Going live with OBS

Every channel has its own stream key. Going live is copying two values into OBS.

Get the address

Open Studio → Setup (the Studio is in the avatar menu). You will see:

• Server (RTMP URL), for example rtmp://your-domain:1935/community
• Stream key, hidden until you press the eye
• Server and key together, one address with the key included

Each has a copy button.

Configure OBS

1. Settings → Stream
2. Service: Custom…
3. Server and Stream key: paste each, or paste the combined address into Server and leave the key empty
4. Start Streaming

The Studio flips to LIVE and the status line on the Setup tab changes to "Encoder connected". Anything that speaks RTMP works: Streamlabs, vMix, hardware encoders, or ffmpeg … -f flv "<address>".

For a smooth stream in browsers use a keyframe interval of 2 seconds, x264 or hardware H.264, and AAC audio.

The Live tab

While you are live, Studio → Live shows:

• the stream as viewers see it, a few seconds behind
• viewers, uptime and the video and audio codecs
• chat, with moderation controls (see Chat and moderation)
• Start a poll and the pinned message

The End stream button in the corner disconnects your encoder.

Rotating the key

Rotate key (Setup tab) makes a new key and disconnects the current encoder at once, so a leaked key is dead the moment you rotate. Update OBS with the new value afterwards.

Recordings

Every broadcast is recorded while you are live. When you stop, it appears under your channel's Recordings tab and plays in the browser, where viewers can download it and comment at a moment in time. As the owner you can delete a recording from its page.

Recordings are written as they arrive, not transcoded, so their quality is your encoder's quality.

Troubleshooting