Streaming

OBS setup guide for church live streaming

OBS Studio is free, open-source, and powerful enough to run a professional church stream. It looks busy at first, but you only need a handful of pieces. Here's a church-focused walkthrough from install to on-air.

Do this setup mid-week, save it, and it's ready every Sunday. OBS remembers your scenes and settings between sessions.

1. Install OBS

Download OBS Studio from the official site and install it. On first launch, the Auto-Configuration Wizard can set sensible defaults — choose "optimize for streaming."

2. Add your sources

In the Sources box, add:

Video Capture Device — your webcam, or your camera via an HDMI capture device.
Audio Input Capture — your clean desk feed, not the camera mic.
Optionally an Image or Text source for your church logo or titles.

3. Build a few scenes

Scenes are saved layouts you switch between. Useful church scenes:

Pre-service — a welcome graphic and music.
Live — your camera full-frame.
Lyrics / verse — camera with graphics over it.
Holding — a "we'll be right back" card.

4. Set output quality

Settings → Output → set bitrate (~2,500–4,000 kbps for 720p, ~4,500–6,000 for 1080p).
Settings → Video → set resolution (1920×1080 or 1280×720) and 30 fps.
Confirm your upload speed comfortably exceeds your bitrate.

5. Connect to your platform

Settings → Stream → choose YouTube or Facebook and paste the stream key. Then Start Streaming when you're ready.

6. Add automatic scripture lower-thirds

This is where OBS shines for churches. TajiCast outputs the detected verse as an NDI source or a browser/overlay you add to your Live scene — so when the preacher quotes a passage, the reference appears on screen automatically, no operator typing mid-sermon. See the full OBS integration guide.

Add automatic scripture to your OBS church stream — free.

Download TajiCast — free

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