In your studio the sound follows the picture: what is heard is the sound of the input that is in the program right now, plus the sound of your overlay. The inputs are not mixed with each other. So making two inputs audible at the same time is not possible.
For every input you set on the desk how it sounds when it is on air: volume, mute, mono and the picture-sound offset.
What happens to the sound at a cut
If you change the scene, the sound changes with it. The transition is a very short cross-fade of a few milliseconds, so that it does not click. To the viewers that sounds like a clean cut.
It follows that:
- An input's fader is its level on air. If the input is not in the program, nobody hears it, wherever the fader stands.
- If two voices are to be heard at the same time, they already have to arrive together in one input. What that looks like with two people in two places is in Streaming as two from two cities.
- The overlay's sound is always heard, whatever the scene.
The controls per input
| Control | Effect |
|---|---|
| Fader | The input's volume. |
| “Stumm” (mute) | Switches the input's sound off. The picture stays. |
| “Mono” | Mixes left and right together and puts the result on both channels. |
| “Bild-Ton-Versatz” (picture-sound offset) | Delays the sound or the picture when the two drift apart. |
Setting the volume
- Put the input on preview.
- Look at the preview's level meter while somebody speaks or the source delivers its normal sound.
- Switch on “Mithören” (listen in) for the preview if you want to hear the sound.
- Set the fader so that the input is about as loud as your other inputs. Then the volume does not jump at the cut.
Compare the inputs with each other before you go on air. An input that is clearly louder than the others stands out at every change.
Mute
“Stumm” is for inputs whose sound should never go on air, a camera for instance that is only to deliver a picture and picks up room noise while doing so. The setting stays on the input until you lift it again. So it also applies at the next cut to this scene.
Keep in mind that only the overlay is heard then, as long as this input is in the program.
Mono
“Mono” helps when a microphone arrives on one channel only and the viewers therefore hear it only on the left or only on the right. That happens easily with a microphone on a stereo input.
With “Mono” the voice is on both channels. Because left and right are averaged in the process, a signal that was on one channel only becomes 6 dB quieter. Make up for it with the fader:
- Switch on “Mono” for the input.
- Check on the level meter that both channels move now.
- Pull the fader up until the voice is as loud as before.
For a source with real stereo sound, music or game sound for instance, you leave “Mono” off.
The overlay's sound
The page you entered as your overlay brings its own sound along, the sound of an alert for example. It has a fader of its own and a mute switch of its own. Its sound lies over the program's sound and is heard on every scene.
Set it so that an alert is clearly heard but drowns out nobody who is speaking.
Picture-sound offset
When lips and voice do not match on an input, you make up for it with the picture-sound offset. Every change causes a short jump on this input. So set it while the input is on preview. The steps are in Picture and sound drift apart.
When no sound comes at all
Check in order: is the input on “Stumm”? Is the fader all the way down? Does the level meter move at all? If it stays empty, no sound arrives from the source. Then No sound helps further.