How to set up NOALBS for remote OBS

When you stream IRL, your connection will wobble. A tunnel, a dead spot, a packed stadium, and your bitrate falls off a cliff. NOALBS watches for that and quietly swaps your OBS scene so viewers see a tidy holding card instead of a frozen face. This guide gets it running and lets you drive OBS from your phone while you are out.

What is NOALBS?

NOALBS stands for Nobody Official Auto Live Bitrate Switcher. It watches your SRT stream health and automatically switches OBS scenes when your connection drops or recovers. You set up three scenes, usually Live, Low bitrate, and Offline or Disconnected, and NOALBS picks the right one in real time so viewers never stare at a frozen screen while you are out streaming.

It can also post chat notifications and take commands from Twitch or YouTube chat. That is what “remote OBS management” means here. Your PC is at home, you are outside with your phone, and chat commands let you start, stop, and switch OBS without touching the machine.

What you will need

• OBS 28 or newer. The obs-websocket server is built in, so there is nothing extra to install.
• An SRT stats source. This is the stats endpoint from your SRT server, so a SRTLA receiver, an SLS srt-live-server, or a BELABOX setup. NOALBS reads your live bitrate from here.
• NOALBS itself. Grab the Windows build or run the Docker image.
• Super Simple IRL sending SRT. If you have not set that up yet, start with our guide on SRT streaming.

Enable obs-websocket in OBS

NOALBS talks to OBS over a small local server that is already inside OBS.

1. Open the WebSocket settings

   In OBS, open the Tools menu and choose WebSocket Server Settings.

2. Turn the server on

   Tick Enable WebSocket server. Leave the port at the default 4455 unless you have a reason to change it.

3. Set a password

   Enable authentication and set a password you will remember. You will paste the same host, port, and password into the NOALBS config in a moment.

Set up your scenes in OBS

Create three scenes with clear names. NOALBS matches these names exactly, so keep them simple.

• Live. Your normal scene. It shows the SRT feed from Super Simple IRL, plus your overlays and alerts. NOALBS switches here when your bitrate is healthy.
• Low. A reduced-motion holding scene for when the connection is struggling. Many streamers show a smaller camera, a “hang tight” banner, or a still frame that survives a low bitrate without turning to mush.
• Offline. A “be right back” card for when the stream drops entirely. NOALBS switches here the moment it sees the feed disconnect, so chat gets a clean screen instead of a freeze.

Configure NOALBS

1. Download and install

   Get the latest NOALBS release from its GitHub page. On Windows, unzip it and run the executable. If you prefer Docker, pull the image and mount your config file into the container.

2. Open the config file

   Edit config.json in a text editor. This is where you tell NOALBS how to reach OBS, which scenes to use, and where to read your stream health.

3. Point it at OBS

   Set the OBS websocket host, port, and password to match what you entered in OBS. On the same PC the host is usually localhost.

4. Map your three scenes

   Fill in the scene names so they match your OBS scenes exactly, one each for online, low bitrate, and offline.

5. Set your stats URL and type

   Give NOALBS the stats endpoint from your SRT server and tell it what kind of server it is, so it knows how to read the numbers.

6. Set your bitrate thresholds

   Choose a low_bitrate value in kbps. Drop below it and NOALBS switches to Low. Recover above the switching value and it goes back to Live. Tune these to your normal streaming bitrate.

7. Optionally add a chat bot

   To drive OBS from chat, add your Twitch bot username, an oauth token, the channel to join, and a command prefix such as !.

Here is an illustrative config to show the shape of it. Treat the values as examples and swap in your own.

{
  "user": { "id": 0, "name": "yourchannel" },
  "switcher": {
    "bitrate_switcher_enabled": true,
    "only_switch_when_streaming": true,
    "auto_switch_notification": true,
    "triggers": {
      "low": 800,
      "rtt": 2500,
      "offline": 0
    }
  },
  "software": {
    "type": "Obs",
    "host": "localhost",
    "port": 4455,
    "password": "your-obs-websocket-password"
  },
  "switching_scenes": {
    "normal": "Live",
    "low": "Low",
    "offline": "Offline"
  },
  "streamServers": [
    {
      "streamServer": {
        "type": "SrtLiveServer",
        "stats_url": "http://127.0.0.1:8181/stats",
        "publisher": "publish/live/feed"
      },
      "name": "Home",
      "priority": 0
    }
  ],
  "chat": {
    "platform": "Twitch",
    "username": "yourbot",
    "admins": ["yourchannel"],
    "oauth_token": "oauth:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
    "prefix": "!",
    "enable_public_commands": true
  }
}

Run it and test

1. Start NOALBS

   Launch NOALBS and check its window or logs. It should connect to OBS and to your stats URL with no errors.

2. Go live from the app

   Open Super Simple IRL and start streaming SRT to your server. NOALBS should settle on your Live scene while the feed is healthy.

3. Force a drop

   Throttle your bitrate down in the app, or cover the phone to weaken signal. Watch NOALBS switch to Low, then back to Live when it recovers. That confirms the whole loop works.

Chat commands for remote control

With the chat bot enabled, you manage OBS from your phone by typing in your own chat. Common commands are:

• !switch switches to a named scene on demand.
• !bitrate reports your current bitrate to chat.
• !refresh restarts the SRT feed or media source to recover a stuck stream.
• !start starts streaming or the switcher.
• !stop stops it when you are done.
• !trigger reads or sets your low bitrate threshold on the fly.
• !noalbs controls NOALBS itself, so you can turn auto switching on or off.

That is the remote part. You can be out on the street and still drive the OBS machine sitting at home, all from chat.

Troubleshooting

• WebSocket auth fails. The password in config.json must match the one in OBS exactly, and the port must be the same. Re-copy both.
• Scenes do not switch. Scene names must match character for character between OBS and your config, capitals included.
• Bitrate always reads zero. Your stats URL or server type is likely wrong. Open the stats URL in a browser and confirm it returns live numbers.
• Nothing connects at all. A firewall may be blocking the websocket or stats port. Allow OBS and NOALBS through, and confirm the ports are reachable.

Frequently asked questions