OBS SOFTWARE BY CTD
The OBS Tally Light App That Runs on Devices Your Crew Already Owns
An OBS tally light tells every camera operator the one thing they need to know in a live show: am I on air right now, or am I queued up next? OBS Studio ships with no tally of its own, so crews either wire up hardware tally boxes or fly blind. CTD Tally is a wireless OBS tally light app that reads OBS state over obs-websocket and turns the iPhone, Apple Watch, Android phone, or tablet already mounted on the camera into a full-screen tally — green in preview, red on air. It's coming soon to the App Store and Google Play.
What an OBS tally light actually does (and why OBS doesn't have one)
A tally light is the red/green indicator that tells a camera operator whether their shot is on air (program) or cued up next (preview). In a TV gallery it's a lamp on top of the camera; in a multicam OBS production it's the difference between operators reframing confidently and operators guessing. The catch: OBS Studio has no built-in tally. It does expose its full live state over obs-websocket — the WebSocket server baked into OBS 28 and later — and that is exactly what an OBS tally light app reads. CTD Tally subscribes to OBS over obs-websocket v5, watches which scenes sit on the program and preview buses, and shows a full-screen tally that flips the instant the director cuts. Green PREVIEW, red LIVE, gray STANDBY, no guesswork, no extra OBS plugin.
Why a phone, watch or tablet beats buying hardware tally lights
Hardware tally is real gear and real money: wired tally boxes, GPIO-driven LED lamps, Raspberry Pi or ESP32 builds with firmware to flash and cabling to run to every camera. It works, but it's one more thing to buy, wire, and troubleshoot before you go live. The honest reframe is that your crew already walks in carrying the screens you need. CTD Tally is the OBS tally light with no hardware to buy: mount the iPhone, Android phone, or tablet you already own on the camera, leave the app frontmost, and it becomes a full-screen camera-mount tally in portrait or landscape over your existing Wi-Fi. No soldering, no firmware, no wired tally box — just the OBS WebSocket QR code and the scene that matches your angle.
Cross-platform on purpose: iPhone, Apple Watch & Android
Most tally tools pick one platform and stop. CTD Tally is built cross-device so every operator can use whatever they have. On iOS the tally goes full screen and a Live Activity keeps a colored dot and LIVE/PVW label in the Dynamic Island (or a lock-screen banner on older iPhones). The Apple Watch companion turns the entire watch face green in preview or red on air, with a haptic tap the moment you go live or get queued — a wrist tally no hardware kit gives you. The native Android build (Kotlin/Compose, no Google Play Services required) runs on any Android phone and tablet, with adjustable live-feed frame rates and optional haptics. One production, every operator on their own device, each picking their own camera angle.
How it connects: scan a QR code, pick your angle, go
Setup is a 30-second job per device. In OBS open Tools → WebSocket Server Settings, enable the server, and click Show Connect Info to display a QR code (port 4455). Scan that QR with CTD Tally — or type the host, port, and password by hand — make sure the device and the OBS machine share the same Wi-Fi/LAN, then choose the scene that is your camera. OBS pushes state to the app as websocket events rather than the app polling, so the tally flips the moment the director cuts, and a built-in liveness watchdog auto-reconnects a dropped or half-open socket instead of freezing on a stale state. Preview (green) tally requires OBS Studio Mode to be on, since that's what gives OBS a separate preview bus; without Studio Mode you get LIVE and STANDBY.
Read-only by design: hand any volunteer a phone safely
This is the feature that makes CTD Tally specifically a tally light and not a remote. It only ever reads OBS state — it issues Get* requests over the websocket and never switches scenes, never starts or stops the stream, never touches a thing in your production. That read-only design is the whole point: you can hand a phone to a nervous volunteer camera operator at a church service or school broadcast and the only thing they can do is watch the light. Full OBS remote apps and control surfaces are built to switch scenes; a tally is built to stay out of the way. If you do want hands-on scene control from a phone, that's a different job for a different app — see CTD Live Mobile below.
Smarter tally: nested scenes, true OFFLINE, confidence monitor
A tally is only useful if you can trust it. CTD Tally's tally is nesting-aware: if the director cuts to a composite scene — picture-in-picture, side-by-side, or a deeper group — that contains your camera, you still go red, because the app walks the scene tree over the websocket instead of only matching the top-level scene name. Disabled nested items don't count. When Wi-Fi drops or you background the app, it shows an honest OFFLINE state on the Dynamic Island and Apple Watch rather than a frozen LIVE you can't trust. It also doubles as an OBS confidence monitor: the Live Feed screen pulls stills of any OBS scene several times a second, framed by a halo that reflects that scene's bus state, so an operator can see what's actually going to air.
Honest alternatives: Tally Arbiter, MultiTally and hardware kits
To keep this fair: CTD Tally isn't the only way to get a tally out of OBS, and a couple of alternatives genuinely win in places. Tally Arbiter is a powerful, free, open-source hub that bridges OBS, vMix, ATEM and more and drives an enormous range of physical devices — if you're integrating mixed switchers or lighting up hardware lamps across a big rig, it does things a phone app simply doesn't. MultiTally and browser/server-based tools (vTally, wifi-tally) are inexpensive and flexible if you're comfortable standing up a server, browser tabs, or a Raspberry Pi. And purpose-built hardware tally lamps give you a bright lamp that's visible across a room, no screen needed. Where CTD Tally wins is zero setup friction and reach: native iOS, watchOS, and Android, connected by scanning a QR code, running on devices the crew already carries, with the tally on your wrist and in the Dynamic Island.
Color-blind-safe, and built for real shows
CTD Tally is coming to the App Store (iPhone and Apple Watch) and Google Play (Android). Every tally surface is triple-coded: color plus an SF Symbol plus the LIVE/PREVIEW/STANDBY word, so it never relies on red/green discrimination alone, with VoiceOver labels, a spoken announcement when you go live, Dynamic Type, and Reduce Motion support. There are no accounts and no analytics — nothing leaves your local network. Crews already run it for multicam church services, school broadcasts, esports, conferences, and concerts. Grab CTD Tally, scan the OBS WebSocket QR code, and give every camera op a tally they can trust.
CTD Tally vs OBS Remote Tally Light (Android)
| Feature | CTD Tally | OBS Remote Tally Light (Android) |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free on iOS/watchOS; low one-time price on Android | Free (Android-only) |
| Connects over obs-websocket (no plugin, no capture card) | Yes, obs-websocket v5 | Yes |
| QR-code pairing with OBS | Yes — scan OBS Connect Info QR | Manual host/port entry |
| Platforms | iPhone, Apple Watch, Android | Android only |
| Apple Watch tally with haptics | Yes — whole watch face goes green/red | No |
| Dynamic Island / Live Activity tally | Yes | No |
| Nested / picture-in-picture-aware tally | Yes — walks the scene tree | No |
| Built-in confidence monitor (scene preview) | Yes — Live Feed with tally halo | No |
| Honest OFFLINE state on Wi-Fi drop + auto-reconnect | Yes — liveness watchdog | Limited |
| Read-only (can't change scenes or stream) | Yes — safe for volunteers | Yes |
| Color-blind-safe triple-coded states + VoiceOver | Yes | No |
| Available in an app store today | App Store & Google Play (coming soon) | Yes (Google Play) |
FAQ
What is an OBS tally light app and how does CTD Tally work?
An OBS tally light tells a camera operator whether their shot is live (red) or queued in preview (green). CTD Tally connects to OBS Studio's built-in WebSocket server (obs-websocket v5, OBS 28+), you pick the scene that matches your camera, and it shows a full-screen tally that flips the instant the director cuts. It runs as a wireless OBS tally light on the iPhone, Apple Watch, Android phone, or tablet on your camera.
Do I need any extra hardware for an OBS tally light?
No. CTD Tally needs no tally hardware — no Raspberry Pi, no ESP32, no wired tally box, no soldering. It runs on the phone, Apple Watch, or Android device your crew already owns and talks to OBS over your existing Wi-Fi, which makes it far cheaper than wired or DIY tally lights. The only setup is scanning the OBS WebSocket QR code and picking your scene.
Does the OBS tally light work on iPhone, Apple Watch and Android?
Yes — that cross-platform reach is the point. On iOS the tally goes full screen with a Dynamic Island Live Activity, and the Apple Watch companion turns the whole watch face green or red with a haptic tap when you go live. The native Android build runs on any Android phone and tablet with no Google Play Services required, so a single production can mix iPhone, Apple Watch, and Android.
How do I connect the tally light to OBS Studio?
In OBS go to Tools → WebSocket Server Settings, enable the server, and open Show Connect Info to display a QR code (port 4455). Scan it with CTD Tally, or type the host, port and password manually, make sure the device and the OBS machine are on the same Wi-Fi/LAN, then choose the scene that is your camera angle. Preview (green) tally requires OBS Studio Mode to be turned on.
Will an OBS tally light app change my scenes or control my stream?
Not CTD Tally — it's read-only by design. It only issues OBS Get* requests to read state and never switches scenes, starts or stops the stream, or changes anything in your production. That's why you can safely hand a phone to a volunteer operator. If you want hands-on scene control from a phone instead, that's a separate tool — CTD Live Mobile is the remote-control app.
What are the alternatives to CTD Tally for an OBS tally light?
Tally Arbiter is a powerful free, open-source option that bridges multiple switchers and drives physical tally hardware — great for big mixed rigs but it means standing up a server. MultiTally and browser/server tools like vTally are inexpensive if you're comfortable with a Raspberry Pi or browser tabs, and dedicated hardware lamps are brightly visible across a room. CTD Tally's edge is zero-setup QR pairing and native reach across iPhone, Apple Watch, and Android.
Get CTD Tally
No subscriptions, no accounts, no cloud — talks only to your own OBS over your network.