Switching to “be right back” automatically

On the “Szenen” (scenes) page you decide what your viewers see when your camera no longer gets through: an image, a video or a web page. With “Automatisch umschalten” (switch automatically) the studio puts this scene on air by itself as soon as your link turns bad, and switches back when your signal has been stable for two seconds again.

Setting it up

1. Open the “Szenen” page in the menu.
2. Choose what the fallback shows:
   • “Bild oder Video” (image or video): upload a file. PNG, JPEG or WebP give a still image. MP4, WebM or MOV run as a video in a loop, with their sound. The picture may be 1080p (1920 × 1080) at most; the page tells you the largest file that is allowed.
   • “Webseite” (web page): enter the address of a page (https only). It fills the whole picture.
3. Switch on “Automatisch umschalten”.
4. Set the “Bitrate-Schwelle” (bitrate threshold, see below).
5. Decide whether the fallback should appear “Auch ohne Zuspieler” (also without a source).
6. Click “Speichern” (save).

If you set up the fallback for the first time while your studio is running, the scene only appears after you have ended the studio and started it again. The page tells you so. Everything else you change while it runs: another file, another page, the switch and the threshold.

Choosing the bitrate threshold

The threshold is the most important setting. If less than this value arrives at your studio for a moment, the link counts as bad.

Choose the value well below your normal bitrate. If it is too close to it, the studio already switches on a calm picture, because an encoder sends less by itself when little moves. If it is too low, your viewers watch a picture falling apart for longer before the fallback comes.

In addition, the automatic switch reacts when packets are lost for good, that is, when they are not delivered again in time. There is no setting for that. Losses that SRT repairs do not count.

Which bitrate is arriving right now and how the studio judges the link is shown on the “Szenen” page next to the settings, and for every input on the “Stats” tab.

What happens when it matters

Three things you should know:

• The fallback stands alone. While it is on air, your overlay does not lie on top of it, and neither the camera's sound nor the overlay's is heard. Whatever should be seen and heard belongs in the file or on the page.
• The first two to three seconds go out. The studio waits briefly so that a single dropout does not change the picture right away. A short stutter before the cut is therefore normal.
• A web page needs a few seconds. Its browser only starts when the scene goes on air; until then the picture is black. An uploaded image or video is there at once. For a “be right back” a file is therefore the better choice.

“Auch ohne Zuspieler” (also without a source)

Without this switch the automatic switch only reacts to a bad link. If your camera is gone completely, because the app was closed or is not sending yet, the last picture stays for a moment and then disappears.

With the switch the studio also shows the fallback when nobody is sending to the input. This is the setting for everybody who is out alone. It also turns the fallback into a starting screen, as “Starting soon” as your starting screen describes.

Switching by hand

The fallback is a scene like any other. You find it on the desk next to your cameras and can put it on preview or cut it straight on air, for a break for example.

A cut by hand always takes precedence:

• If you cut to the fallback yourself, it stays on air until you cut back yourself.
• If you cut to another scene while the fallback is running because of a bad link, the program stays where you put it.
• If you cut to a camera whose link is bad right now, the studio leaves it on air. The automatic switch only acts for this camera again after its link has been good once.

The preview shows the first picture of a video and nothing of a web page. Both only run once the scene is on air.

When it does not switch the way you expect

Read on

• What happens when a camera drops out
• “Starting soon” as your starting screen
• Program and preview
• Which bitrate for IRL streams (in German)