Can I use OnSong as a video source in OBS for live-streaming or recording?

Can I use OnSong as a video source in OBS for live-streaming or recording?

OBS or Open Broadcasting Software is a free program that turns your computer into a live video switcher and recording solution. OBS has many different ways to input video so it's only natural to want to use a video feed from OnSong to show Live Video and Lyrics Projection.

Video Capture Device
The first way to use OnSong is as a video capture device. When you connect an iPad or iPhone to a computer with the sync/charge cable, it becomes available to software as a video capture device. This lets you see the main screen of the iPad or iPhone in video conferencing or capture software.

To do this, connect your iPad or iPhone to the computer running OBS and create a scene.  Next, you'll want to add a new video capture device.  Tap on the + button in the Sources panel and choose Video Capture Device.  Now you can select the name of the iPad or iPhone from the list.



Of course, the limitation with this method is that you can only capture what is appearing on the device's physical display, and you're somewhat limited with resolution options.  You can scale the video to fit your screen and then use this to perform video tutorials, or use the lyrics projection widget to fill the screen.

Window Capture with AirPlay
A better option is if you could connect your iPad or iPhone so that it uses the "second screen" display capabilities of OnSong. The easiest way to do this with OBS is through AirPlay. Essentially what you want to do is use an app that turned your computer into an AirPlay receiver.  You can then grab the contents of that window or screen and use it as an input source into OBS.

To do this, download and install an app like AirServer.  This is available with a 30 day free trial.  Just install and launch.  This will place an icon in your system tray to let you know that your computer is now listening for AirPlay connections.  The name of the AirPlay device will be the name of your computer.  Swipe down from the upper-right edge of your iPad or iPhone to open the Control Center and then tap on the Screen Mirroring button.  You can then choose your computer name from the options provided to connect.



AirServer will likely take over your entire screen, so you can minimize it to be in a window.  You can also use the Zoom option in the Window menu to toggle between full screen and 100% of the nature resolution of the output of your device.  When you open OnSong with lyrics projection enabled (default), then the size of the AirServer window will change to 1920x1080.  Now this is the correct aspect ratio for use with most live-streaming or recording scenarios.



Now go into OBS and create a new scene in the Scenes panel.  Select the scene and then add a new source in the Sources panel and choose Window Capture. Give it a name (optional) and then choose the AirServer window that has your session.  Save those changes and now you have just the lyrics and video coming from OnSong flowing into OBS for switching while using your iPad or iPhone screen for chords, lyrics, and control.



Display Capture with AirPlay
One thing we have noticed is that Window Capture does experiencing some performance and lag in OBS. We believe that's because there is some additional processing required to grab those frames from a specific window. You may experienced better performance by using Display Capture instead and running the AirPlay receiver full screen. If your connected display is the same resolution as OBS, you will have a great video input.  If not, you may need to crop or scale the video input to fit into OBS without black bars on the top and bottom.