Broadcasting Guide#

OpenVibe.Live supports four live broadcast methods, each suited to different use cases.

Broadcast Methods#

WebRTC (Browser)#

• Best for: Quick streams directly from your browser
• Latency: Sub-second
• Setup: Click "Go Live", grant camera/mic permissions
• Features: Screen share, camera PiP overlay, live stats, camera switching

RTMP (OBS/Streamlabs)#

• Best for: Professional streaming with OBS, multi-scene setups
• Latency: 2-5 seconds
• Setup: Copy Server URL and Stream Key into OBS
• Features: Full OBS feature set, live thumbnail preview on broadcast page

WHIP (OBS, FFmpeg, GStreamer — or any web page)#

• Best for: WebRTC-native encoders and custom publishers, including browser-only sites
• Latency: Sub-second
• Setup: Choose Streaming method: WHIP, copy the WHIP URL into OBS (Service: WHIP) or ffmpeg -f whip
• Features: VP8/H.264 + Opus, auto-creates the live session on first POST, open CORS so a static page can publish with RTCPeerConnection + fetch() — see the WHIP Ingest API / Publishing from a browser and the hosted browser publisher

OpenRestream (OBS, restreaming everywhere)#

• Best for: Streaming to Twitch, YouTube, Kick and other servers at the same time as your OpenVibe Live channel
• Setup: Create a stream on openre.stream, copy its RTMP server and key into OBS, and add
  your other destinations there
• On Live by default: each stream made on OpenRestream gets its own slot on your channel, marked *managed on
  OpenRestream*. Its sessions go live on openvibe.live/@you with chat, clips and VODs, through the OpenRestream mirror
  (server/openre/mirror.js). Switch "Show it on my OpenVibe Live channel" off on OpenRestream and Live ignores that
  stream; your other destinations keep going.
• How: OpenRestream calls POST /internal/openre/slots (capability live.openre.slot.bind,
  server/openre/bind.js) with a Network service token. Live creates a new slot with
  ingest_authority = 'openre', or returns the one already bound to that stream. It never changes an existing slot.
  A person needs a Live account first, which they get by signing in to openvibe.live once.

JSMPEG (FFmpeg)#

• Best for: Headless/embedded streaming (Raspberry Pi, IP cameras, 3D printers)
• Latency: ~1 second
• Setup: Run FFmpeg command with the provided endpoint
• Features: Flexible input sources, low resource usage

Broadcast Page Features#

Live Controls#

When streaming via WebRTC browser, you have access to:

• Stop Stream — End the broadcast
• Switch Cam — Change camera device
• Screen Share — Share screen/window/tab
• Cam PiP — Picture-in-Picture camera overlay on screen share
• Mic — Toggle microphone
• Stats — Show bitrate, FPS, resolution, codec overlay
• Preview — Toggle self-preview on/off (saves CPU)
• Viewer — Open a popup showing exactly what viewers see (real mediasoup consumer path)
• Clip — Create a clip from the live stream
• Media — Media request PiP player

Stream Chat#

The broadcast page includes an embedded chat sidebar with:

• Full chat functionality (emotes, GIFs, TTS)
• Pop Out Chat button — opens chat in a separate window (lightweight WebSocket popup)
• User list and chat settings
• Mobile: floating action button to toggle chat overlay

Disconnect Handling#

• Visual disconnect alert banner when the connection drops (a browser broadcast's connection, or the
  encoder's RTMP feed stopping after it was received)
• Audible alert — opt-in audio beep on disconnect (enable in Audio settings → "Disconnect Sound Alert",
  or Alerts → "Disconnect Audio" in the encoder settings; one preference, kept in this browser)
• Low-bitrate alert — opt-in (Audio settings → "Low Bitrate Alert"): when a browser broadcast's upload
  stays under 30% of its target bitrate for about 18 seconds, a warning and a lower beep, once until it recovers
• Automatic reconnection with exponential backoff (3s → 30s max)
• Connection status indicator (protocol name when connected, status when not)

RTMP Preview#

When using RTMP, the page shows your stream's live thumbnail (/api/thumbnails/stream-<id>-live.jpg), checked every 10 seconds. Live thumbnails, the ones the live cards show too, are refreshed about every 2 minutes: the server grabs a frame from RTMP, JSMPEG and WebRTC/WHIP streams, and a browser broadcaster with a visible tab posts its own.

Multi-Stream#

You can run multiple simultaneous streams (e.g., different cameras). Each gets its own tab in the broadcast page with independent controls and viewer counts.

Stream Settings#

Configurable per-stream settings include:

• Video resolution and frame rate
• Target bitrate
• Audio device selection
• TTS mode and voice settings
• Auto-reconnect behavior
• Stream title and category

This page is rendered from docs/broadcasting.md in the OpenVibe.Live repository. Found a mistake? Edit it there.