IRL Stream Incident Runbook: Who Does What When the Field Feed Breaks

The short answer

When the field feed breaks on an IRL stream, three people need three jobs: the streamer keeps themselves safe and fixes the source, the producer controls what viewers see, and the mod talks to chat. Decide before you go live who calls the incident (usually the producer) and what the first on-air move is. The first move is almost always a switch to a prepared scene, not troubleshooting.

This runbook is for teams of two or three on Kick, Twitch or YouTube, with the phone sending to a Streamable ingest and Cloud Hosted OBS as the program. A solo streamer can use the same steps; you just hold all three jobs.

Who does what

Write these on one line in your team chat. If one person covers two jobs, say which two.

• Producer (calls the incident): changes scenes in Cloud OBS, checks the preview, and decides when to return to the live feed.
• Streamer: protects their own safety first, then fixes the source (signal, battery, app). They don't narrate technical details on air.
• Mod: posts one short status line in chat, answers "is it down for everyone?" and passes viewer reports to the producer.

The first five minutes after a source drop

Minute 0: the producer switches to the prepared scene. Streamable's Stream Drop Protection can switch to an offline scene or clips player when the phone connection drops, but treat a manual switch as your own default. You decide what viewers see, so you always have a scene ready and know which one it is.

Minute 1: check where it broke. Open the Ingest Manager in the Streamable dashboard. If it shows Offline, the break is between the phone and Streamable. If it shows Online but the picture is wrong, check the Stream Preview and the scene in Cloud OBS. If both look fine, open your channel on a second device and check what viewers actually get.

Minute 2: the mod posts one line ("Signal dropped, back in a minute") and the streamer gets the same instruction by text or earpiece: fix the source, change one thing at a time. To see what Twitch and Kick do on their own during a drop, read our guide on stopping streams from ending. Minute 5: if the source is not back, choose between a planned intermission and ending cleanly. Make that call at five minutes, not twenty.

Privacy cutover: when the camera must leave the air

Some incidents are not about signal. A stranger objects to being filmed, a house number comes into frame, a screen shows a payment. The producer needs a one-word rule for this ("cut") and a scene that shows nothing identifying: no map, no chat overlay with usernames of nearby people, no notifications.

The producer cuts first and asks questions after. Returning is a separate decision: the streamer says the frame is clear, the producer confirms it in the preview, then goes back. If you stream with delay, remember the delay also covers your cut, so agree how long viewers can still see the old frame.

Audio return: hear problems before chat does

Producers usually spot a dead mic when chat does, which is too late. Give the producer a way to listen to the program, and give the streamer a way to hear the producer (an earpiece on a call is enough). Two checks are worth doing every time the feed returns: is the mic live, and is the game or music level sane next to it.

A returning picture does not prove returning audio. Look at the audio meters in Cloud OBS and listen on the actual destination from a second device, then confirm the picture there too.

Verify the return, not just the reconnect

A reconnect only tells you the phone is sending again. Before leaving the prepared scene, watch the preview for ten to fifteen seconds. Look for a shifted camera orientation, a muted mic or a frozen frame. Then switch back and confirm on the second device that the destination shows it.

• Picture is live and level.
• Mic is live and the levels match what you had before.
• Ingest Manager shows Online and the Stream Preview is not frozen.
• The second device shows the same thing.

A ten-minute rehearsal

Run this once in the place you will actually stream, with a private or unlisted output, before the first big show.

• Start the stream with the normal opening scene.
• Ask the streamer to turn off mobile data for 30 seconds. The producer follows the five-minute steps above, out loud.
• Trigger the privacy cut once and return from it.
• Write down anything that took more than a minute and change your runbook line for it.

When to simplify the show

If the feed keeps dropping, a smaller show is a better show. Pause a remote guest, drop to one camera, or go to a planned intermission until the connection is stable. Agree beforehand that the producer is allowed to make that call.