First graphic on air

This page takes you from a fresh install to a lower third on air in OBS or vMix. It takes about 10 minutes. If you haven’t installed Kinetra yet, start with Install.

You’ll make three things:

• a project: a folder that holds everything for your show;
• a template: the lower third graphic;
• a screen: a canvas with your graphics, which OBS or vMix shows through one URL.

1. Create a project

1. Start Kinetra. You see Open a project to start.
2. Click New project.
3. Type a Name, for example “My show”.
4. Next to Location, click Choose… and pick a folder, for example Documents.
5. Click Create.

Kinetra makes a folder for the project and opens its Dashboard.

2. Create a lower third

1. On the Dashboard, click Create your first template (or go to Templates › New template).
2. Click the Lower third card.
3. Click Create.

The template opens in the editor. You don’t need to change anything now. Click Templates at the top left to go back.

3. Create a screen and add the lower third

1. Click Screens in the sidebar, then New screen.
2. Keep the Resolution at 1920×1080 and the Background at Transparent. Click Create.
3. The layout editor opens. Click Add layer and pick Lower third under Templates.

The lower third appears near the bottom left of the screen.

4. At the top, click the copy button next to the screen’s URL. The URL looks like this:

http://127.0.0.1:7770/screen/k3m9x2p7qa

4. Add the screen to OBS or vMix

Kinetra must be open with your project for the graphics to show.

OBS Studio

1. In Sources, click + and choose Browser.
2. Name it “Kinetra” and click OK.
3. Paste the URL into URL.
4. Set Width to 1920 and Height to 1080.
5. Click OK.
6. Make sure the Kinetra source is at the top of the source list, above your camera.

vMix

1. Click Add Input and choose Web Browser.
2. Paste the URL and click OK.
3. Put the new input on an overlay channel, for example by clicking 1 under the input.

The page is transparent, so you see nothing yet. That’s expected: nothing is on air.

5. Take it to air

1. Click Control in the sidebar.
2. Click your screen, then click the arrow next to Lower third in the panel on the right to show its fields.
3. Type a Name and a Title.
4. Click Take.

The lower third animates in, in Kinetra and in OBS or vMix. The layer’s dot turns red: On air.

5. Click Clear to take it off air.

That’s it: your first graphic is on air.

If nothing shows in OBS or vMix

• Check that Kinetra is open and the top of the window shows an address like 127.0.0.1:7770. If it says Port 7770 is in use, see Troubleshooting.
• Check that you pasted the whole URL, including /screen/….
• Add ?debug to the end of the URL in OBS or vMix. A small badge shows whether the page is connected to Kinetra.
• In OBS, check that the browser source is above your other sources.

Next steps

• Get to know the interface.
• Learn more about Control: editing on air, hotkeys and PANIC.
• Give your graphics a style and your brand colors.
• Fill graphics from a guest list or spreadsheet.