What Is Aitum, and Do You Actually Need It? (OBS Scene Automation)

First, clear up what "Aitum" actually means

"Aitum" isn't one plugin — it's a company with four separate products, and mixing them up is the easiest way to think you need something you don't. Three of the four are free OBS plugins: Vertical (a second, portrait-oriented canvas for TikTok/Shorts/Instagram Live), Multistream (send one OBS instance to multiple platforms at once), and Stream Suite (a combined plugin that bundles Vertical, Multistream, and a multi-platform chat dock into one install).

The fourth product, Nexus, is the actual automation app — the thing people usually mean when they say "scene automation." It's a separate paid app ($5.49/month or $49.99/year, with a 14-day free trial) that watches for events — a Twitch sub, a YouTube channel point redemption, a chat command, a Stream Deck press — and fires actions in response: switch scenes, toggle a filter, run an ad break, change smart lights, play a sound. That's the piece worth actually deciding on.

Do you need it right now? Probably not yet

If you're still getting comfortable with basic OBS — scenes, sources, going live without something breaking — skip this entirely for now. Automation solves a problem you don't have yet: too many manual, repetitive actions to handle live. Until you're streaming regularly and can point to a specific annoyance — forgetting to switch to a BRB scene, wanting mods to fix a scene without pinging you — you're adding complexity for its own sake.

It becomes worth it once you have a repeatable stream routine and a specific automation you keep wishing existed — not before. Nexus's own website leads with exactly that pitch: channel points triggering scene changes, mods fixing your scene remotely, chat commands controlling lights — all real use cases, but all things you only notice you want after you've streamed enough to hit the friction.

The free plugins vs. the paid app — pick the right one

Don't pay for Nexus if what you actually want is vertical/multistream support — that's free and doesn't require automation at all.

• Want to stream vertical content (TikTok, Shorts, IG Live) alongside your normal stream? Get Vertical (or Stream Suite, which includes it) — free, no subscription.
• Want to stream to Twitch, YouTube, and Kick simultaneously from one OBS install? Get Multistream (or Stream Suite) — free, no subscription.
• Want event-triggered automation (sub → scene change, channel points → sound effect, Stream Deck → anything) — that's Nexus, the paid app. Try the 14-day free trial before committing.
• Stream Suite requires OBS Studio 32 or newer; Vertical and Multistream require OBS 30+. Update OBS first if you're on an older version.

Setting up Stream Suite (the free plugin)

• With OBS closed, run the Stream Suite installer from the download link above and follow the prompts.
• Open OBS — you'll see a new Stream Suite dock. This is where multi-platform chat, your vertical canvas, and multistream output controls live.
• Connect your platform accounts (Twitch, YouTube, Kick) from inside the dock when prompted — this is what lets Multistream push to more than one destination at once.

Setting up Nexus (the paid automation app, if you decide you want it)

Nexus runs as its own desktop app alongside OBS, not inside it — think of it as a control layer that talks to OBS (and Streamlabs Desktop, Twitch, YouTube, TikTok, Elgato Stream Deck, Philips Hue, VTube Studio, and a handful of other tools) rather than a plugin.

• Create an Aitum account and start the 14-day free trial before paying anything.
• Download and install Nexus from the link above, then sign in with that account.
• Connect the services you actually use (OBS is the essential one; add Twitch/YouTube/TikTok, Stream Deck, etc. only as needed) — each connection is optional.
• Build one automation to start: pick a trigger (e.g. "channel point redemption"), pick an action (e.g. "switch OBS scene"), and test it before building anything more complex.
• Aitum publishes free presets you can import instead of building from scratch — check those before reinventing a common automation.

The honest tradeoff

More moving parts means more that can break mid-stream. An automation that misfires and swaps your scene at the wrong moment is worse than just clicking the scene yourself — so test anything you build on a private/offline stream before trusting it live. Start with one simple automation, confirm it's reliable over a few streams, then add more. Don't build your whole automation stack the night before a stream you care about.

Where to go from here

If you're not sure whether you've reached the "need automation" stage yet, that's usually a sign you haven't — and that's fine. Get comfortable with plain OBS first. When you do hit a specific repetitive task worth automating, Nexus's free trial is a low-risk way to find out if it's worth the subscription for your setup.

This is also exactly the kind of thing that's easier to figure out with other streamers who've already been through it, instead of guessing alone. If you want feedback on your setup, or want to trade notes with people at the same stage, that's what StreamerBoard's collab sessions are for — find one at /sessions.