Wednesday, September 23, 2020

How to Add Remote Video Sources to Live Streams With OBS.Ninja and OBS (Free)

OBS.Ninja is an open-source and free web-based programme designed to bring live video from an external source into OBS Studio. It does this using WebRTC, a framework within browsers and mobile applications that lets you communicate in real time with little to no lag. OBS.Ninja also claims to offer privacy and ultra-low latency. In this tutorial you'll learn how to use OBS.Ninja to add a remote video stream to your live broadcasts, how to add a remote screenshare, and how to add a group video chat feed.

How to Add Video From Remote Locations With OBS

OBS.Ninja has a variety of interesting uses. Here are some examples:

  • Pull in other people's video and audio into your own podcasting or live broadcast, for things like interviews, guest hosts, performers, or simultaneous sign language translation
  • Bring a friend's remote game stream into your OBS and do side-by-side gaming together
  • Publish to YouTube with your smartphone even though you don't yet have enough followers to broadcast to Youtube with the mobile app
  • Watch videos with friends, via screen sharing, privately, and with low-enough latency to talk on the phone together while watching
  • Use as a remote low-latency teleprompter feed

The tools are very straightforward to use, and the creator of OBS.Ninja, Steve Seguin, has put together a great explanation of how to add remote cameras to OBS Studio, if you'd like to learn more via video. We'll get into how to use it with OBS, below.

How to Use OBS.Ninja with OBS Studio

If you’re new to OBS Studio, you might want to read our Quickstart Guide to Livestreaming with OBS Studio. This covers how to add sources, which you’ll need to know to use OBS.Ninja.

Getting Started with OBS.Ninja

Here’s what OBS.Ninja looks like when you open up the website. We’ll take a quick look at each option available, except Create Reusable Invite, which is exactly how it sounds really, a link you can create and reuse rather than having to start from scratch each time – this is particularly useful if you’re planning on doing a series of broadcasts.

OBS Ninja Main Screen

How to Add a Remote Camera to OBS via OBS.Ninja

This is really easy and a nifty way to add another camera to your stream. OBS.Ninja will detect your camera and audio setup automatically.

add a remote camera

Once it’s done that and you’re happy with it, you can hit Start and it will give you your camera and audio feed, along with a URL.

camera source url

In OBS Studio, add a Browser Source and call it OBS Ninja or something else appropriate.

obs studio add browser source

You’ll see some properties telling you you’ve added a browser source and letting you make some customisations if you want to, things like the frame size, as well as access to the CSS.

add a browser source properties obs studio

Paste your OBS.Ninja URL into the URL space and hit OK.

external camera feed in OBS Studio

You’ll see your external feed now added a source.

How to Add a Remote Screenshare in OBS

This is much like adding a camera source but you can choose which screen (if you have multiple) to share, and can decide to include audio or not.

Click on Select Screen to Share.

select screen for sharing

Your existing screens will appear, as will the choice of choosing an application window or specific browser tab, which will anchor the casting to that particular programme or window. When you choose your screen you’ll be given a URL in the same way as the camera source was above.

screenshare url

Just add that as a Browser Source in exactly the same way as in the previous section, and it will appear in OBS Studio.

screenshare as source in obs studio

How to Add Group Video Chat to OBS via OBS.Ninja

If you’re not a fan of Zoom, Teams and the like, try OBS.Ninja. There’s no reason why you can’t stream and record group chats in OBS Studio using remote sources.

add group chat to obsninja

With OBS.Ninja, you can have each person have a link to the chat, who will all be able to see each other in lower quality, to preserve bandwidth.

group chat interface

Each group room can take up to 30 guests (though keeping it under 10 is recommended). The quality of course depends on the bandwidth of the users. The ‘director,’ or person overseeing all of this in OBS Studio, can see all the participants but doesn’t have to be on screen themselves. They can also hide and mute participants in the chat.

As each person joins the chat, they’ll get their own slot on the page, including a link which you can use to add them as either separate or group in Scenes in OBS Studio. If you use Group, it will auto-mix the videos into a layout for you.

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