How to self-host an SRT relay for IRL streaming for under $6 a month
By Elan Harpaz · Published 2026-11-03
A $5 VPS, MediaMTX or SLS, and NOALBS give you a BRB-capable relay you own. The steps, the hosts worth using, and when belaBOX Cloud at $10 is the smarter buy.
Your encoder tops out at 1080p60. A higher-end encoder would go further.
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| Component | Pick | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Camera | DJI Osmo Pocket 3 Gimbal cam with great low light, USB webcam mode, and DJI mic pairing. The IRL favorite. Buy on Amazon | $495 | Buy on Amazon |
| Encoder | Orange Pi 5 + belaBOX Dedicated HDMI-in encoder running the free, open-source belaBOX firmware with SRTLA bonding. The DIY backpack heart. Buy on Amazon | $150 | Buy on Amazon |
| Connection | Netgear Nighthawk M1 The budget IRL workhorse: an ethernet port and long battery, often cheap secondhand. Buy on Amazon | $248.90 | Buy on Amazon |
| Data Plan | Red Pocket Unlimited The MVNO that lets you pick the network per SIM, AT&T, T-Mobile or Verizon, which makes it the easiest way to build a two-carrier bag from one account. Learn more | From ~$40/mo | Learn more |
| Bonding | SRTLA on your own relay (srtla_rec) The open-source receiver half of belaBOX bonding. Run srtla_rec next to SLS or MediaMTX on a VPS and any SRTLA sender bonds to it for free. Learn more | Free (plus your VPS) | Learn more |
| Relay / VPS | Hetzner Cloud VPS The cheapest serious VPS with US and EU regions and 20 TB of traffic included, which is why so many self-hosted SRT relays live here. Learn more | From ~$5/mo | Learn more |
| Power Bank / Portable Battery | INIU P512 20,000mAh A high-capacity 20,000mAh bank with strong USB-C output, enough to run a backpack rig for hours. Buy on Amazon | $27.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| Audio | DJI Mic Mini Tiny wireless lav that pairs straight to the Osmo Pocket 3, keeping audio in sync. Buy on Amazon | $79 | Buy on Amazon |
| Mount / Stabilizer | Smatree telescoping pole Extends reach for selfie framing and stable walk-and-talk shots. Buy on Amazon | $24.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| Backpack / Case | Cawypety Transparent Bubble Pack Another see-through ventilated bubble pack, this one foldable so it packs down for travel. Great airflow with a stowable design. Buy on Amazon | $34.09 | Buy on Amazon |
Self-hosting an SRT relay for IRL streaming costs about $5 a month on a Hetzner or Linode VPS and takes an evening: install MediaMTX or SRT Live Server to receive the stream, run OBS somewhere to pull it and push to Twitch, and add NOALBS so a dead connection swaps to a BRB scene automatically. Add srtla_rec on the same box and any belaBOX, Moblin or IRL Pro sender bonds to it. The honest comparison is belaBOX Cloud at $10 a month, which does all of that with no terminal, so the self-hosted route is for people who want control, a specific region, or the $60 a year.
What a relay does, in one sentence
The Relay Turns a Drop Into a BRB: the encoder in the bag sends SRT to a server you control, OBS on that server or at home pulls it, and when the bag goes quiet OBS shows a holding scene while Twitch keeps seeing a live stream.
The build
- Rent a VPS in the region you stream in. Latency to the relay matters more than CPU; a 1 vCPU, 2 GB box is plenty for a passthrough relay.
- Install MediaMTX (one binary, one config file) or SRT Live Server. MediaMTX also accepts RTMP and WebRTC, which future-proofs it.
- Open the SRT port in the firewall and set a passphrase. An open SRT port is an invitation.
- Install srtla_rec if the sender is a belaBOX, Moblin or IRL Pro, so bonded links reassemble on your box.
- Point OBS at the relay as a media source. That OBS can be on the same VPS, on a home PC, or on IRLToolkit.
- Add NOALBS. It watches the bitrate and switches scenes to BRB and back. Without it the relay only freezes the last frame.
- Test at home with the modem off: the channel should show BRB, not go offline.
| Hetzner Cloud | Linode (Akamai) | Oracle Free Tier | RackNerd | belaBOX Cloud | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly | About $5 | About $5 | Free | About $3 (yearly) | $10 |
| Included traffic | 20 TB | Generous | 10 TB | Fair | Included |
| You maintain it | |||||
| srtla bonding | Install it | Install it | Install it | Install it | Built in |
| Regions | EU + US | Worldwide | Limited | US | Worldwide |
Cheapest serious VPS with the traffic allowance to match. Where most self-hosted IRL relays live.
One binary, SRT in, SRT or RTMP out, and a config you can read. The modern relay.
The BRB switcher. Without it your relay is a freeze frame.
The bonding receiver. Free, and the reason a belaBOX can use two modems against your own server.
A relay for nothing, if you can get an ARM instance in your region and remember to keep it active.
The managed version of this whole page for $10 a month. Pick it if the terminal steps above read as work rather than fun.
Frequently asked
How much does it cost to self-host an IRL relay?
About $3 to $6 a month for a VPS, and $0 on the Oracle free tier. The software (MediaMTX or SLS, NOALBS, srtla_rec) is free.
Is a self-hosted relay better than belaBOX Cloud?
It is cheaper and you choose the region and the software. belaBOX Cloud is easier, includes bonding and the BRB logic, and costs $10 a month. Most people should start with belaBOX Cloud.
Do I still need OBS with an SRT relay?
Yes, something has to pull the SRT feed and push RTMP to Twitch with the BRB scene. That OBS can run on the VPS, on a home PC, or on a cloud OBS service.
About this guide. Written by Elan Harpaz. We do not lab-test hardware. Every quality verdict on this page is a planning budget computed from a published model, and every price is a tracked estimate rather than a live one. How the numbers are derived: methodology. How picks are chosen: editorial policy.
Build on this in the configurator