Going Live

Once you’ve hit Start Streaming in your software.

From the Casterlabs-Multistream Dashboard you can select which platforms you want to stream to by clicking on the green Play button. However, you can also toggle Auto Start. This will immediately connect you to the service(s) you’ve selected from the moment you start streaming

Example Target Configuration with Autostarts enabled

If mid-way through your broadcast you decide you no longer want to be live on one of your platforms, you can hit the red Stop button and this will terminate the stream to that particular site; whilst still keeping you live on all the others.

At the end of your stream, just hit Stop Streaming in your software and all your connections will terminate.

Platform Bitrate Recommendations

Each platform has its own recommended bitrate settings for both video and audio. Below is a table outlining the supported bitrate ranges for each of the major platforms we support:

Platform	Reccomended Bitrates	Audio Bitrate Range	Reference
Twitch	3000 - 6000 Kbps	128 - 320 Kbps	Twitch Support
YouTube	3000 - 400000 Kbps	128 - 320 Kbps	YouTube Help
Kick	1000 - 8000 Kbps	128 - 320 Kbps	Kick Support
Trovo	4000 - 6000 Kbps	128 - 320 Kbps	Trovo Support
Custom RTMP	Varies by Platform	Varies by Platform	Varies by Platform.

Enable VOD Track

Casterlabs-Multistream now supports the Twitch VOD track functionality. Meaning that if you enable this option, your stream will be recorded as a VOD on Twitch, but will only use the audio track you have selected. This is particularly useful for streamers who wish to provide a different audio experience for their live viewers compared to their VOD audience, such as excluding music tracks that may be copyrighted.

This guide will walk you through the steps to enable the VOD track for your Twitch streams using Casterlabs-Multistream. If you are using OBS Studio as your streaming software, additional configuration steps are required to ensure that the VOD track functions correctly. You can find out more by reading their documentation on the VOD track feature here.

Enabling VOD Track in Casterlabs-Multistream

To enable the VOD track for your Twitch stream, follow these steps:

Navigate to the Casterlabs-Multistream Dashboard.
Locate the Twitch platform in your list of streaming targets.
From your Twitch output settings, select the “VOD Track” option from the drop-down (see image above).
Start your stream as usual.

Configuring OBS for VOD Track

To ensure that OBS is set up correctly for Twitch VODs, you may need to adjust some settings in the obs-studio.ini file. Here are the recommended configurations:

From your OBS appdata folder, you will need to edit two files. The first is golbal.ini and the second is user.ini.

You will find these files in the following folder on your OS:

macOS: ~/Users/USERNAME/Library/Application Support/obs-studio
Windows 10/11 %appdata%\obs-studio
Linux: ~/.config/obs-studio

Navigating to the OBS AppData Folder

The quickest way to navigate to the OBS AppData folder is to open OBS and go to Help > Log Files > Show Log Files. This will open the folder where OBS stores its log files, and from there, you can navigate up one level to find the obs-studio directory containing the global.ini and user.ini files.

Under both [General] headings in each of these files, there should be a key called EnableCustomServerVodTrack. You will need to set this to =true in both files.

EnableCustomServerVodTrack=true

Which should make the sections look like this:

In user.ini:

[General]
Pre19Defaults=false
Pre21Defaults=false
Pre23Defaults=false
Pre24.1Defaults=false
ConfirmOnExit=true
HotkeyFocusType=NeverDisableHotkeys
YtDockCleanupDone=true
FirstRun=true
EnableCustomServerVodTrack=true

In global.ini:

[General]
MaxLogs=10
InfoIncrement=-1
ProcessPriority=Normal
EnableAutoUpdates=true
BrowserHWAccel=true
LastUpdateCheck=0
InstallGUID=81467601e577ba14151d83115299ac405eb95131
SkipUpdateVersion=0
LastVersion=536870913
EnableCustomServerVodTrack=true

After making these changes, save the files and restart OBS for the changes to take effect. This will ensure that your streams to Twitch are properly recorded with a separate VOD track.

Updating your Stream URL

In order to send your stream to Casterlabs-Multistream with the VOD track you will need to update your Stream URL in your streaming software, removing the /live suffix and replacing it with /icanhazvodtrack.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter any issues while going live, consider the following troubleshooting steps:

Ensure that your streaming software is correctly configured to send the stream to Casterlabs-Multistream.
Check your internet connection to ensure it is stable and has sufficient upload bandwidth.
Verify that the platforms you are streaming to are not experiencing outages or issues.
Review the Casterlabs-Multistream Dashboard for any error messages or notifications.