SA Streamers Guide

What is a Ingest Relay

An Ingest relay is a service provided by a Internet company (Normaly a ISP) that optimizes the path between your computer sending the data and the Twitch server accepting the data for your stream. Using a Ingest Relay will increate the quality and stability of your Twitch stream by a large margin (assuming you have a descent Internet Connection).

Which relay should I use ?

I am currently aware of only two Ingest relays in South Africa.

  1. Cool Ideas - This Relay is only available to Cool Ideas customers(confirmed 18/10/2021).
  2. Hyperlayer - This Relay is available for the whole South African Comunity

If you are a Cool Ideas customer I would suggest using their relay as this will provide the absolute best experience. If you are not a Cool Ideas customer you will have to use the Hyperlayer relay, this should still give a vastly better experience.

How do I configure an Ingest Relay ?

Ingest Relays are configured inside your streaming software (OBS) as custom streams.

Step by Step

  1. Open OBS
  2. Click on Settings (bottom right corner)
  3. Click on Stream (Left Menu Bar)
  4. Change Service to Custom
  5. In the server field copy paste/type the url for your selected Ingest Relay
  6. In the Stream Key field, paste the Stream Key you have copied from your Twitch Dashboard (See Below on where to get your Stream Key)
  7. Leave the Use Authentication checkbox unchecked
  8. Click Apply (bottom of page)
  9. Click Ok (bottom of page)
ingest relay settings

Where do I get my stream key ?

In order for Twitch to know who is streaming to them , you need to configure your stream key in your streaming software. Your stream key is extremely sensitive, so please make sure that you never show it on stream or in a recording. If you stream key accidententily gets revealed, immediately log into twitch and reset your key.

  1. Open Twitch.tv
  2. Click on your avatar (top right corner)
  3. Click on Creator Dashboard
  4. Click on Settings (gear icon)
  5. Click on Stream
  6. Click on the Copy Button next to the hidden Primary Stream Key to copy the key to your clipboard
ingest relay settings

Setting up Custom Docks for Chat and Stream Info

You will notice that when you changed your stream settings to custom, your OBS no longer shows the Twitch Chat or Stream Info Panels. In OBS these panels are called Docks, and you can add them back in quite easily by follow these steps.

  1. Click on view (Top Menu Bar)
  2. Hover over the Docks item, and select Custom Browser Docks
  3. Create Twich Chat Dock
    1. Type Twitch Chat into the input field under Dock Name
    2. Add the url for your chat window into field under URL
    3. Your URL is is :https://dashboard.twitch.tv/popout/u/<USERNAME>/stream-manager/chat - (Replace <USERNAME> with your Twitch Handle.)
  4. Create Channel Information Dock
    1. Type Channel Information into the input field under Dock Name
    2. Add the url for your Channel Information into field under URL
    3. Your URL is is :https://dashboard.twitch.tv/popout/u/<USERNAME>/stream-manager/edit-stream-info - (Replace <USERNAME> with your Twitch Handle.)
Custom Dock Settings

Increase Stream Bitrate

Now that you have swapped over to the Ingest Relay, you should be able to increase your stream bitrate to further increase your quality. The maximum bitrate allowed by Twitch at the moment is 6000kbs for Affiliates, and 3500 for non Affiliates. I would not suggest increasing your bitrate about 50% of your available upload bandwidth.

  1. Open OBS
  2. Click on settings (bottom right corner)
  3. Click on output (left menu bar)
  4. Change output mode to advanced at the top of the page.
  5. Choose your encoder (NVVIDIA NVENC H.264(new)) is preferred if you have an newer generation NVVIDIA GPU)
  6. Change Rate Control to CBR (constant bitrate)
  7. Enter your bitrate into the Bitrate Field (no more than 6000kbs)
  8. Change your Keyframe to 2

You can play around with the other settings, but make sure you know what they do before you change them.