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How NOALBS Works with IRLHost: Automatic BRB Scenes for IRL Streamers

March 26, 2026

What NOALBS Does

NOALBS (No One Asked for a Live Bot Script) is an open-source tool that monitors your stream connection and automatically switches your OBS scenes in response to what is happening with your feed.

When your phone signal drops and IRLHost stops receiving video, NOALBS detects it immediately and switches OBS to your BRB scene. When your signal recovers and IRLHost is receiving again, NOALBS switches OBS back to your Live scene. Your viewers see a clean transition instead of a frozen frame or disconnection.

IRLHost includes NOALBS support in every plan — no extra cost, no extra setup beyond initial configuration.

Why This Matters

Without NOALBS, a signal drop during an IRL stream looks like this to your viewers: your stream freezes, shows a loading spinner, then either comes back or disconnects entirely. Not great.

With NOALBS and IRLHost:

  • Signal drops → OBS automatically switches to your BRB scene (a clean holding screen, countdown, music, anything you set up)
  • Signal recovers → OBS switches back to Live automatically
  • Your stream never actually goes offline — it just shows your BRB scene briefly
  • Viewers stay in the stream instead of leaving

This is how professional IRL streamers handle drops. It makes even a technically imperfect stream look polished.

How It Works with IRLHost

NOALBS monitors your IRLHost relay using its API. When NOALBS sees that IRLHost is not receiving an inbound connection from your phone, it tells OBS to switch scenes via OBS WebSocket. When the connection comes back, it switches back.

The full flow: Phone → IRLHost relay → OBS at home → Twitch/Kick
NOALBS sits on your home PC, watching IRLHost and controlling OBS — all automatic.

What You Need

  • An IRLHost relay server — irlhost.gg, €11.99/month + VAT
  • A PC at home running OBS with OBS WebSocket enabled (built into OBS 28+)
  • NOALBS installed on your home PC
  • At least two OBS scenes: a Live scene and a BRB scene

Setting Up NOALBS with IRLHost

Step 1: Enable OBS WebSocket

In OBS, go to Tools → WebSocket Server Settings. Enable the WebSocket server and set a password. Note the port (default: 4455). NOALBS uses this to control OBS.

Step 2: Create Your OBS Scenes

You need at least two scenes in OBS:

  • Live — your main IRL scene with a Media Source pointing to your IRLHost SRT ingest URL
  • BRB — a holding scene shown during signal drops (can include text, music, a countdown timer, anything you want)

Common additions: an "Offline" scene for when you end the stream manually, and a "Low Bitrate" scene that shows a warning when your signal is weak but not completely dropped.

Step 3: Install NOALBS

Download the latest NOALBS release from github.com/NOALBS. Extract the folder to a convenient location on your PC — a dedicated folder in your Documents or on your Desktop works well.

Step 4: Configure NOALBS

NOALBS uses a config.json file. A starter config for IRLHost looks like this:

{
  "obs": {
    "enabled": true,
    "host": "localhost",
    "password": "YOUR_OBS_WEBSOCKET_PASSWORD",
    "port": 4455
  },
  "switcher": {
    "bitrateSwitcherEnabled": true,
    "onlySwitchWhenStreaming": true,
    "instantlySwitchOnRecover": false,
    "autoStopStreamOnTimeout": false,
    "triggers": {
      "low": 800,
      "rtt": 2500,
      "offline": 200
    }
  },
  "scenes": {
    "normal": "Live",
    "low": "Low Bitrate",
    "offline": "BRB"
  },
  "streamServer": {
    "type": "irlhost",
    "stats_url": "YOUR_IRLHOST_STATS_URL"
  },
  "chat": {
    "platform": "twitch",
    "username": "your_bot_username",
    "token": "oauth:YOUR_BOT_TOKEN",
    "channel": "your_channel_name"
  }
}

Your IRLHost stats URL is available in your IRLHost dashboard — it is the URL NOALBS polls to check your relay status. Replace the placeholder values with your actual credentials before saving.

Step 5: Configure Chat Commands (Optional but Recommended)

NOALBS includes Twitch and Kick chat bot commands that your viewers (and you) can use during your stream:

  • !live — manually force Live scene
  • !brb — manually force BRB scene
  • !start — start streaming from chat
  • !stop — stop streaming from chat
  • !bitrate — shows current bitrate in chat
  • !stats — shows RTT and packet loss
  • !fix — manually triggers a reconnection attempt

These are included with IRLHost — you just need to authorise a Twitch or Kick bot account in your NOALBS config.

Step 6: Run NOALBS

Launch NOALBS from the extracted folder (noalbs.exe on Windows, ./noalbs on Mac/Linux). It will connect to OBS and start monitoring your IRLHost relay. You should see connection confirmation in the NOALBS console output.

Run a test: start streaming from your phone, confirm NOALBS detects the incoming stream and switches OBS to your Live scene. Then pause your phone stream briefly — NOALBS should switch to your BRB scene after the offline threshold is hit, then back to Live when you resume.

Scene Switching Thresholds

The triggers in your config control when NOALBS switches scenes:

  • low (default: 800 kbps) — switches to the Low Bitrate scene when your bitrate drops below this
  • offline (default: 200 kbps) — switches to BRB when bitrate drops below this
  • rtt (default: 2500ms) — switches to Low Bitrate if round-trip time exceeds this, even if bitrate is okay

Tune these based on your typical streaming bitrate. If you stream at 4000 kbps normally, a low threshold of 1500 kbps makes sense. If you stream at 2000 kbps, 600-800 kbps is a more appropriate low threshold.

Running NOALBS Automatically

On Windows, you can add NOALBS to your startup folder or create a Task Scheduler entry so it launches automatically with your PC. On Mac, a launchd plist or a login item works. This way NOALBS is always running when your PC is on — no need to remember to start it before each stream.

Summary

  • NOALBS monitors your IRLHost relay and controls OBS automatically
  • Signal drops → BRB scene. Signal returns → Live scene. No manual action needed.
  • Chat commands let you and your mods control scenes from Twitch or Kick chat
  • Included in every IRLHost plan — no extra cost
  • Setup takes about 15 minutes once you have your IRLHost relay running

Get your IRLHost relay at irlhost.gg — €11.99/month + VAT, NOALBS support included.