Broadcasting from your own OBS

By the end, the OBS on your PC will be broadcasting to your stream key and you’ll see it on Streaming in the dashboard.

You need: any plan with a stream key · OBS on your PC · 5 minutes

This isn’t the same as controlling your OBS from the dashboard

Here you set up where your OBS sends video to. If what you want is to operate your OBS from your phone or from the dashboard (switch scenes, start the stream, hand it to a moderator), that’s a different thing and it goes its own way: Connect your OBS. They are independent: you can have one, the other or both.

Before you start

Your OBS speaks RTMP and SRT. It doesn’t do bonding, so SRTLA is no use here. On a wired connection, RTMP has plenty of headroom; on weak wifi, SRT covers the micro-cuts. Compare them in Choosing a protocol.

Steps

1. In the dashboard, open Stream Keys and set the Protocol selector to RTMP or to SRT.

2. Hit Publish to copy the URL.

3. In OBS, open Settings → Stream.

4. Under Service, choose Custom….

5. Fill it in depending on the protocol:

   Protocol	Server	Stream Key
   RTMP	The publish URL without the last segment (everything up to the last slash)	The last segment of the URL: your key
   SRT	The whole publish URL, with its ?streamid=publish:…	Leave it empty

6. Apply and go to Settings → Output. Set the video bitrate below your plan’s cap (table below) and use constant bitrate.

7. Go back to the main window and hit Start streaming. In the dashboard, the key goes from No signal to Streaming and the Live signal card shows the Current bitrate.

Shortcut

The RTMP publish URL already has your key stuck to the end of it. Cut it at the last slash: what’s on the left is the Server, what’s on the right is the Stream Key. Don’t invent or reorder anything else.

Bitrate caps

This is the maximum the key accepts, not a target.

Plan	Key cap
Stream Key Lite	9,000 kbps
Stream Key	9,000 kbps
OBS Basic	6,000 kbps
OBS Standard	6,000 kbps
OBS Pro	10,000 kbps

If your key feeds a Cloud OBS, that Cloud OBS’s output towards your platform has its own cap: Going out to your platform.

Not working?

OBS says it can’t connect to the server. Almost always it’s the URL split badly. On RTMP, the key has to go only in the key field and not repeated at the end of the server. On SRT, everything goes in the server and the key field stays empty.

OBS streams without complaining and the dashboard stays on No signal. You’re using an old URL. Changing the key’s Region or Protocol changes the publish URL, and Rotate invalidates the previous one instantly. Copy again with Publish and redo both fields.

It starts fine and fills up with dropped frames. That’s your upload, not the key. Drop the bitrate in Settings → Output and test on a wired connection before wifi. If the pattern is peaks and troughs, go to Unstable bitrate.

Next step

• Connect your OBS — to also control it from the dashboard.
• Choosing a protocol — RTMP or SRT, depending on your network.
• My feed isn’t arriving — the full run-through if it’s still blank.