OBS Studio

Why OBS Studio for Live Production

OBS Studio is the standard for live streaming and recording across the industry—and for good reason. It’s free, open source, and remarkably capable for what it does. For live event production, it handles scene switching, multiple input sources, overlays, and direct output to streaming platforms without the licensing costs of proprietary alternatives.

For productions where you need flexibility and reliability without a per-seat software bill, OBS is the obvious choice. The learning curve is real, but once you know it, there’s very little you can’t do.

How We Use It

We use OBS for live streaming events—primarily in the FIRST Indiana Robotics space, where production quality matters and the tooling needs to be rock-solid for multi-hour broadcasts. That includes scene management, mixing camera feeds with overlays, replay integration, and routing output to platforms like Twitch and YouTube.

Projects Using OBS Studio

FIRST Indiana Robotics Analyst Desk

The main FIN stream covers the matches. The Analyst Desk covers everything else—strategy breakdowns, introductory content for new fans, and post-match commentary from mentors around the state. We built the hardware and software setup to run a second simultaneous livestream starting at the 2025 FRC State Championship.