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Chroma key is a technique that allows users to remove certain colours from the video in order to replace them with anything else. While the chroma key is not a built-in feature of AREC stations, it is very simple to add this effect through third-party software and hardware. In this guide, we will describe how you can do this via one of the most common and free broadcasting applications, OBS.
To begin, open OBS and create a new scene by pressing ‘+’ at the bottom-left of the app under ‘Scenes’, or use the one that was created by default. Next, add your video source to this scene by right-clicking in the field under ‘Sources’ or pressing a ‘+’ there. Add a ‘Video Capture Device’ if you are using a USB camera, NDI, or another virtual driver camera. If you are using a network camera, then choose ‘Media Source’ and make sure to tick off ‘Local File’. This will allow you to type in the protocol and address of your source.
Once the source is added, right-click on it and select ‘Filters’. Under ‘Effect Filters’, choose ‘Chroma Key’. Customise its name or simply press ‘OK’. Doing that will open chroma key settings with preview. It may be that the default settings of OBS will immediately produce the right results for you and make all backgrounds black. However, if that’s not the case, use the dropdown menu to select which colour to remove and adjust accordingly using sliders like ‘Similarity’ and others in the same settings menu.
Once you are satisfied with the chroma key appearance, close this menu to apply changes. You can now resize and reposition your video source by dragging its corners and add other elements that you wish to see instead of the black background. For instance, you can add presentation slides, your organisation’s colours and backgrounds, view of a conference room, or any other image, video or file. Simply right-click under ‘Sources’ or press the ‘+’ button to add the element you need, and then reorder the camera source you customised before to be on top of the list. To give an example, in the following image we added computer slides via ‘Window Capture’, and put a USB camera on top of them:
You can now send the final result into your AREC Media Station. Connect the computer running OBS into the station and make sure that it is selected as a video source there by going to the ‘Administrator’ web page -> ‘Media I/O’ -> ‘Video inputs’. In the OBS, right-click on the ‘Scene’ you were setting up, click ‘Full Screen Projector’ and select ‘CBOX’ from the list. This will make that OBS scene display in full screen on your Media Station. Choose a layout with your computer source and you are good to go!
If you would like to know more about how to effectively combine features of other third-party hardware and software with AREC, let us know by contacting us at www.a-dena.com and stay tuned for more useful tips and tricks in our future posts!
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