ideally for your guests, so nobody hears an echo.
• Enough upload for your stream, plus about 1.6 Mbps for each guest: see Internet speed and bandwidth.
• A StreamSlayers account, free or paid: the one you sign in with on streamslayers.com. Your guests never need an account.

• Aitum Vertical, a free OBS plugin, for the 9:16 picture.
• The Move transition plugin, if you want the rest of each scene to glide along with the cameras.

Step by step

1. On your dashboard, find Live Studio and press Download for Windows.
2. Run StreamSlayersLiveStudio-Setup-1.0.1.exe. It needs no administrator rights. If Windows shows Windows protected your PC, press More info › Run anyway (the installer is not yet signed with a Microsoft certificate).
3. Leave Start Live Studio now ticked and press Finish: it puts the StreamSlayers dock in OBS. If you have a Stream Deck, also tick Install the Stream Deck plugin.
4. If OBS was open, close it and open it again: the StreamSlayers Studio dock appears.

Step by step

1. In OBS, look at the StreamSlayers Studio dock. It says The studio isn’t running.
2. Press Start StreamSlayers Studio. It takes a few seconds, and the dock opens by itself.
3. Tick Start it whenever OBS opens, and from now on the studio starts with OBS.

Step by step

1. In the dock, press Sign in (or the gear, then Sign in with StreamSlayers).
2. Your browser opens streamslayers.com. Sign in there if you are not already, and confirm.
3. Go back to OBS. The dock has your account, and says In use here. You can close the browser tab.

Step by step

1. Press the gear at the top of the dock to open Setup.
2. Under You in OBS, pick Your camera: any OBS source, such as a webcam, a capture card or a camera app.
3. Pick Your microphone (mute from the dock). The dock’s mute button then mutes it in OBS too, and the speaker spotlight can hear you.
4. Type Your name on the nameplate and Your second line: a title, an @handle or your website.
5. Press Done.

Step by step

1. Put the scene on air in OBS, then open the dock’s Scenes tab. It follows the scene OBS has on air. (The gear’s Setup › Cameras in OBS does the same for both canvases, with a Send cameras button beside the scene’s name.)
2. Press Send cameras to “<scene>”. Your camera, and everyone you bring on air later, now appear in that scene.
3. In OBS, select the scene’s camera area (SS Native Area … in its Sources) and drag or resize it like any source, to any shape. The cameras follow.
4. Do the same in every scene that should show people: a full-screen interview, a corner for a screen share, a strip under a scoreboard.
5. Switch scenes. The cameras glide from one scene’s camera area to the next, for as long as your OBS transition takes.

Step by step

1. Press Open guest room at the top of the dock.
2. The link appears in its place. If it starts with http://127.0.0.1, it works only on this computer: press Remote and wait for it to change. Then press Copy and send it to your guest: a text, an email, a chat message.
3. Your guest opens it in Chrome, Edge, Safari or Firefox, on a computer or a phone.
4. They press Start camera & microphone, check their picture and sound, and type their name and an optional second line.
5. They press Join backstage and wait. On the Guests tab they appear under Waiting, with Admit and Deny. On the other tabs, <name> is waiting to join · Admit takes you there.

Step by step

1. Press Admit on a waiting guest. They go Backstage: in the room, but not in the picture or the show’s sound. Deny sends them away.
2. Backstage, they watch your finished OBS program and hear you and the rest of OBS, but not the guests on air.
3. Press On air on their card. They appear in every scene with cameras, and the cameras rearrange themselves.
4. Press Backstage on an on-air guest to take them off again. They stay in the room.

Step by step

1. Press the star on someone on air. They come to the front, big and first, in every scene, whatever its layout.
2. Press the star again to let go.
3. Turn on Speaker spotlight above the On air list. Whoever is talking comes to the front. It waits for a real turn, not a single word, and holds a talker for a moment before it moves.

Step by step

1. Your guest presses Share screen at the bottom of their page, and picks what to share.
2. Their card in the dock says Sharing a screen. Put the scene for it on air in OBS.
3. Press Show in scene. The share appears in the 16:9 scene on air, behind the cameras.
4. Press Hide to take it out. When they stop sharing, it goes by itself.

Step by step

1. Open the Chat tab and type. Only you and admitted guests see it. It never reaches your public chat.
2. Guests read and reply in the Room tab of their chat.
3. Their YouTube tab shows your stream’s YouTube chat. Set it under Setup › Guest room › YouTube chat for guests with the stream’s 11-character video ID, or leave it empty to follow the stream your StreamSlayers chat highlight is on.

Step by step

1. Open the Scenes tab. Cameras in <scene> is for the scene on air; pick another under Scene, or from Scenes with cameras.
2. Choose a layout: Grid, Row, Column or Spotlight (the first person big, the rest beside or below).
3. Under Crop each camera to, choose Fill or a shape: 16:9, 4:3, 1:1, 4:5 or 9:16.
4. Set Space between cameras and Space around the edge.
5. Under Camera order, drag people, or use the arrows. The order is the same in every scene: the first person is top left, or the one in the spotlight.

Step by step

1. Install Aitum Vertical and restart OBS.
2. On the Scenes tab, switch to 9:16 Vertical.
3. Put a vertical scene on air in Aitum, then press Send cameras to “<scene>” and size the camera area in Aitum’s canvas.
4. Give it a layout of its own: a Column, or Spotlight with one big and the rest below.
5. In Aitum, right-click a vertical scene › Linked Scenes › tick the 16:9 scene it goes with. Switching the 16:9 scene then switches the 9:16.

Step by step

1. Open the Look tab.
2. Under Looks, press one. It sets the frame, the camera shape, the nameplates and the spacing together.
3. Change any part of it below. Fold a section and its heading still says what it is set to.
4. Under Voices, change your own voice, each guest’s, or everyone’s at once: see Voice changers.
5. To start over, press Reset everything at the bottom of the tab, then Reset the whole look, in every scene. Shape, frame, nameplates, colours, effect and the spacing a Look set go back to how a new studio starts. Layouts, the camera order, the camera areas and spacing set on the Scenes tab stay.

Step by step

1. Under Nameplates, pick a design. Matches your chat highlights come first, then More StreamSlayers nameplates, then Simple.
2. Size is a share of each camera, so a plate reads the same in every scene.
3. Bar length: Fit the name, or Set a length and drag Length. A design drawn as letters is always as long as the name.
4. Position puts it in one of six places, and From the edge sets how far in. Round cameras centre it.
5. Colours: The design’s own, or Custom with your Accent, Plate and Name colours. Letters: As designed, CAPITALS or As typed.
6. Turn Second line (title) on or off, and set Second line size.

Step by step

1. Under Frame, pick a style: from a clean line to Neon, Gradient, Metal, Marquee, Stadium LED and more, or No frame.
2. Set its Colour (and Second colour where it has one), Thickness, and Glow where it glows.
3. Some frames can move: turn on Animate.
4. Under Camera shape, pick Square, Rounded, Cut corners, Slanted, Circle, Capsule, Hexagon or Shield. Corners or Cut sets how round.

Step by step

1. Under Camera effect, pick one: Jumbotron, Arcade, VHS, Old Film, Cinema, Noir, Night Vision, Thermal, Comic, Hologram, Glitch, Security Cam, Neon Edges, HUD, 8-Bit, Duotone, Sketch or X-Ray. Point at one to see what it does.
2. The others fold away, and its settings sit right under it. Change effect opens them all again.
3. Its first slider sets how fine or coarse it is: Grain, LED size, Tape wear, Dot size and so on.
4. Effect strength lays it over the picture, from a hint to all the way. Each effect keeps its own settings, so tuning one never changes another, and Reset … to default puts one back.
5. Put it on: Whole picture draws the effect over everything in the scene, the background, the logo, the nameplates and the cameras; Just the cameras keeps it inside each camera, under its frame.
6. Effect for: pick a person to give their camera an effect of its own, in every scene, whatever everyone else’s. None keeps one camera clean while the rest have one, and Same as everyone again hands it back.
7. Pick None to turn it off.

Step by step

1. On the Look tab, open Voices.
2. Pick You: Anonymous, Robot, Deep, Chipmunk, Monster, Alien, Radio, Phone call, Megaphone or Stadium PA. It goes on your microphone in OBS, guests or not, so pick Your microphone (mute from the dock) in Setup first.
3. Pick a voice for each guest by their name, here or on their card under … › Voice.
4. Everyone gives you and every guest in the room one voice at once. Normal there puts everyone back.

Step by step

1. On the Look tab, tap a scene under Show nameplates in, Show the frame in or Use the effect in to leave it out of that scene. Tap again to bring it back.
2. For more, open the Scenes tab and pick the scene. Under Frame, nameplates and effect in <scene>, give it its own nameplate size, frame, camera shape or effect.
3. Use the Look tab’s for all of it puts the scene back.

Step by step

1. Open the Moments tab. The first time, press Add to OBS, then restart OBS. Snapshot & Replay is an OBS plugin of its own; Live Studio installs it and keeps it up to date.
2. If the tab says the effects are not in the scene on air, press Add to this scene: Freeze Frame, Instant Replay and Moments go on top of everything in it. Do it once in each scene you want them in.
3. Press SNAPSHOT. The whole scene freezes in its look, then comes back to live by itself. Press it again to come back early.
4. Under Snapshot look, pick Freeze, Instant Film, Trading Card, VHS Pause, Deep Freeze, Film Burn or Photo Mode, and how long it holds: Back to live after.
5. Press REPLAY. The last seconds play back in its look, then it comes back to live. Its button says how much it has ready.
6. Under Replay look, pick Broadcast, VHS Rewind, Film Reel or Jumbotron; Replay the last 5s to 20s; and Speed: Real time, 75% or Slow-mo.

Step by step

1. On the Moments tab, press one: Photo Booth, Dramatic Zoom, Shockwave, Celebration, Character Intro, Be Right Back, Signal Lost or Flashback. It plays once and comes back to live by itself; press it again to end it early.
2. Be Right Back and Signal Lost stay on, marked HOLD, until you press them again.
3. Zoom, Shockwave and Intro are about Spotlight (whoever is in the spotlight, else whoever is speaking, else you), or anyone on air. Dramatic Zoom and Shockwave aim at their camera, and Character Intro says their nameplate’s name and second line.
4. A moment with more than one style has a menu under its button.
5. The sound button beside Moments turns their sound effects on or off.

Step by step

1. On the Moments tab, open Scene transition.
2. Press one: Glass Shatter, Film Burn, Card Flip, Broadcast Wipe, VHS Tape, TV Power, Photo Toss, Jumbotron or Time Ripple. OBS uses it for every scene change from then on.
3. Switch scenes in OBS as you always do.

Step by step

1. In the Stream Deck app, find StreamSlayers Live Studio in the list of actions on the right. Point at a button in the list to read what it does.
2. Drag the button onto any key.
3. Click the key: its settings open underneath. Pick what it is for: which effect, moment, transition or voice, and which guest. A line under the settings says what a press, a hold and a dial do.
4. Press it. Keys show what is happening: red while their effect or moment is on, a guest’s live camera on their key, grey while the studio is not running.