OBS

By far the most popular software available today for streaming is OBS. OBS (Open Broadcast Studio) is a free program that can ingest multiple video sources, composite them into a single program feed, and then export that to a myriad of different services for people to view the stream on.

OBS runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux, though my own usage is entirely restricted due to Linux due to the lower resource usage and better long-term stability. Both of these are factors to consider when running a stream that is consumed by a large number of people.

You can learn much, much more about OBS on the OBS website. The remainder of this section will focus on topics related directly to OBS as it pertains to BEST.

Scenes

OBS organizes different layouts into "scenes" which you can switch between at will. You can think of these as slides in a slide deck, but with the difference that you can transition from any slide to any other slide, not just those adjacent to the current slide.

A scene will always consist of at least one source, and may have multiple sources composited into a single scene to produce a layout that conveys a variety of dynamic and static information.

Video Sources

OBS supports many different types of video sources, but the most useful for our cases are the Media Source, Image Source, Browser Source, and Video Capture Source. Lets look closer at each one.

Media Source

The Media Source can, as the name implies, play most types of pre-recorded media. This is great for sponsor videos, game animations, or flashy "bumper" videos. The Media Source works best for audio and video resources.

Image Source

Like the Media Source, the Image Source works with images. This is great for loading logos and other graphics that you want to composite into the frame, or display as a standalone scene.

Browser Source

The Browser Source is perhaps one of OBS' most powerful sources. This source allows anything that can be loaded in a web-browser to be a source of content in a scene. This can include things you'd think of as a website, but also special purpose software that generates partial components that then get combined with other assets to produce a truly impressive and comprehensive video experience.

Video Capture Source

Depending on what operating system you deploy OBS on this source will be named slightly differently but the function is the same. This source will capture video from an external hardware device. This might be a camera or more specialized device such as a capture card.

Typical Arrangement

At a BEST event, there are usually 3 types of content that you'll want to present. The first and most obvious type is live video of your field. This can be captured using a camera or capture device that is connected to a camera indirectly. Usually having multiple angles of your field will improve the quality of your stream. Try to capture one top-down angle that shows the entire field from a bird's eye view, and then a lower angle with a long field of view.

The second common source will be static media assets. Things like hub logos, sponsor logos, and pre-recorded video. Care should be taken to ensure that the assets you use are of a high enough resolution to look good at the highest resolution you intend to stream. For most cases, if the media looks alright on a 1080p screen, all should be fine.

The final common source is comprised of various dynamic data sources that are pulled in as browser sources. These are things like scoreboards, schedules, and match clocks. Anything you can make a web page for can be displayed with the browser source after all.

Visually, this looks like this: