Behind the stream

Objectives

  • Take a first look at the broadcaster’s view.

  • Get to know what happens “behind the stream” of a workshop

  • See what the “broadcaster” sees and what they need to do.

  • Not yet: learn details of how to do this.

Instructor note

  • Teaching: 20 min

  • Q&A 10 min

In this episode, you’ll see an end-to-end view of streaming from the broadcaster’s point of view. It’s a tour but not an explanation or tutorial.

Who does what

We have certain role definitions:

  • Broadcaster: Our term for the person who manages the streaming.

  • Director: Person who is guiding the instructors to their sessions, changing the scenes, calling the breaks, etc.

    • Could be the same as broadcaster.

  • Instructor: One who is teaching. They don’t have to know anything else about how streaming works.

This lesson describes what the Broadcaster/Director sees.

Window layouts

What does the broadcaster see on their screen?

  • What are the main windows you see?

  • What do each of them do?

  • Which ones do you need to focus on?

  • How do you keep all this straight in your head?

CodeRefinery control panel

  • A custom application that controls scenes

  • Based on OBS-websocket (remote control connection for OBS - we’ll learn about this later)

  • Can also work remotely, so that you can have a remote director

How scenes are controlled

What has to be done during a course?

  • How do you start the stream?

  • How do you change the view?

  • How do you adjust things based on what the instructors share?

  • How do you coordinate with the instructors?

  • How do you know when to change the view?

Getting it set up

  • How hard was it to figure this out?

  • How hard is it to set it up for each new workshop?

What can go wrong

  • What’s the worst that has happened?

  • What if you need to walk away for a bit?

  • Someone broadcasts something unexpectedly

Alternatives

  • Youtube vs Twitch

  • Zoom stream directly to YouTube/Twitch

  • Direct streaming platform, e.g. streamyard

Q&A

Q&A from audience

Keypoints

  • The broadcaster’s view shouldn’t be so scary.

  • There is a lot to manage, but each individual part isn’t that hard.