OBS SOFTWARE BY CTD
OBS multiview on Mac, done right — a real control room for OBS Studio
OBS multiview on Mac is famously fiddly: the built-in fullscreen multiview wants a spare display, fights with Spaces and notches, and is read-only — you can stare at it, but you can't switch from it. CTD Live Studio fixes that with a Metal-powered OBS multiview and full control room that talks to OBS Studio over obs-websocket — live program and preview, a real scene grid, an audio mixer, macros, and controller bindings, all from one Mac window with no capture card and no plugins.
Why OBS multiview is a pain on macOS
OBS Studio's built-in multiview is genuinely useful and it's free — but on a Mac it has rough edges. "Fullscreen Projector (Multiview)" really wants a second physical display; on a single-monitor setup it eats your whole screen, and on multi-display rigs it tangles with Mission Control, Spaces, and the menu-bar notch on newer MacBooks. Worse, it's read-only: the built-in multiview shows you every scene but you can't click a tile to cut to it. You still have to jump back to the OBS dock — or a separate scene switcher — to actually call the show. For anyone searching for OBS multiview on a second monitor that they can actually drive, the stock experience comes up short.
CTD Live Studio: an OBS multiview you can actually switch from
CTD Live Studio turns the multiview from a passive grid into a live control room. It connects to OBS over obs-websocket 5.x — built into OBS Studio 28 and later — so there's no capture card and no OBS-side plugin to install. Run it on a second monitor next to OBS, or offload it to a second Mac on your network to keep the load off your streaming machine. Either way you get OBS-style layouts: Preview + Program on top with a 4/8/12-scene grid below, pure 2×2 / 3×3 / 4×4 grids, or program-only. Click a tile to send it to preview, double-click to take it to program — the multiview is the switcher.
Metal-rendered live feeds, not a screenshot grid
The multiview is hardware-accelerated end to end. JPEG frames stream over obs-websocket and decode through VideoToolbox — the hardware JPEG decoder on Apple silicon — then map zero-copy into Metal textures via CVMetalTextureCache, so decode and upload stay off the main thread and the UI just swaps a texture pointer. The whole multiview renders on one Metal GPU surface with on-demand redraw. Practically, that means smooth live PVW/PGM and a real scene grid on a separate monitor or a second Mac, with red/green program/preview borders and scene labels — the OBS Studio Mode multiview that Mac operators have wanted, instead of a finicky fullscreen window.
Studio Mode TAKE and instant scene switching
Flip on Studio Mode for a proper preview-to-program workflow: load a scene into preview, then take it to program with a double-click or the Take button, with a transition picker and adjustable duration. Or call the show from the keyboard — arrows and Tab to select, Return to switch with a transition, Space to stage preview. An iPhone-style edit mode lets tiles jiggle and rearrange, and a scene checklist popover controls exactly which scenes appear in the grid. This is OBS scene switching on Mac as a fast, tactile show-calling surface — driven straight from the multiview you're already watching.
More than multiview: mixer, macros, and control surfaces
Because it's a full control room, the multiview shares a window with everything else you need to run a show. There's a built-in OBS audio mixer with faders, mutes, and live per-channel meters fed by obs-websocket meter events; stream, record (with pause), virtual camera, and replay-buffer toggles with live timecodes; and CPU, render fps, and dropped-frame stats. Build macros — "switch to Starting Soon, wait 5 seconds, start stream" — and timed playlists or trigger rules like "when streaming starts, do X." Bind system-wide hotkeys, Xbox/PlayStation/MFi game-controller buttons, and MIDI notes/CCs to scenes, macros, or single OBS actions. It doubles as an OBS control surface and a Stream Deck alternative for Mac, using the controllers you already own.
Built for Mac: Metal, VideoToolbox, and Keychain security
CTD Live Studio is a native macOS app — a universal binary for Apple Silicon and Intel — requiring macOS 13 Ventura or later and OBS Studio 28+ with the WebSocket server enabled. OBS passwords live in the macOS Keychain, never in config files, under App Sandbox and Hardened Runtime. A menu-bar quick switcher lets you change scenes without opening the main window. Compared with browser-based remotes or cross-platform tools like Touch Portal and Bitfocus Companion, you get hardware-accelerated VideoToolbox decode, Metal zero-copy textures, and native macOS security — with zero plugins and zero config. It's coming to the Mac App Store and Steam.
Where OBS's built-in multiview still wins
To be fair: OBS's built-in multiview is free, ships inside OBS, and needs zero setup — there's nothing to download, connect, or pair. If you have a spare display, only ever watch (never switch from) the multiview, and don't need an audio mixer, macros, or controller bindings, the stock projector is perfectly fine and costs nothing. CTD Live Studio is for the operator who wants to drive the show from the multiview — live switching, Studio Mode TAKE, mixer, automation, and control surfaces in one window — and who'd rather offload that work to a second monitor or a second Mac than wrestle a fullscreen projector. Pick the built-in multiview for a free passive monitor; pick CTD Live Studio when the multiview needs to be a control room.
CTD Live Studio vs OBS Studio Built-in Multiview
| Feature | CTD Live Studio | OBS Studio Built-in Multiview |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Paid app (Mac App Store / Steam) | Free — ships inside OBS |
| Setup | Enable obs-websocket, connect (no plugins, no capture card) | Zero setup — already in OBS |
| Switch scenes from the multiview | Yes — click to preview, double-click to program | No — read-only, view only |
| Studio Mode preview/program TAKE | Yes — PVW/PGM with transition picker and duration | Shows PVW/PGM but you can't take from it |
| Rendering | Metal GPU surface, VideoToolbox HW decode, zero-copy textures | OBS internal renderer (fullscreen projector) |
| Run on a second Mac / offload from stream machine | Yes — connects over local network | No — same machine, ties up a display |
| Single-monitor friendly | Yes — windowed app, no spare display required | Fullscreen projector wants a second display |
| Audio mixer with live meters | Yes — faders, mutes, per-channel meters | No |
| Macros & automation (playlists, trigger rules) | Yes — native, no Advanced Scene Switcher plugin | No |
| Hotkey / game-controller / MIDI bindings | Yes — press-to-learn bindings | No |
| Custom grid layouts (2×2, 3×3, 4×4, PVW/PGM + grid) | Yes, plus a scene checklist to choose tiles | Limited preset layouts |
FAQ
Why is OBS multiview so finicky on a Mac?
OBS's built-in multiview is a fullscreen projector, so it really wants a second physical display. On a single-monitor Mac it takes over the whole screen, and on multi-display or notched MacBooks it can clash with Spaces, Mission Control, and the menu bar. It's also read-only — you can watch every scene but can't click a tile to switch. CTD Live Studio runs as a normal resizable window you can switch from, so it doesn't need a dedicated display and doesn't fight macOS.
Do I need a capture card or an OBS plugin for CTD Live Studio's multiview?
No. CTD Live Studio talks to OBS over obs-websocket 5.x, which is built into OBS Studio 28 and later — you just enable the WebSocket server under Tools → WebSocket Server Settings. There's no capture card, no OBS-side plugin, and nothing to install beyond OBS itself.
Can I run the OBS multiview on a second monitor or a second Mac?
Both work. You can put CTD Live Studio on a second monitor next to OBS, or run it on a separate Mac and connect over your local network. Offloading the multiview and control room to a second machine keeps the rendering load off your streaming computer — something OBS's built-in multiview, which runs on the same machine, can't do.
Is CTD Live Studio's multiview a live feed or just thumbnails?
It's a live, GPU-rendered multiview. Frames stream over obs-websocket and decode through VideoToolbox hardware JPEG decode, then map zero-copy into Metal textures, with decode and upload off the main thread. You get smooth live program, preview, and scene-grid panes with red/green borders — not a static screenshot grid.
Can I actually switch scenes from the multiview, unlike OBS's built-in one?
Yes — that's the main point. Click a tile to send a scene to preview, double-click to take it to program, or use the keyboard. Turn on Studio Mode for a full preview-to-program TAKE with a transition picker. OBS's built-in multiview only displays scenes; CTD Live Studio's multiview is also the switcher.
What does CTD Live Studio need to run, and where can I get it?
It's a native macOS universal binary for Apple Silicon and Intel, requiring macOS 13 Ventura or later and OBS Studio 28+ with the WebSocket server enabled. It's coming to the Mac App Store and Steam.
Get CTD Live Studio
No subscriptions, no accounts, no cloud — talks only to your own OBS over your network.