Manual › Chapter 11
The broadcast gallery
Putting a race on air: live grid, cameras, auto-director, replay, graphics, OBS and the tablet gallery.
Who it is for#
Whoever puts a race on air: YouTube and Twitch channels, championships, amateur series, or simply the teammate commentating while the others race.
The model is a television gallery: an always-live race grid, cameras a click away, instant replay, and an auto-director that knows where something is happening.
You do not need a second machine#
It is always the first question, and the answer is no. The gallery works two ways.
| How | When it suits |
|---|---|
| One machine | You race and broadcast. The gallery is driven from a tablet or a laptop, and the graphics go inside OBS as a browser source rather than sitting on top of the simulator |
| Two machines | One PC races, another broadcasts as a spectator. The classic setup, and the drivers notice nothing |
The graphics have a setting for exactly this: Desk separates commentary (broadcasting a race you are not in) from driver (racing and broadcasting), and in the second case your own telemetry channels start switched off.
What you need#
- The companion installed on the PC you stream from — which can be the one you race on.
- iRacing open on the session: as a spectator if you are not racing, otherwise your own race session.
- For the OBS bridge: OBS Studio 28 or later, with its WebSocket server on (
Tools → WebSocket Server Settings). - A second screen helps but is not required: with one, drive it from a tablet. See The gallery on a tablet.
Opening the gallery#
From the companion, Broadcast card → Open the gallery. It opens in a window of its own, independent of the rest of the companion.
If iRacing is not open the button says so: with no simulator there is nothing to command.
How the window is laid out#
Three columns and a bar along the bottom.
| Where | What is there |
|---|---|
| Left column | Auto-director, cameras, on-car cameras, camera tool, direct capture |
| Centre column | The live grid, the quick jumps and the race story |
| Right column | The on-air graphics and the tablet gallery |
| Bottom bar | The replay transport |
Columns widen by dragging the vertical handles; the horizontal divider in the centre column moves space between the grid and the story.
The live grid#
The heart of the gallery. Every row is a car, and the columns say:
| Column | |
|---|---|
| Pos | Position |
| Var | Positions gained or lost since the start |
| # | Car number. Click the number: pins that car as the reference for gaps |
| Int. | Gap to the car ahead |
| Ref. | Gap to the reference car |
Around trims the list to the cars around the reference, with as many ahead and behind as you choose. In a sixty-car field it is the difference between watching and searching.
Clicking a row puts it on air; Shift+click previews it instead.
Going on air: preview and take#
The quick way is to click: whatever you click goes on air immediately.
The proper gallery way is preview then take:
- Shift+click (or preview mode) puts the car or camera in preview.
- Enter — or the TAKE button — puts it on air.
You want this when you are already watching something worth watching and you want to decide yourself when to cut.
The cameras#
Groups and cameras#
iRacing organises cameras into groups (TV1, TV2, cockpit, trackside, helicopter, pit lane…) and each group has its own shots.
In the left column the groups sit on a button pad — everything under your thumb rather than in a list — and beneath it are the cameras of the chosen group.
- F1…F8 change camera group.
- C moves to the next group.
On-car cameras#
A silhouette of the car seen from above, with the cameras iRacing places on the car in their real positions: nose, bonnet, cockpit, tail, wheels. The external ones — TV, helicopter, scenic — sit below.
It is a more natural way to choose: instead of reading a list of names, you point at where you want to be.
Camera tool#
The switches are: camera tool active (the other four only mean anything with this on), changes for this session only, aim with the mouse, fast movement, 10× movement, hide the iRacing interface, iRacing's own auto-director.
To change a shot on the fly, though, use the group cameras: it is quicker and touches nothing.
The quick jumps#
Six buttons, six keys, taking you to where the story is.
| Button | Key | Where it takes you |
|---|---|---|
| Leader | L | The head of the race |
| Battle | B | The two cars closest to each other |
| Incident | I | The latest incident |
| Pits | U | Whoever is coming out of the pits |
| Mine | M | Your own car |
| Next | N | The next car |
Plus three scene buttons: Map (live map on the side), Big map (centre of screen) and Recap, which puts the standings recap on air.
The auto-director#
The switch at the top left, or the A key.
What it follows#
| Mode | |
|---|---|
| The closest battles | Stays where the gap is smallest |
| The head of the race | Stays on the leader |
| My team | Follows your cars |
| Tour the field | Works its way through the field |
How it behaves#
- Hold the shot — from 3 to 40 seconds. Below eight it gets twitchy, above twenty it becomes a documentary: eight is a good starting point.
- Change camera at every cut — vary the shot instead of repeating the same one.
- Return to live 30s after the last command — useful if you step away.
Replay#
The bar along the bottom commands iRacing's tape.
| Command | Key |
|---|---|
| Previous / next incident | [ ] |
| Previous / next lap | , . |
| Back / forward 10 seconds | ← → |
| Back / forward 30 seconds | Shift+← / Shift+→ |
| Pause and play | Space |
| Review the last 20 seconds | R |
| Mark this moment | S |
| Back to live | Home |
The lead-in#
The lead-in menu decides how many seconds before the event the replay starts. A crash makes sense only if you see what caused it: five or six seconds of lead-in is usually enough.
Bookmarks#
S marks the moment you are at. Bookmarks live in the Bookmarks tab and earn their keep at the end of the race, when the recap has to be put together and nobody remembers what minute anything happened at.
Story, radar, suggestions#
The centre column has four tabs under the grid.
- Story — what just happened, in order, with how many seconds ago. From there you go and review it.
- Radar — the other cars' events: pits, off-tracks, cars gone, laps lost, flags.
- Bookmarks — the moments you marked.
- Suggestions — what the auto-director thinks is worth putting on air, with a badge counting how many there are. You can leave the director off and use this as a prompter only: you decide, but you miss nothing.
Direct capture#
Simulator commands, not ours: still image, record on/off, show and hide the timer, reload liveries. Photos and recordings end up in iRacing's video folder.
The on-air graphics#
A full-screen transparent window sitting above the simulator without stealing its focus — or, better, a browser source inside OBS (see below).
The controls are grouped into sections that open and close.
| Group | What is in it |
|---|---|
| Desk | Who you are: commentary (broadcasting a race you are not in) or driver (racing and broadcasting) |
| Appearance | Colours, sizes, positions of the panels |
| Tower | The timing tower: how many rows, which columns, class filter |
| Lower third, curtain and announcements | The name strap, the opening and closing curtain, on-screen announcements |
| Full pages | Starting grid, start lights, standings board |
| Driver card, cars and logos | Driver portraits, manufacturer badges, logos |
| Saved configurations | One championship, one look |
| OBS | The OBS bridge |
| Panels and demo | What to switch on, plus the fake-data mode |
| Webcam | The commentator's camera |
| Graphics for the driver | The case where you race and broadcast at once |
| Sizes and screen | Resolution and placement |
The G key turns the on-air graphics on and off.
Desk: commentary or driver#
They are two different jobs and the graphics know it.
- Commentary — you are broadcasting a race you are not in: the card follows whoever is on air.
- Driver — you race and broadcast at once: the card follows you, and your telemetry channels start off, because an opponent watching you would use them.
Demo mode#
Demo: fake data, for arranging the panels fills the graphics with invented data, so you can place everything calmly without waiting for a real race. It is the right way to prepare a first broadcast.
Saved configurations#
Every championship has its own look: colours, logos, which panels are on, how the tower is built. You save it under a name and find it identical the week after.
The OBS bridge#
Until yesterday these were two jobs with two different hands: on one side you drive iRacing's tape, on the other you change scenes in OBS. In between, under pressure, the order goes wrong — you cut before covering, or you cover and forget to cut.
Connecting it#
- In OBS:
Tools → WebSocket Server Settings, switch the server on and note the port (4455) and the password if there is one. - In the gallery, OBS group: tick connect OBS, enter the address, port and password if any.
- The status line below says whether the connection is up.
From there you can pick a scene and put it on air, or save OBS's replay buffer.
OBS needs no plugin#
Since version 28 OBS ships the WebSocket server inside itself. There is nothing to install.
The gallery on a tablet (or a second PC)#
With one monitor the gallery covers the race. The Gallery on a tablet switch opens a small server on your home network: the very same page opens on the tablet, the tablet commands, and the PC screen stays entirely on the simulator.
Pairing it#
- With the QR code — point the tablet's camera at it.
- With the address — copy it and open it in the tablet's browser, on the same network. You can bookmark it: it stays valid across restarts.
- On another computer — go to the bare address there, press Show the code on the race PC, and type the six digits. The key never leaves your home network.
The key#
A random key travels in the link: without it, the connection is closed. It stays valid until you regenerate it.
Regenerate the key disconnects whoever was in and changes every address. You want it if the old address ended up inside a broadcast or a shared screen.
The graphics inside OBS#
Rather than capturing the transparent window, it is better to put the graphics inside OBS as a browser source: that way you move, resize and order them within OBS, and the transparent window does not even have to be on screen.
If OBS runs on the same PC#
- Copy the address shown under The graphics inside OBS, on this PC.
- In OBS:
Sources → + → Browser. - Paste the address and set the same resolution as the scene (1920×1080).
If OBS runs on another PC#
Use the other address, the network one: localhost there would mean the wrong computer.
The simulator's video arrives from a capture card or over NDI; the graphics do not — those come from here and OBS lays them on top.
Every shortcut#
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| 1…9 | Put the 1st…9th of the chosen class on air |
| F1…F8 | Change camera group |
| C | Next camera group |
| Shift+click | Preview instead of taking |
| Enter | TAKE: put the preview on air |
| L | Leader |
| B | Closest battle |
| M | My car |
| N | Next car |
| I | Incident |
| U | Pit exit |
| A | Auto-director |
| G | On-air graphics |
| Space | Pause and play |
| ← → | ±10 seconds |
| Shift+← / Shift+→ | ±30 seconds |
| , . | Previous and next lap |
[ ] | Previous and next incident |
| R | Review 20 seconds |
| S | Mark |
| Home | Back to live |
Shortcuts do not fire while you are typing in a text box. The ? button at the top brings them up.
Preparing your first broadcast#
A running order that works.
- The day before, open the gallery with demo mode on and arrange the graphics calmly: colours, logo, tower, lower third.
- Save the configuration under the championship's name.
- Put the graphics into OBS as a browser source at 1920×1080.
- Connect OBS from its group and try changing a scene from the gallery.
- If you have one monitor, switch on the tablet gallery and pair it.
- On race day, join as a spectator, open the gallery, turn the graphics on, and keep the auto-director on closest battles as a safety net while you talk.