Going live on a PC with Browser Source
A browser source turns any screen on your network into another output. It's the route for broadcasting from a PC without giving up control from your iPad.
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The problem with broadcasting from a PC
Plenty of setups are mixed: the computer that broadcasts is a Windows PC — because that’s where the capture card is, or the game, or simply because it’s the one you have — and the device within reach for running the show is an iPad or an iPhone.
The usual way to get content into a scene without touching OBS is window capture. But that window is opened by a program, and if your program is a Mac one and your broadcast machine is a PC, there’s no window to capture.
That’s where the browser comes in.
What a Browser Source is
OBS has a browser inside it. A browser source takes a web address and paints that page inside your scene, like any other image. It’s used constantly for alerts, counters and overlays.
The interesting part is that the source doesn’t care where the page comes from. It can be an internet service, or it can be a device on your own network. If the control room in your hands serves a local address, that address is as valid as any other.
What the setup looks like
Three pieces, and none of them needs anything installed on the PC beyond OBS.
- The control room — an iPad or an iPhone — is where you search, choose and decide what to air.
- The local address. The control room serves a small server on your network and hands you an address, usually as a QR code too so you don’t have to type it.
- The browser source in OBS. You paste the address, size it to your scene, and never touch it again.
From then on, what you air from the iPad appears in the PC’s scene. The PC knows nothing about any of it: as far as it’s concerned, it’s a web page that keeps changing on its own.
What you gain and what you lose
You gain independence from the operating system. It doesn’t matter whether you broadcast from Windows, from Linux or from a Mac that isn’t yours: if it has OBS, it has a browser.
You also gain the ability to put a screen where there is no computer. An old iPad propped on a stand can be the prompter, with no cables and nothing to install.
You lose a little immediacy. A local window changes in the same instant; a page on another device takes a few milliseconds longer. With a single output nobody notices. With three, if one is local and another goes over the network, you can see they don’t switch together.
About that delay
If you end up with outputs of two kinds — a window on the computer and a browser on another device — it’s worth measuring each one once and letting the fast ones wait for the slowest. That’s the difference between a clean cut and a flicker where the change happens twice.
The exception, again, is the kill switch. If something has to be covered, it gets covered now, waiting for nobody: it’s the one action where arriving early beats arriving in step.
How Inessa does it
In Inessa, the control room serves its own address on the local network and shows it as a QR code. You paste it into a Browser Source and that PC becomes another output, with its role — public, private monitor or prompter — like any other.
The address carries a token, so knowing the IP isn’t enough, and it never leaves your network: there’s no server of ours in between. Each output’s delay is measured automatically, can be nudged by tenths of a second, and there’s a switch to equalise them all. The panic button doesn’t wait.
Frequently asked questions
What exactly is a Browser Source?
An OBS source that puts a web page inside your scene. OBS ships with an embedded browser, so whatever that page shows appears in your stream, with nothing else to install.
Do I need a server on the internet?
No, and that's the important part. The address can live on your own local network: a device of yours serves it and it never leaves the building. That makes it fast, and stops it depending on a third-party service being up that night.
Is it safe? It's an open address on my network.
It depends how it's done. The address should carry a token, so guessing the IP and port isn't enough. And living only on the local network, it isn't exposed to the internet.
Is it slower than capturing a window?
Slightly, yes: there's a network in between. On a decent local network the difference is milliseconds. What matters isn't the delay itself, but that all outputs change at the same time.
Can I have several screens this way?
Yes, and that's the normal setup: one for what the audience sees, one as your private monitor, one with the prompter. Each is a separate address, and only the public one goes into the scene you broadcast.