Help centre
Everything you need to watch, join and stream on SkylarkStream. Pick the track that matches what you want to do.
Track 1
Watching needs no account. Open the homepage, click any stream that's on air, or browse the replays below it. On the watch page you get the full player, live chat and replay archives for that channel.
Register to unlock more. Click Register (top-right), pick a username and password, add your email — done. Registered viewers can:
"Members-only" stream? That channel is limited to a specific group — ask the streamer or an admin to add you, then reload the page.
Track 2
A group is a private circle of viewers — a class, a workshop cohort, a patrons' club. Streamers can point a stream at a group, and only members of that group can see or watch it.
Admins add members from the Groups page. If you've been told you're in a class group, register with the same email or username your teacher gave us, then just open the stream link — it will work.
Track 3
Protect your stream key. It's the broadcasting password for your channel — anyone holding it can stream as you. Never share it, never paste it into chat. If it leaks, hit Rotate key on your dashboard: you'll get a fresh key in seconds and the old one stops working immediately. Your channel, replays and followers are unaffected.
Fair use. Encoding is realtime and shared, so streams are capped at 1080p60 / 6 Mbps. Higher steady bitrates crowd out other artists' streams — keep your encoder inside the caps in Track 4.
Track 4
SkylarkStream speaks standard RTMP, so any broadcast software works — OBS Studio (free, Windows/macOS/Linux from obsproject.com) is what we support and document.
rtmp://skylarkstream.com:1935/live
From your dashboard you can go live instantly, or schedule a stream for a future date/time — scheduled streams appear on the homepage and the events list before you're on air, so your audience can find them.
Click Stop Streaming in OBS. Recording stops automatically; the replay is processed and appears on your channel's replay list within a few minutes. Nothing else to do.
| Quality | Resolution | FPS | Bitrate | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best | 1920×1080 | 60 | 6000 kbps | Fast painting demos, motion |
| Best | 1920×1080 | 30 | 4000 kbps | Most art streams |
| Balanced | 1280×720 | 60 | 4500 kbps | Older hardware |
| Safe | 1280×720 | 30 | 3000 kbps | Modest upload speeds |
Encoder: x264 preset veryfast is fine; NVIDIA/AMD hardware encoding works well too. Keep the keyframe interval at 2 s.
Track 5
Some channels are reserved for members of a Wix membership group — for example a paid club hosted on the artist's own Wix site.
How it works: SkylarkStream checks its Wix membership list once a night. If your SkylarkStream account's email matches your Wix membership email, you're in — nothing else to do.