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Beam Networks Stream Docs

Getting Started

Welcome to Beam Networks Stream. This guide walks you through the minimum steps to get from account creation to your first working stream delivery. Follow the order below — each step depends on the one before it.

What you’ll need before you begin

Section titled “What you’ll need before you begin”
  • An Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or newer) running macOS 13 or later
  • OBS Studio 32.1 or later installed
  • An approved Beam beta account
  • The RTMP URL and stream key for your destination, such as YouTube

You do not need to compile anything, copy an API key, or manage a server.

Section titled “Recommended setup order”
  1. Create your account at app.beamnetworks.stream/sign-up, or use the invitation sent by Beam.
  2. Add an output destination.
  3. Create a stream and attach that destination.
  4. Install the OBS plugin and link it to the stream.
  5. Configure OBS, record locally, and run a short test.

Step 1 — Create your account

Section titled “Step 1 — Create your account”

Beam is currently a controlled beta. If the signup page says access is limited, ask Beam to approve or invite your address before continuing.

After verification, the portal creates your beta account and trial workspace automatically.

Step 2 — Add your destination

Section titled “Step 2 — Add your destination”
  1. Open Destinations in the portal.
  2. Choose Add destination.
  3. Enter a name, the RTMP or RTMPS server URL, and the destination stream key.
  4. Save the destination.

For YouTube, leave the stream key’s resolution detection set to Auto. A custom key pinned to a lower manual resolution can show misleading high-bitrate warnings even when OBS and Beam are delivering a healthy 1080p feed. Beam preserves the encoded video it receives from OBS; it does not resize or transcode the destination output.

Treat the stream key like a password. Beam stores it for use by the delivery service and does not show it in ordinary page views.

Step 3 — Create a stream

Section titled “Step 3 — Create a stream”
  1. Open Streams.
  2. Choose Create stream.
  3. Give the broadcast a name and select the destination you just added.
  4. Create the stream and open its detail page.

Step 4 — Install and link the OBS plugin

Section titled “Step 4 — Install and link the OBS plugin”

Follow the OBS Plugin Install (macOS) guide. The short version:

  1. Quit OBS.
  2. Copy beam-obs.plugin into ~/Library/Application Support/obs-studio/plugins/.
  3. Copy the included starter config to ~/Library/Application Support/Beam/obs-plugin.json.
  4. Reopen OBS and approve the unsigned beta in Privacy & Security if macOS blocks it.
  5. In the Beam dock, choose Link with Portal, approve the browser code, and select your stream.

Portal linking stores the ingest credential in macOS Keychain. You should not paste an API key into the JSON file.

Step 5 — Configure and rehearse

Section titled “Step 5 — Configure and rehearse”

Beam recommends 1920×1080 at 60 fps with 6000 kbps CBR and a two-second keyframe interval. Configure these in OBS Settings; Beam does not change your profile.

Before an important beta broadcast:

  1. Start a local OBS recording.
  2. Press the normal OBS Stream button.
  3. Confirm the Beam dock reports delivery.
  4. Confirm the portal shows the stream as active.
  5. Confirm the destination preview has audio and video.
  6. End the short test and review the recording before the real broadcast.

The current plugin keeps its recovery history in memory. Keep OBS running and record locally; quitting or crashing OBS clears pending recovery data. Longer reliability windows and higher bitrates require more free RAM on the Mac. As a rough guide, a 10 Mbps stream uses about 75 MB of cache per minute, or about 375 MB for five minutes, plus OBS and plugin overhead. Actual outage coverage is limited by the video the plugin can still retain in memory.

What to do if something isn’t working

Section titled “What to do if something isn’t working”

See the Troubleshooting guide. Start by checking that the Beam dock shows the linked account and stream, then confirm the destination server URL and stream key.

What’s next

Section titled “What’s next”