Guide · OBS

iPhone as an OBS camera — 60-second setup, no subscription.

A wireless iPhone camera source in OBS Studio in about a minute: free plugin, auto-discovery on your LAN, no NDI license, no subscription, no capture card.

Airlive team 4 min read

Install once

  1. You need OBS 30+ on macOS 14+.
  2. Download Airlive for OBS (free, open-source). Quit OBS, run the PKG, relaunch OBS.
  3. On the iPhone (11 or newer, iOS 17+): install Airlive Camera — free; it's coming to the App Store, and the Downloads page tracks availability.

Add the source — the 60 seconds

  1. In OBS: Sources → + → Airlive Camera.
  2. On the iPhone: Airlive Camera → Live → pick your Mac. Discovery is automatic on the same network — no IPs, no pairing.
  3. The feed appears in the scene. That's the setup.
The 60 seconds, start to finish — add the source, pick the Mac, you're live.

Dial it in

Open the source's Properties. The two settings that matter:

Latency preset — from Unbuffered to Smooth. Lower is snappier; smoother rides out Wi-Fi hiccups. If you run several cameras, keep the preset identical on all of them — here's why fixed latency beats "as fast as possible".

Remote control — tally, lens and exposure for the connected phone, right from the source properties. You can also set a receiver password so only your phones can connect.

Screenshot · 16:9 · 2560×1440

OBS source Properties: latency preset, quality, remote control.

Tally, straight from OBS

The phone knows its on-air state — the operator sees it on screen the moment the source goes live. No glancing at the monitor to check. More on why that matters: a tally light on a phone.

Troubleshooting

  1. The source isn't in the + menu — OBS wasn't restarted after the install. Quit fully and reopen.
  2. The phone doesn't see the Mac — both must be on the same network, and it must allow local discovery (guest/hotel Wi-Fi often blocks it).
  3. Stutter — move a preset toward Smooth, or move the router closer. Wire the Mac by Ethernet if you can.

FAQ

What about latency? You choose it with the preset. The useful property isn't "lowest ever" — it's a known, stable delay you can mix audio against.

Do I need Airlive Bridge? No — the plugin connects phones to OBS directly. Bridge is for multicam switching before OBS, with a multiview and CUT.

Windows? Not yet — the receivers are Mac-first today. That's the honest answer.

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