Gridfam.com is a free tool that embeds your own video chat with guests directly into your stream. Unlike most other video chat platforms, video calls with Gridfam are not peer-to-peer, which means that your calls are secure, and that callers will not be able to find your IP address. This makes Gridfam perfect for co-streaming, co-op streams, eSports and other live or pre-recorded shows that require guest participation. Gridfam seamlessly integrates with OBS, allowing you to embed each user’s webcam using a single BrowserSource, along with a wide variety of useful options and features that we’ll cover below.
Gridfam is completely web-based and requires no extra downloads. It’s free to use and only requires a Twitter account to get started. Log in with Twitter, and we’ll walk though the steps needed to setup a video call and show a guest’s webcam on stream. We’ll also go over some of the new features we’ve added as well. The full video tutorial can be found at the end of this article.
Moderating your room
After logging in, you’ll be redirected to your video chat room and automatically asked for permission to access your webcam and microphone. Next, you’ll see an button to copy your room’s link. (This link will look like gridfam.com/twitterUsername)
You can easily send this link via DMs or social media to invite others to join, or you can even add it as a chat command (e.g !gridfam) inside platforms like Twitch or YouTube to share the link with viewers during a live stream.
When a viewer calls in, Gridfam displays all the callers and a “Show Callers” button that opens the caller queue on the left. This is where you choose who can join your video chat, or who to dismiss.
You can allow up to three other viewers into the video chat, but we have plans to increase this limit soon. Any number of viewers can visit the room and use text chat or join the caller queue. The sidebar on the left has some basic audio/video options, like muting your audio or hiding your video, as well as a Widget Settings button that will allow you to customize the facecams and add them to OBS.
Adding the facecams to OBS
First we’ll need to get the room’s embed URL. Go to Widget Settings:
Click Get Embed URL:
Then copy the link:
After copying the link, open OBS and add a new BrowserSource. Paste the URL into the field, change the width to 1920, and change the height to 1080.
Click OK, and you should see the facecams inside the OBS preview. Even though this tutorial uses OBS, you can use any streaming software that supports embedding a web browser.
Custom facecam layouts
Not only does Gridfam support showing facecams in OBS, but you can position and resize the facecams anywhere you want in Gridfam’s stream preview, and the changes will automatically be synced to OBS. You can make the facecams portrait, landscape, or any size without worrying about the aspect ratio of everybody’s webcams.
If you have existing graphics or overlays that you need to align the facecams to, you can select a template image to help you move and resize each facecam to perfectly match the graphics or overlays in your streaming software. This template image will only show up on Gridfam to help you align the facecams, and it won’t show up on your stream. Here we use a free overlay from wdflat.com
You can also use layout templates to quickly arrange facecams for two, three, or four callers.
Instead of tweaking multiple Window Capture sources with Skype and Google Hangouts, Gridfam lets you effortlessly handle facecams like a pro.
Facecam overlays
Get creative and show some personality by optionally uploading custom overlays for your facecams. You can use any transparent overlay, and you can adjust how the overlay covers the facecam. Unlike the template image option, these image uploads actually show up on stream as a part of each facecam. Here we use a free facecam overlay from wdflat.com
We also give you some options to customize the usernames. Select different fonts, change the size or position, or use the border and color settings if you’d like the usernames to match or blend in with different backgrounds or overlays.
Video tutorial
You can learn more about Gridfam and its new features with this video tutorial:
Use cases
We’re really excited to see all the different ways how streamers will use Gridfam to boost viewer engagement on their live streams. For many people, becoming a Twitch or YouTube streamer requires a more expensive computer, a faster internet connection, and other high-end equipment. With Gridfam, all you really need to get started building your popularity is just a webcam and a room to join. Once you become a frequent guest, you can start hosting the streams you join, which not only helps you build your brand, but it introduces the stream’s host to new audiences and viewers, which makes the collaboration perfect for smaller streamers and other streamer communities like Twitch Kittens.
Gridfam eliminates the headaches and technical difficulties of adding guests to a stream so you can focus on growing viewer participation with shows that cover topics like news, sports, or gaming, for example Dexerto TV, or you can be creative with new entertainment categories like talent or game shows as well.
Check us out!
We’re continuing to work on new features, and we’d love to hear about any other suggestions or feedback. Be sure to follow us to stay updated as we continue to push new features. You can find us on Twitter at @GridfamApp, or you can join us on our Discord server.
