On Air Sign

A vintage studio lightbox that warms up like an old studio lamp when OBS goes live, reading ON AIR when you stream and RECORDING when you record. Backlit STREAM, RECORD and PAUSE buttons start and stop OBS from the screen. Connects straight to the OBS WebSocket, with no helper app. For those wanting a cleaner interface, the buttons can be switched off and just the sign remains on screen.

The sign is modelled on the old broadcast lamps that hung outside radio studios: a red acrylic panel in a dark metal housing, with tall cream lettering. When you start streaming it doesn't just snap on. It warms up like an old filament lamp, from a dull orange ember to a warm cream glow, with soft red light spilling onto the wall. Switched off, the letters stay faintly visible, like frosted glass.

It reads ON AIR while you stream and RECORDING while you record. If you do both, the stream takes priority. When the sign switches between them, the lamp dips and warms back up, as if someone had swapped the panel. Pause a recording and the sign breathes slowly until you resume.

Below the sign, three backlit buttons control OBS directly:

STREAM starts and stops your stream

RECORD starts and stops recording

PAUSE pauses and resumes the recording

The sign will also respond correctly to controls from the OBS interface directly.

Each plate glows while its output is running. Starting is a tap, and stopping is a short press-and-hold, so a stray touch never ends a live stream. Swipes across the screen are ignored. If OBS can't start an output (for example, no stream key is set), the plate blinks twice to let you know.

A small pilot lamp in the bezel shows the connection: steady green when connected, blinking while it waits for OBS, and amber if the password is wrong. The widget reconnects by itself whenever OBS starts.

Settings:

Text when streaming: ON AIR, LIVE or STREAMING

Lamp flicker on or off

Show or hide the buttons (hidden, the sign fills the slot)

Hold to stop streaming or recording, on or off

OBS WebSocket address, port and password

Scales cleanly to every widget slot, from Small to Extra Large.

Setup: in OBS (version 28 or later), open Tools → WebSocket Server Settings, enable the server and note the password. Enter the password in the widget's settings and allow the connection when iCUE asks. The widget connects straight to OBS, with no helper app or internet connection needed. Your settings are kept between restarts.

Release notes (1.0.0)

First release. Vintage lightbox sign that warms up when OBS streams or records, ON AIR / LIVE / STREAMING text, slow pulse while paused, backlit STREAM / RECORD / PAUSE buttons with hold-to-stop, connection pilot lamp and automatic reconnection.