Ashray Urs, Head of Product at Streamlabs — Interview Series

In a bid to further enhance OBS Studio, a creative suite for fledgling streamers and online gamers, virtual torchbearer Streamlabs has formed a partnership with the former to implement its own in-house plugin to the platform. To get ahead of this new update, we decided to catch up with Streamlabs’ Head of Product, Ashray Urs, to talk about the future of the studio, as well as its collaborative efforts with other prominent developers to flesh out the online gaming experience.

Thanks for taking the time to speak with us, Ashray. Could you please introduce yourself to our readers? Who are you, and what brought you to this corner of the world?

Ashray: I’m Ashray Urs, and I’m Head of Streamlabs, which is a part of Logitech. I’ve been at the company for just over four years now.

Before that, I worked for AB InBev where I started in the strategy & innovation and sales & marketing departments before becoming a senior director in the company’s high-end business unit.

What drives me is delivering solutions that truly meet our customers’ needs and providing fantastic experiences along the way. That’s how I found myself at Streamlabs. We sit between creators and developers and create solutions tailor-made for the streaming ecosystem. This mission extends to our charitable work, where through our user's live streams, we’ve helped raise over $35 million for a range of charitable causes.

Let’s talk about Streamlabs. When was the company founded, and what sorts of services do you provide for your clients?

Ashray: We’re actually celebrating our tenth anniversary this year. Streamlabs was founded in 2014 and became part of the Logitech family in 2019. At Streamlabs we build the tools and software that allow creators to engage with their audience, monetise their streams, and ultimately grow their channels.

Our tools are more than just about hitting a button and broadcasting your desktop, we’ve built solutions that make life easier for streamers every step of the way. For everything from branding to merchandising, right through to creating clips and social promotion, we have a tool that streamlines the process for streamers.

Tell us a bit more about the new plugin that’s being implemented into OBS Studio. What new features can frequent streamers expect to find in this update?

Ashray: In short, what the plugin does is bring the power of Streamlabs directly into a user’s OBS interface. We know that some users like their creature comforts, they want to keep using the same interface they’ve become accustomed to. We didn’t want them to miss out on our tools, so we built a plugin that allows them to make use of our multistream, alerts, overlays, chatbots, stream labels, and widgets directly from the OBS interface.

Do you have any useful tips for those who have yet to plant roots in the world of online streaming? Is there an “easy” way to monetize content?

Ashray: We’ve built tools that make monetisation easy. Within the Streamlabs suite of products, we have solutions for merch, tip pages, and tools to protect your stream revenue such as a library of DMCA-free music.

The technical side of it we’ve made easy, however, the “difficult” part of streaming is fostering and engaging with your community. Our solutions give you the best chance to do that through multistreaming and clipping, but there’s an art to being a successful streamer. There’s sometimes the impression that streamers all “just sit there” or “just play games,” but that’s far from the truth.

There’s a lot of consideration that goes on behind the scenes for streamers. They choreograph how they want the stream to flow, what their audiences want to see, what engaging content is, and how to keep that energy up for hours on end. That’s the key to building the audience, which makes monetisation feasible in the first place.

The Streamlabs Plugin for @OBSProject is now officially live for all users!

This plugin will help you seamlessly integrate your favorite Streamlabs features into OBS Studio, such as alerts, widgets, overlays, Stream Labels, Cloudbot, and more!

Learn more ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/Ua1IugTUvr

— Streamlabs (@streamlabs) April 30, 2024

And would you say that it is an easy tool to learn — Streamlabs, or, in this instance, OBS Studio? Could, say, an inexperienced gamer find a foothold in the field with no prior training?

Ashray: Completely. I can only really speak to the Streamlabs interface, but we’ve built it so that anyone, be they incredibly tech-savvy or a complete beginner can go from installing to broadcasting in minutes. We’ve got an extensive library of template overlays and widget themes so anybody can have a professional-looking stream no matter their technical capabilities.

But like any software, as you become more fluent in how it works, there are more sophisticated ways of using Streamlabs. You can design really intricate workflows, stream across every major platform, and engage with your audience in unique ways.

We didn’t want to tailor to just beginners or the pros, our mission is to help streamers no matter where they are in their journey and give them the means to grow, engage, and unleash their creativity.

Do you have any plans to further enhance either OBS Studio or Streamlabs in future updates? If so, could you kindly tell us a bit about it/them?

Ashray: One of our top priorities is to integrate our App Store into the Streamlabs plugin for OBS Studio. This will enable streamers to access a vast array of tools and resources from our network of third-party developers, all within the Streamlabs ecosystem. This integration will provide streamers with greater flexibility and customization options, allowing them to tailor their streams to their unique style and audience preferences.

Another exciting feature we are working on to include in the plugin is our dual output feature for streaming horizontally and vertically at the same time. This feature will enable streamers to cater to the growing audience of mobile viewers, who prefer to watch streams in a vertical format. By providing this option, streamers can increase their reach and engagement with viewers across multiple platforms and devices.

How can potential consumers aid Streamlabs’ ongoing efforts to revolutionize online streaming? Are there any newsletters or social handles that we should know about?

Ashray: Really simply just search @streamlabs on whichever platform you prefer. We’re active on them all, so please look us up and come hang out with the team! Our creator resource hub has a wealth of information as well so I’d definitely recommend readers check that out if they’re interested in streaming.

Any final words for our readers?

Ashray: One thing I think your readers would find especially interesting is our new integration with TikTok. Streaming to TikTok from a PC has been notoriously difficult in the past. It required a special stream key, and there wasn’t a clear process for getting that stream key access. With our new integration, you can now apply for TikTok live access through Streamlabs Desktop. This opens the door for so many new streamers to build an audience. TikTok’s algorithm is incredibly powerful and can help new streamers gain exposure quickly. So for anyone looking to grow their audience, I highly recommend taking advantage of this integration.

Awesome stuff! Thanks again, Ashray.

For more information on Streamlabs’ latest plugin for OBS Studio, be sure to visit the official website here. Alternatively, you can check in with the team over on their social handle here.