Live Switching - IRL Backpack / Desktop Setup

Configure your Desktop OBS to stream to IRLToolkit using a second ingest for seamless switching between your home setup and IRL Backpack while staying live.

Once you’ve completed the initial setup of your IRL Backpack and IRLToolkit cloud streaming server, you’ll be able to configure your desktop/home OBS setup to also stream through IRLToolkit to your platform(s) of choice. This means that you'll be able to switch between your IRL and home/desktop without needing to restart the stream.

Streamers utilize this functionality to keep viewer momentum by avoiding downtime. An example of this would be starting your stream at home where you could be playing a game or chatting from your desk, and then turning on the IRL Backpack to go outside for a walk or for driving to another activity/location - all while live! It can be switched the other way as well to if you wanted to return to your home setup/broadcast after IRL streaming.

By setting up a dedicated second ingest on IRLToolkit for your Desktop OBS, you ensure a smoother and more reliable transition between setups. This method avoids interruptions, enhances viewer experience, and minimizes technical hiccups. While it is possible to reuse the main ingest, this is not recommended and should be considered only as a fallback option. If you wish to reuse the main ingest, make sure to fully stop the stream from your IRL Backpack before attempting to start it on your desktop, and vice-versa.

Configuring Desktop OBS for Seamless Switching to/from IRL

• First, login to the IRLToolkit Dashboard (https://irl.run) and start up your server.

• Once booted up, navigate to Settings > Ingests.

• Select the RTMP option under Second Ingest.

By default, Standard IRLToolkit servers only have 1 ingest (Main Ingest). If you didn’t add a Second Ingest during initial sign, you may need to contact IRLToolkit support for assistance. Please reach out to IRLToolkit or UnlimitedIRL Support for fast-tracked support.

• Keep this page open for now.

• In your Desktop OBS application, navigate to Profile > Duplicate on the toolbar.

• We want to create a new profile for streaming through IRLToolkit while keeping most of your original broadcast settings. Name this new profile “IRLToolkit”.

• We'll now access the stream settings of this new duplicated profile. On Windows, navigate via File > Settings > Stream and on MacOS, navigate via OBS>Settings/Preferences>Stream.

• On the “Service” drop-down, click “Show All…”

• Scroll and select “IRLToolkit”.

• Go back to your browser where you had the IRLToolkit Ingests page opened and copy the blurred out “Key” by clicking on the white box.

• In your Desktop OBS application, paste this key from IRLToolkit into the “Stream Key' box and click “Okay” to exit the settings menu.

• You're now ready to stream your Desktop OBS feed to IRLToolkit!

• To go live from your home setup first, you'll click “Start Streaming” in Desktop OBS as you normally would when streaming from home.

• Then just like you would for a regular IRL Backpack stream, you'll start up your IRLToolkit server and click “Start” in the Dashboard to go live to your chosen platform(s).

• Ensure you have the the “Ingest” scene selected on the IRLToolkit Dashboard if you want to stream from the IRL Backpack, and “Second Ingest” selected if you want to stream from your desktop.

• To switch to your IRL Backpack, start broadcasting from your IRL Backpack by press the “Start” button on the LiveU Solo PRO, and switch to the Main Ingest.. You can switch setups in the other direction too!

• You'll always completely end the publicly viewed stream by clicking “Stop” in the IRLToolkit Dashboard.

Other Workflow Tips

• You can make a Picture-In-Picture scene and have your desktop OBS and your IRL Backpack streaming at the same time by copying the Ingest Player sources from the two default Ingest scenes to a new scene. Need any help? Please reach out to IRLToolkit or UnlimitedIRL Support for fast-tracked support.

• Streaming with your home setup through IRLToolkit will add a small delay so we recommend switching back to your default “Profile” in Desktop OBS and streaming directly to your chosen platform(s) when you don't plan to use the IRL Backpack.

• You can use this same functionality for switching between a phone stream and a desktop or IRL Backpack stream.

• In this example, you'd also have the ability to mute and unmute each ingest via the IRLToolkit dashboard to avoid double mic audio coming through on stream.