How to live stream 360° video with the Ricoh Theta S Camera

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Sylvia Duckworth

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Thank you to my friend David Hotler for his expert video tutorials, advice and utmost patience with me to figure this out how to make this work.

(He also made the cool rotating cube for me on the slide before!)

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Before you can livestream, you have to extend the screw on your tripod. Buy a ¼ by 20 screw (the man at the hardware store sawed the head off for me) and a coupling. Screw the coupling onto your tripod, then screw the screw in.

Screw

Coupling

David Hotler

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Now you can screw the camera on the tripod, while attaching the USB cord to your computer. IMPORTANT: you must put the camera in live mode before you attach it to your computer for live streaming.

Press top and bottom buttons at the same time to put the camera in “Live” mode.

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Live streaming 360° video with HugVR

HugVR is an easy-to-use platform for livestreaming 360° video. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work. Click here for instructions. Click here for a video tutorial by the amazing David Hotler. Click here for the iOS app which allows you to view other livestreams. All your events are archived for viewing later (click on your profile page to see them).

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Live Streaming 360° video on YouTube

Click here for a quick YouTube tutorial.

This method to livestream is more complicated to set up but YouTube automatically records the video so that it can be viewed by others later. (Video quality is better on HugVR, though.) Watch the videos above to learn how to do this or proceed to the next slides.

Video by David Hotler

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Step-by-step instructions to livestream 360° video on YouTube

1. Download and install the Theta UVC Blender (Livestreaming app).
2. It will ask you to connect your camera (turned off) to register it.
3. Turn on camera live mode (slide 4) and attach to laptop via USB cable.
4. Go to obsproject.com and download and install the Studio version.
5. Open the OBS software (Do a spotlight search if you can’t find it).
6. Under “Scenes”, tap the + sign and name your scene “Theta 360”.

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7. Tap on “Settings”.

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8. Tap on “Video” and set resolution to 1280 X 720. Tap “Ok”.

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9. Now go to “Sources” and tap the + sign.

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10. Click on “Device” and choose “Video Capture Device”

11. Give it a name, “Theta S”, tap “Ok”.

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12. Next window, tap “Device” and choose “Theta UVC Blender”. As soon as you do this, your video should open. Tap “Ok”. (If you don’t see the option or a video, make sure your camera is still on and in Live mode. If it’s not, detach from computer and put in live mode again).

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Stretch your video to fit the whole area. If it still doesn’t fit, right click, click Transform > Fit to Screen

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13. Go to YouTube. Set up a YouTube channel if you don’t have one already. Go to your channel and click on “Video Manager” at the top.

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14. On the left, tap on “Livestreaming”, then “Events”.

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15. Tap on “New live event”.

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16. Give it a name. Make sure the video is either Unlisted or Public.

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17. Tap “Create Event”.

18. The next window to appear should be your Ingestion Settings.

19. Under “Custom ingestion”, tap “Select a Stream”.

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20. Tap “Create New Stream” and give it a name “Theta 360”. On the same page, under “Maximum sustained bitrate”, choose 1500 - 4000. Tap “Save changes”.

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22. Tap “Info and Settings” and then

“Advanced Settings”.

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23. Scroll down, on the right, check off “This live stream is 360°”. Tap “Save changes”.

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24. Go back to “Ingestion Settings”

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25. Scroll down and copy the Stream name:

xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx

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26. Go back to the OBS software. Tap “Settings”, then “Stream” and paste the stream name next to Stream key. Tap Ok.

Make sure this is on YouTube

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27. Tap “Output”

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28. Video Bitrate: set anywhere from 1500 - 4000, depending on the strength of your wifi and the power of your computer. Click here for more info. Tap “OK”. (Note: this has to match slide 11, #20)

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29. Tap “Start Streaming”.

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30. Go back to your YouTube channel. Tap “Live Control Room”

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31. Make sure that your stream status

is “Good”

If it’s not good (ie. it says “BAD”), check that your camera is still in live stream mode (it may have turned off). NOTE: Even if it says “BAD”, it might still be working. Click on “View on watch page” and you might see it. It will slag beyond live time about a minute. If it’s still not working, go back over all the instructions in this tutorial and make sure that you have all the settings correct. If you start from scratch, note that every time you start a new YouTube live stream event, you need to copy and paste the new Stream Name into OBS (slide 12, #25).

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30. Click the blue Preview button

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31. Now click the play button in the video below to see the preview.

32. When you are ready, tap

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33. On the right, tap “View on Watch Page” to get the URL to share.

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34. Tap “Stop Streaming” when you are done.

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35. Your video will automatically save to your YouTube channel.

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On an Android phone, a viewer can watch the YouTube livestream in Virtual Reality! (By tapping on Google Cardboard icon on the YouTube video.)