Twitch, OBS and NVIDIA are leveling up livestreaming technology with the new Twitch Enhanced Broadcasting beta, powered by GeForce RTX GPUs. Available in a few days, streamers will be able to stream multiple encodes concurrently, providing optimal viewing experiences for all viewers. 

Twitch Enhanced Broadcasting

Today, many streamers must choose between higher resolution and reliable streaming. High-quality video provides more enjoyable viewing experiences but causes streams to buffer for viewers with low bandwidth or older viewing devices. Streaming lower-bitrate video allows more people to watch the content seamlessly, but introduces artifacts.

Twitch — the interactive livestreaming platform — provides server-side transcoding for top-performing channels, meaning it will create different versions of the same stream for different bandwidth levels, improving the viewing experience. But the audience of many channels are left with a single stream option.

Twitch, OBS and NVIDIA have collaborated on a new feature to address this — Twitch Enhanced Broadcasting, releasing in beta later this month. Using the high-quality dedicated encoder (NVENC) in modern GeForce RTX and GTX GPUs, streamers will be able to broadcast up to three resolutions simultaneously at up to 1080p.

In the coming months, Enhanced Broadcasting beta testers will be able to experiment with higher-input bit rates, up to 4K resolutions, up to 5 concurrent streams, as well as new codecs. The new codecs include the latest-generation AV1 for GeForce RTX 40 Series GPUs, which provides 40% more encoding efficiency than H.264, and HEVC for previous-generation GeForce GPUs.

To simplify set up, Enhanced Broadcasting will automatically configure all OBS encoder settings, including resolution, bit rate and encoding parameters. A server-side algorithm will return the best possible configuration for OBS Studio based on the streamer’s setup, taking the headaches out of tuning settings for the best viewer experiences.

Using the dedicated NVENC hardware encoder, streamers can achieve the highest quality video across streaming bitrates, with minimal impact to app and game performance.

Sign up for the Twitch Enhanced Broadcasting beta today at twitch.tv/broadcast. Twitch will enroll participants on a first-come, first-served basis, starting later this month. Once a creator has been enrolled in the beta, they’ll receive an email with additional instructions.

To further elevate livestreams, download the NVIDIA Broadcast app, free for RTX GPU owners and powered by dedicated AI Tensor Cores, to augment broadcast capabilities for microphones and cameras.

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