It's been a while since we've had a new thread about streaming your DJ or VideoDJ sets online. There's a ton of platforms you CAN stream to and a few of those come with extreme caveats that will leave you frustrated at times. This is aimed at TRUE set streams via your setup and not some crappy phone shot video I see some people do. I only want to create quality streams so this isn't a beginner thread, it's more for refining what you might already be using. I do everything on this one machine with no drop outs, or other issues.

First up, my hardware:

MacBook Pro 15" mid-2012
OS X 10.10.5 Yosemite
16GB RAM
VIdeo: NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1GB
Boot Drive: Samsung 256GB SSD
Library Drive (internal): Seagate 2TB
Pioneer DDJ-SX
Internet Connection: Spectrum 300/20

Streaming sites I've had the best luck with:

1. Twitch
2. Chew.tv
3. Periscope
4. Facebook Live

Breakdown of each site with my explanation:

1. Twitch - pros: awesome interface, quick and easy to start up a stream, won't get your stream cut. cons: if you archive shows chances are you might be muted

2. Chew.tv - pros: still the best site for a hands off (and supposedly licensed) streaming ability. Shows don't get cut, they don't mute shows after the fact and they are archived for up to week. cons: still in a state of flux, since BandLab bought them last year they are rebuilding the core in the background. Moments of instability, not sure how long the freedom of the platform will last. Sometimes listeners will be nagged to create an account to listen to your complete stream.

3.Periscope - pros: haven't had a stream cut mid set, decent freedom and if you use Twitter a lot it interfaces with that well. cons: really aimed at mobile viewing vs someone being able to use a laptop/computer to view your stream.

4. Facebook Live - pros: THE JUGGERNAUT, if you are playing remixes that dodge the content bots this is my favorite platform. Pushing out posts from your DJ business page is a great perk. cons: Content ID bots can be brutal, not just the audio but visuals as well, which really stinks if you're doing music videos. Not only can your live stream be cut mid set, even after the fact you may get muted after the show is processed resulting in a useless effort. Also, support for streaming doesn't come with the free tier of restream.io if you are using that service.

What software am I using?

Serato DJ Pro 2.0.0 (nothing in .1 or .2 that I need)
MixEmergency 3.2.0 Beta
OBS 0.16.2
smcFanControl 2.6
gfxCardStatus 2.3
Display Menu 2.2.3

Preparations for my streaming:

Quit: DropBox, 1Password
Turn Off: Bluetooth

I do not turn of WIFI, has never been an issue for me and my studio set up is in my garage and does not have a wired connection there.

OBS Setup:

This is a super short, and not the most detailed. I get off easy using the DDJ-SX to stream because the soundcard is selectable in OBS making a lot of audio routing that others have to do a moot point.

I've actually found that OBS uses a LOT less overhead (CPU%) when I have it stream an extended desktop vs a window. What does this mean? Well instead of adding a "source" that is a "window capture" I have MixEmegency on an extended desktop/screen and have OBS do "display capture" instead. This cuts my CPU usage from 25% in the app down to 11% with minimal loss of quality. I did recently add an overlay of the SDJ decks to appease admins on some platforms so they don't think I am just preprogrammed stream using them as some sort of pirate station. I can get a bit more granular if some of you are kicking around the settings on the actual video stream, getting your stream key, etc.

No special settings in SDJ Pro or MixEmergency, I am still looking for my favorite webcam location to get an overhead of the controller as well. Once that is set I will use MixEmergency to do that overlay into OBS.

Hopefully this will get some folks interested in sharing their sets and help you side step some of the headaches that some platforms have. I'd love to hear about other services I am not using and what the pros/cons are of them.