The Blackmagic Web Presenter HD and Web Presenter 4K are complete streaming solutions that include professional hardware streaming engines for direct streaming via Ethernet or USB capture into your computer for streaming from a software encoder.
The encoding functionality of the current Web Presenter models is a bit limited at the moment, which can sometimes result in inconsistent live streaming to Subsplash Live; so, we do recommend pairing it with OBS or another software encoder of choice. If you do want to use the built-in encoder of the Web Presenter HD or 4K then follow along with the instructions below to quickly import a template for Subsplash Live! Or, for advanced users, check out this article if you want to manually configure the Web Presenter HD or 4K without a pre-configured template!
The original "Blackmagic Web Presenter" (which has been discontinued) does not include encoding functionality and thus cannot stream directly to Subsplash Live; this article only applies to the Web Presenter HD and Web Presenter 4K models. If you're looking for info on the Blackmagic ATEM Mini series of devices, check out this article!
Requirements
A text editor (a code editor like Visual Studio Code is strongly recommended)
An up-to-date installation of the Web Presenter Setup utility.
Setup
Download this XML file, which is custom-tailored to provide the ideal encoding settings for Subsplash Live (note that it will overwrite the profiles for any other streaming destination). Once downloaded, place the file on your desktop.
Open the file in a text editor.
On macOS: Hold [control] and click on the file, then select Open With and choose Visual Studio Code (if installed) or TextEdit from the list.
On Windows: Right-click on the file, then select Open With and choose Visual Studio Code (if installed) or Notepad from the list.
Look through the document for where the line
<url>ENTER SERVER URL HERE</url>appears (once near the top). Replace the placeholder text with your Subsplash Live server URL, which you can find in your Subsplash dashboard. Make sure to replace all of the text between the<url> and </url>tags, but don’t replace any part of the tags themselves. The result will look like this:
When you are done, save and close the file.Open the Web Presenter Setup utility, and open the settings for the connected Web Presenter device.
Set your Stream Standard to 1080p30.
Click the button to Load Streaming Settings and select the Streaming.xml file from your desktop.
Set your Platform option to Subsplash Live (even if it already shows that Subsplash Live is selected, it's still important to open the dropdown menu and choose the quality level you want; otherwise, your settings may not be properly applied).
In the Key field, enter the stream key, which you can find in your Subsplash dashboard, by clicking the Settings button on the Media > Live page.
Finally, select the quality level you think will be most appropriate for your internet connection speed (even if you aren't making any changes to the chosen quality, it's still important to open the dropdown menu and choose the quality level you want; otherwise, your settings may not be properly applied).
Click the ON AIR Button to connect your Web Presenter HD or 4K to Subsplash Live!
The Web Presenter series uses a rate control method known as “variable bitrate,” which adjusts the video bitrate based on the complexity of the video being encoded. This can lead to your stream’s bitrate plummeting dramatically during moments of low complexity (e.g., when a still graphic is the only thing being displayed on the stream), which can in turn cause some instability on your stream. If you notice stability issues with your stream, we recommend connecting your Web Presenter HD or 4K to OBS and using OBS to handle the encoding of your stream!