OBS-for-online-teaching.md

Open Broadcasting Software for Online Teaching

Hi, in this Gist I will show you how to setup a virtual "TV studio" to broadcast your web-cam, your lecture/tutorial slides and document camera in one video feed over Zoom, Skype or an LMS like Blackboard Collaborate Ultra. Here, I will help you to install and setup Open Broadcasting Software for online teaching from home.

Check out my YouTube video for more help!

Software to Install

1. OBS 64-bit - download here

1. Agree to the terms
2. Select an installation directory

2. OBS-VirtualCam - download here

1. Agree to the terms
2. Select to install either four or one virtual camera. I selected four (more the merrier, right?)

3. VLC 64-bit - download here (ensure you select 64-bit in the dropdown list!)

• It is important that VLC and OBS are both 64-bit, otherwise they are not compatible with each other

1. Progress through the prompts
2. Set VLC to be the default program for all the file extensions if you want to upgrade to a half decent media player (hehe)

4. IP Webcam for Android - download here

1. Plug your device into a power source. Keeping the camera on for long periods will quickly drain the battery.
2. Search for IP Webcam from the Play Store on your Android mobile device
3. Launch the application
4. Scroll to the bottom of the settings list and select "Start Server"
5. Tap on "How do I Connect?"
6. Tap on "Connect directly"
7. Tap on "I'm using Wifi"
8. Record the IP address and add /video to the end of the URL. The final URL will look like this: http://192.168.0.6:8080/video

Composing Scenes in OBS

Getting Started

1. Change to Studio Mode in the bottom right, under Controls
2. Create four scenes: Master, Web-cam, Doc-cam, Slides
3. Enable virtual cameras: go to menu Tools, VirtualCam, Start

Setting up the web-cam scene

1. Select the web-cam scene
2. Add a source +
3. Select Video Capture Device
4. Click Ok to add the source
5. Select your web-cam device (eg: Integrated Camera)
6. Click Ok
7. Resize by using the corners of the source within the scene editor (shift will change aspect ratio, alt will allow cropping). For this scene, I just stretch the source to take the entire scene and then modify its size/crop in the master scene.

Setting up the doc-cam scene

1. Select the doc-cam scene
2. Add a source +
3. Select VLC Video Source
4. Click Ok to add the source
5. Change Visibility Behaviour to Always play even when not visible
6. Add to the playlist, a URL/Path
7. Type in the URL to your IP Webcam stream, for example http://192.168.0.6:8080/video
8. Click Ok twice
9. Resize by using the corners of the source within the scene editor (shift will change aspect ratio, alt will allow cropping). For this scene, I just stretch the source to take the entire scene and then modify its size/crop in the master scene.

Setting up the slides scene

1. Select the slides scene
2. Ensure you have Powerpoint running
3. Add a source +
4. Select Window Capture
5. Click Ok to add the source
6. Select POWERPNT.exe in the applications list
7. Click Ok

Composing the master scene

1. Select the master scene
2. Add a source +
3. Select the Scene source
4. Add the three scenes we have just created (web-cam, doc-cam and slides)
5. Resize by using the corners of the source within the scene editor (shift will change aspect ratio, alt will allow cropping). For this scene, arrange each child-scene to your liking.

Broadcasting to a Zoom/Skype/Blackboard Collaborate Ultra session

1. Launch the desired application
2. In the video camera settings, select OBS-Camera