CueStrideSign up free

Streams and overlaysPro and up

The stage timer on your stream, with no black box around it

OBS Studio and vMix show a web page in a scene as a browser source. Give one the link of a room's Timer, and the countdown, its wrap-up colours, and the messages you send appear in the stream, on the same second as the screens on stage. On Pro and up, the link can ask for no background at all, so only the timer is laid over your video.

Sign up free Read the guide
Illustration of a livestream frame of a conference talk, a speaker beside a lectern on a stage lit blue and violet, with CueStride's real Timer laid over the lower right corner: Product roadmap, 9:30 in green, and its progress bar, with the stage showing through around them.
The room is an illustration; the screen is CueStride itself, captured from the app.

On your video

Only the timer, its bar, and the message

The transparent Timer paints no background: the digits, their green, yellow, and red, the progress bar, the message you send, and your logo are drawn as they are on stage, and the rest of the page is clear. The text carries a soft shadow and the bar's track is see-through, so they read over a bright picture.

It draws nothing else over the stream: no corner buttons, no Enable sound button, and no request to go fullscreen. It never chimes, so nothing rings into the stream's sound, and its flashes still show. Blackout leaves the source clear, and the flips still apply.

The main hall's Timer from a transparent link, on checks that stand for no background: Product roadmap, 9:30 in large green digits with a soft shadow, and the progress bar along the bottom.
The checks are only where the page is clear: in OBS, your video shows there.

From your seat

Clear a source already in OBS, without a new link

A Timer source already in the scene needs no new link. Open Live connections from the screen count in the controller's header, and on the source's row choose Transparent background, after the two flips. The source goes clear at once; choose it again to bring the black back.

A refresh of the source keeps it. When OBS loads the source's saved URL again, after a restart for example, it opens the link that was pasted, so paste the transparent link to keep it for good. A paired screen's row has no such button: a TV in the venue keeps its background.

Live Connections, 5 of 50: Ada Lovelace's controller, with a crown and You, then four viewer screens of the main hall, Stage left, Viewer 2, Confidence monitor, and OBS stream overlay, each with its flip, mirror, transparent background, and fullscreen buttons, the overlay's transparent background button pressed.

Plans

Which plan has it

Stream overlays: Pro and up

The transparent Timer is on Pro and up. On Starter, Transparent background is shown greyed out, marked as part of Pro. A link that asks for it there shows the usual black background, still with no corner buttons and no chimes, as it does on a room whose plan changed to one without it while the link still asks.

On every plan, OBS can take the black away itself: the Add blending mode, or a Color Key filter on black. The OBS Studio guide gives both, and what each costs.

Compare every plan

Set it up

How to set up stream overlays

  1. 1

    Open the Timer's link

    In the controller, choose Links, then the Timer card.

  2. 2

    Tick Transparent background

    Under Options. The link gains background=transparent; copy it.

  3. 3

    Add it to OBS

    In Sources, choose + and Browser, paste the link into URL, and set 1280 by 720.

  4. 4

    Place it over your video

    Drag and resize the source in the preview, and start the timer from the controller.

Every step, in the guide

FAQ

Questions, answered.

Does it work in vMix and other video tools?

Yes. vMix, and other tools that take a web page as a source, use the same link as OBS.

Why does the transparent link look black in my browser?

A browser tab has nothing behind the page, so it shows its own dark background where OBS shows your video. The page itself is clear.

Can the overlay put a chime into the stream?

No. A transparent Timer never chimes, even if its page had sound on before; it still flashes.

Do I need to hide the corner buttons?

No. A transparent Timer shows no corner buttons, no Enable sound button, and no fullscreen request.

Can I do it on the free plan?

The transparent link is on Pro and up. On every plan, OBS can remove the black itself with the Add blending mode or a Color Key filter on black, as the OBS Studio guide shows.

Can I show only the countdown, without the timer's name?

Crop the source in OBS: hold Alt, or Option on a Mac, and drag its edges.

Can a paired TV be made transparent?

No. A paired screen is a display in the venue and keeps its background; only a Timer opened from its link can be transparent.

Where it is used

Your next show, on time.

Put a room's link on a screen and run the show; sign up free when you want to keep it.

Create a free room

No account needed

Sign up free