BTS Studio User Guide

1. Getting started

Install

1. Download the installer (BTS-Studio-Setup-<version>.exe) from studio.btspl.tech.
2. Run it. If Windows SmartScreen shows a warning, choose More info → Run anyway (only for installers downloaded from this site).
3. Follow the steps in the installer. A Start menu and desktop shortcut are created.

First launch

BTS Studio opens with an empty project. The top half shows two monitors: PREVIEW on the left and OUTPUT on the right. Below them are the transition controls, then your inputs, then the audio mixer.

Add an input

Click Add Input (or press Ctrl+I), choose a type — for example Camera or Video — pick the device or file, and click OK. Each input appears as a numbered tile.

Preview vs Output

• Preview is what you are preparing. Viewers cannot see it.
• Output (also called Program) is what is live — streamed, recorded and sent to the External output.

Click an input tile to load it into Preview. Number keys 1–9 do the same.

Quick Play, Cut and the T-Bar

• Quick Play (Space) — transitions Preview to Output using the selected transition and duration.
• Cut (Enter) — swaps Preview and Output instantly.
• T-Bar — drag to perform the transition by hand at your own speed. Let go part way to hold a mix.
• Transition buttons 1–4 — four programmable buttons, each with its own effect and duration (T Y U I).
• Fade to Black (B) — fades the whole Output to black, and back.

Save your setup with Ctrl+S as a .btsproj preset. BTS Studio also autosaves and offers to recover your project after a crash.

2. Inputs

Input settings

Double-click an input's thumbnail (or right-click the tile and choose its settings) to open the input settings. The tabs are:

• General — name, device or file, loop and other type-specific options.
• Position / Crop — position, zoom, crop, rotate, border and rounded corners.
• Colour Correction — brightness, contrast, saturation and other adjustments.
• Keying — GPU chroma key (green or blue screen) and luma key (remove black or white).
• Audio — the input's audio options; full controls are in the audio mixer.
• Layers — place up to 10 other inputs on top of this one, each with its own position.

3. Transitions & Stingers

BTS Studio includes more than 20 transitions: Fade, Merge, Zoom, Cross Zoom, Wipes, Iris, Slide, Push, Fly, Cube, Flip, Dip to Black, Dip to White and Blur. Set the effect and duration for Quick Play and for each of the four transition buttons.

Stingers

A stinger is a short video with an alpha channel (transparency) that plays over the switch — for example a logo that sweeps across the screen.

• Format: WebM with VP9 and alpha is recommended. Any video format with alpha that FFmpeg can decode will work.
• Cut point: the moment, in milliseconds from the start, when the switch happens underneath. Set it to the frame where the stinger fully covers the screen.
• Keep stingers short (about 1 second) and the same resolution as your output.

4. Overlays

Overlays sit on top of Output (and Preview) without changing what is underneath. There are 4 overlay channels, so you can show a logo, a scoreboard and a lower third at the same time.

• Toggle overlay 1–4 on the selected input with Shift+1–4, or with the overlay buttons on each tile.
• Turn all overlays off with Shift+0.
• Title inputs animate in when shown and animate out when hidden, using the title's own animation.

5. Titles & Title Designer

Add a Title input and choose a template:

• Lower third
• Breaking news with ticker
• Cricket score bar
• Sports score
• Clock and Countdown
• Full-screen title
• Social handle
• Up next

Edit the text fields in the title's settings — changes appear live. Each field has a name (for example Score) which you use with Data Sources and the API.

Title Designer

Open the visual Title Designer to build your own titles: add text, rectangles, images, clocks, countdowns and tickers, set fonts and colours, position elements, and name the text fields you want to change during the show. Save it and use it like any built-in template.

6. Data Sources

Data Sources fill title fields from a table of data, so you don't have to retype names and scores.

Supported sources

• CSV — a local .csv file. The first row is the column headers.
• JSON — a local file or URL containing an array of objects.
• Google Sheets — paste the sheet's share link. Set sharing to Anyone with the link → Viewer.

Bindings

In the Data Sources window, bind a column to a title field (for example column Runs to the Score field of the Score title). Set an auto refresh interval so the title updates when the source changes.

Row selection

Choose which row is shown. Use Next/Previous to step through rows — useful for player names or results. From the API: /api/?Function=DataSourceNextRow&Value=Players.

7. Audio mixer

Every input with sound has a channel strip with a fader, mute, and peak meter.

Buses

• M (Master) — goes to stream, recording and External output.
• A and B — two extra buses, for example a separate mix for headphones or a commentary feed.

Click M, A or B on a strip to route that input to the bus.

Per-input processing

• Trim — input gain before the fader.
• Delay — delays audio in milliseconds for lip-sync when video is behind.
• EQ — 3-band (low, mid, high).
• Compressor — evens out loud and quiet speech.
• Noise gate — mutes background hiss between words.
• Solo — listen to just this input in headphones.
• AFV (Audio Follows Video) — the input's audio is only heard when it is on Output.

Master

The master limiter stops the output clipping. Pick a headphone monitoring device to listen to the mix. Open the mixer in its own window with F9.

8. Streaming

Destinations

Open stream settings and add up to 3 destinations. They stream at the same time. Supported: YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, custom RTMP/RTMPS, SRT and UDP. If the connection drops, BTS Studio reconnects automatically.

Stream keys

Copy the stream key from your platform's live dashboard (YouTube Studio → Go live, Facebook Live Producer, Twitch Creator Dashboard) and paste it into the destination. Treat it like a password — anyone with it can stream to your channel.

Encoder

• NVENC (NVIDIA), Quick Sync (Intel), AMF (AMD) — hardware encoders, recommended.
• x264 — software (CPU). Works anywhere but uses a lot of CPU.

Recommended settings

Your upload speed should be at least 1.5× the total bitrate of all destinations. Start streaming with Ctrl+Shift+L.

9. Recording & MultiCorder

Record Output to MP4, MKV, MOV or WebM. Start or stop with Ctrl+Shift+R.

MultiCorder (ISO recording)

MultiCorder records selected inputs — usually your cameras — to separate clean files, without titles or transitions, so you can re-edit the show later.

• Pass-through — saves the source as it arrives without re-encoding. Uses very little CPU, but only works when the source format can be stored directly.
• Re-encode — encodes each input with the chosen encoder. Works with any source, uses more CPU/GPU.

Snapshots

Press Ctrl+P to save a still image of Output.

10. External output & Multiview

External output

Send Output fullscreen to any connected display — a projector, TV or LED screen. Choose the display in the External output settings. Extend your desktop in Windows display settings first (do not mirror).

Multiview

Press F8 to open Multiview: Preview, Output and all inputs in one window, ideal on a second monitor. Press F9 to open the audio mixer window.

11. Keyboard shortcuts

12. Web Controller & API

BTS Studio runs a small web server (default port 8088) so other devices on your network can control it.

Web Controller

On a phone or tablet on the same Wi-Fi, open http://PC-IP:8088/ — replace PC-IP with your PC's local IP address (run ipconfig to find it, e.g. 192.168.1.20).

Tally lights

Open http://PC-IP:8088/tally/?input=1 on a phone mounted near camera 1. The screen turns RED when that input is on Output and GREEN when it is in Preview.

HTTP API

• GET /api — current state as JSON.
• GET /api?format=xml — current state as XML.
• GET /api/functions — list of all available functions.

Call a function with /api/?Function=Name plus parameters. Input can be the input number, its title, or its id.

/api/?Function=Cut&Input=2
/api/?Function=QuickPlay&Input=Camera
/api/?Function=SetText&Input=Score&SelectedName=Score&Value=120/3
/api/?Function=OverlayInput1&Input=3
/api/?Function=StartStreaming
/api/?Function=SetVolume&Input=2&Value=75
/api/?Function=DataSourceNextRow&Value=Players

SetVolume value 75 = 0 dB.

POST with JSON

You can also POST a JSON body with the same parameters:

curl -X POST http://192.168.1.20:8088/api/ \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"Function":"SetText","Input":"Score","SelectedName":"Score","Value":"120/3"}'

13. Updates

BTS Studio checks for updates automatically at startup and every 6 hours. When a new version is available you are notified and can download it. Install by restarting the app when convenient; otherwise it installs the next time you quit.

To check yourself, use Help → Check for Updates. Your presets and settings are kept.

14. Troubleshooting

Camera is busy or shows black

Another app (Zoom, Teams, browser, camera app) is using the camera. Close it, then remove and re-add the input. Check Windows Settings → Privacy → Camera allows desktop apps.

FFmpeg errors

Usually caused by an unsupported file, a missing file, or an encoder your GPU doesn't support. Try another file, re-encode it, or switch the encoder to x264 to test. The exact message is in the log file.

Stream won't connect

Check the stream key (paste it again — no extra spaces), the server URL, and that the event is set to live on the platform. Keys can change when you create a new live event.

Windows Firewall prompt

The first time the API/web controller starts, Windows asks whether to allow BTS Studio on networks. Allow it on Private networks so phones and tablets can connect.

Choppy video or high CPU

Update your GPU drivers from NVIDIA, AMD or Intel. Use a hardware encoder, lower the output resolution or frame rate, and close other heavy apps.

Log file

Open Tools → Show Log File. Include it when reporting a problem.