OBS setup

This guide gets Breakcastr into OBS. The one thing you must add is the overlay browser source. Your control panel is separate and does not have to live in OBS at all.

Overview

Breakcastr gives you two links. Each goes into OBS in one place.

The overlay has a transparent background, so only your graphics show over your camera. There is no box or backdrop to hide. Your Overlay URL is unique to you and stable (stays the same between breaks), so you set it in OBS once and you are done.

Step 1: Set your canvas size

Your canvas decides the shape of your whole stream, and your camera and the Breakcastr overlay both sit inside it. Breakcastr is built for vertical (9:16 portrait) streams right now, which matches the card-selling platforms breakers use most. Set a portrait canvas.

Landscape is not supported yet. Overlays are designed and positioned for portrait, so a widescreen (16:9) canvas will not lay out correctly. Support for landscape platforms like Twitch and YouTube is coming soon!

1. Install and open OBS.
2. Go to Settings → Video.
3. Set both Base (Canvas) Resolution and Output (Scaled) Resolution to 1080 x 1920 (9:16 portrait).
4. Leave FPS at 30. Use 60 only on a strong connection. Click Apply.

NOTE: Your specific selling platform may also have additional instructions for OBS setup. Be sure to review them.

Step 2: Add the overlay to your scene

1. Pick the scene you stream your breaks from.
2. In the Sources box, click + and choose Browser.
3. Name it something like Break Overlay, then click OK.
4. Fill in the source settings:
   • URL: paste your Overlay URL.
   • Width and Height: set both to 1080 x 1920 to match the canvas you set above.
   • Tick Refresh browser when scene becomes active. This lets the board re-sync every time you cut to the scene.
5. Click OK.

Now make sure the overlay sits on top of everything else in your scene. In the Sources list, right-click Break Overlay and choose Order → Move to Top (or drag it to the top of the list). If it sits below your camera or any other source, your graphics will be hidden behind them.

That is it. The overlay stays invisible until you start a break (Step 5), which is exactly right: there is nothing to see yet, and nothing covers your camera.

How you know it worked: the studio watches for your overlay. Once the browser source is loaded, the studio header shows OBS connected. If you try to start a break with no overlay connected, the studio warns you first and hands you the URL to paste, so you cannot silently stream to nobody.

Step 3: Open your control panel (the dock is optional)

The control panel is where you run the show: mark spots sold, fire celebration moments, toggle widgets. It is just your studio, logged in, and it does not have to live in OBS. Pick whichever fits how you stream.

Option A: Run it from another device

Open your studio in any browser on a second screen: an iPad next to your setup, a laptop, your phone, even a different computer in another room or another part of the world. As long as you are logged into the same account, you are controlling the same break. This keeps OBS uncluttered and lets you run the show from the couch.

Nothing to set up in OBS for this. Just log into your studio on that device and go.

Option B: Dock it inside OBS

If you would rather keep everything in one window, add the studio as a dock:

1. In the top menu, go to Docks → Custom Browser Docks…
2. Give it a name like Break Control.
3. Paste your Studio URL in the URL field.
4. Click Apply, then close the window.
5. A new panel appears. Drag it wherever it fits your layout. Many breakers park it along the bottom or to one side.

Either way, every action you take updates the on-stream board instantly, because the overlay syncs to your account and not to any one device. You can even switch devices mid-break and pick up right where you left off.

Step 4: Connect OBS to your platform

Breakcastr only puts graphics in your OBS scene. OBS still sends your video to whatever platform you sell on, so you point OBS at that platform once. Breakcastr works on any platform you can stream to from OBS, and not on platforms that only let you go live from their phone app.

Which platforms work, and how to connect each, is covered in Streaming platforms.

Step 5: Run your break

You are wired up. From the studio, enter your break details, pick a template, and go live, then drive the whole show from one panel: mark spots sold, fire celebration moments, and toggle widgets on stream.

The full walkthrough lives in Go live with a break.

Help

Hitting a snag? See Troubleshooting.