Blackmagic Video Assist User Manual Using Video Assist as a Webcam
When connected to a computer via USB, your Blackmagic Video Assist will be detected as a webcam. This means you can broadcast the playback or recording from your video assist using streaming software such as Open Broadcaster.
Connect your Video Assist to a computer using a USB-C cable
Setting the Webcam Source
In most cases, your streaming software will automatically set Video Assist as the webcam, so when you launch your streaming software you will see the picture from your Video Assist straight away. If your software doesn’t select Video Assist, simply set the software to use Video Assist as the webcam and microphone.
Below is an example of how to set the webcam settings on Skype.
In Skype’s menu bar, open the ‘audio and video settings’.
Click on the ‘Camera’ drop down menu and select your Video Assist from the list. You will see the video from Video Assist appear in the preview window.
Now go to the ‘microphone’ drop down menu and select your Video Assist as the audio source.
With your Skype settings set correctly, perhaps try out a Skype call with a friend as a quick test to check your webcam setup is working.
That’s all you need to do and Video Assist is now ready to broadcast your video to the world live!
Using Open Broadcaster
Open Broadcaster is an open source application that works as a streaming platform between your Video Assist and your favorite streaming software like YouTube, Twitch, Facebook Live, Vimeo Live and others. Open Broadcaster compresses your video to a bit rate that is easily managed by your streaming app.
Below is a demonstration of how to set up Open Broadcaster to stream the webcam output from your Video Assist using YouTube as the streaming application.
Launch Open Broadcaster and click on the plus symbol in the ‘sources’ box.
Select ‘Video Capture Device’.
Name the new source and click ‘OK’.
In the device drop down menu, select ‘Video Assist’ and click ‘OK’.
Now go to your YouTube account. Navigate to the ‘video/live’ option and click ‘get started’.
In the YouTube ‘stream’ options, enter your broadcast details and click ‘create stream’.
YouTube will now generate a stream name/ key that will direct Open Broadcaster to your YouTube account. Click the ‘copy’ button next to the stream key. Copy the stream key that you will now paste into Open Broadcaster.
Return to Open Broadcaster and open the preferences by clicking on ‘OBS preferences’ in the menu bar. Select ‘stream’. Now paste in the stream key you copied from YouTube and click ‘OK’. You will now see the video from your Video Assist in the Open Broadcaster streaming preview window.
To connect Open Broadcaster’s broadcast link to YouTube, click ‘start streaming’ in the bottom right corner of the screen. This establishes the link to YouTube from Open Broadcaster and from here everything will now be set using YouTube Live.
Go back to YouTube Live and you will see the webcam program output from your Video Assist in the background. Click ‘done’.
With Open Broadcaster now communicating with YouTube Live, you are ready to begin your broadcast. Now it’s time to perform your final checks and make sure everything is good.
If you are all set, you can now begin your broadcast by clicking ‘go live’.
You are now broadcasting live on YouTube with Open Broadcaster. When your broadcast is finished, you can end the stream by clicking ‘end stream’.
📘NOTE Due to the nature of internet streaming there can often be a delay, so it’s important to watch the stream on YouTube and confirm your program has finished before clicking ‘end stream’ to make sure you don’t accidentally cut the end of your broadcast short.
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