Stream screens cover the parts of a broadcast where you are not on camera. There are four of them in a standard set, and most channels set up the first one and ignore the rest — which is a shame, because the other three are doing work at moments when viewers are deciding whether to stick around.
Starting Soon
Shown before you go live properly. This is the screen with the largest audience relative to its effort, because people who arrive early sit and watch it.
Put something on it that rewards waiting: what you are playing today, when you actually start, your socials. A countdown if your software supports one. Silence and a static image is a missed opportunity — most streamers run music under this screen for a reason.
Be Right Back
The one that keeps a stream alive during a break. Without it, you either leave your camera running or cut to nothing, and both cost you viewers.
Keep it calm and keep it clearly temporary. This is a good place for a Discord link, because someone waiting for you to come back has nothing else to do.
Stream Ending
The most underused of the four. At the end of a stream you have the most engaged audience you will have all day — the people who stayed to the end — and this is the last thing they see.
Use it: when you are next live, where to follow you, your Discord. A raid usually happens over this screen too, so it is what the raided channel's chat sees of you.
Offline
Slightly different from the other three. This one is not a scene in OBS — it is the banner Twitch shows on your channel page when you are not streaming, and you upload it in your Twitch settings rather than adding it to your scene list.
It is the screen with the longest total viewing time of any asset you own, because your channel is offline far more than it is live. Schedule and socials belong here.
Setting them up in OBS
- Create a separate scene for each screen you use — Starting Soon, BRB, Ending.
- In each scene, add the matching file as a Media Source for video, or an Image source for a still.
- For video, enable looping so it does not stop after one pass and leave you on black.
- Switch between scenes as needed. If you have a stinger transition, these switches are where it earns its keep.
Add your microphone to the BRB scene only if you intend to talk over it. Most people do not, and forgetting a live mic on a break screen is a classic way to broadcast something you did not mean to.
Text on screens
Screens generally ship with their standard labels already on them. If you want your own wording — a specific return time, today's game — add a text source on top in OBS rather than editing the artwork. It is faster and you can change it mid-stream.
Matching sets
All four screens should look like they came from the same place, because viewers see them in sequence across a single stream. Ours ship as sets of four in 1920 x 1080.