You are to be commended for figuring out how to set up your own greenroom.

But what if you needed to implement this in vMix on a different PC with a different preset. Imagine all vMix inputs are different sources, different vMix Call passwords, different audio source.

All of you hard work setting up your greenroom on PC #1 does not easily port over to PC #2. Especially if you are new to vMix.

- Tom

Here's the "from memory" version - will double check the exact setup when I'm back in the studio next week and correct/add as necessary.

(PS - I did say this was complex, no it's not for the faint hearted novices!)

VMIX AUDIO SETUP


COMPANION BUTTON TO PUT CALL 1 TO GREEN ROOM


COMPANION BUTTON TO PUT CALL 1 TO LIVE


You'll notice that on the way back into live, we don't put the audio live again (despite forcing it on when going into green room). So, you'll need to put them back on air another way - by cutting them to line again and letting automix do its thing.

Copy those two buttons to work for all 8 vCallers, and you're done.

You can also setup a button which routes a microphone on and off Bus G, so that a producer can talk to anyone else in green room.

If you want to add the ability for interruptible talkback on top of this, there are two ways.

Without using another bus:
Either use the GR/Live buttons you've setup above to put the guest into green room, talk via the mic routed to Bus G, then push them back to live. Or, have separate buttons which allows the mic to temporarily go to Bus G, and the caller's audio return to be Bus G, then reset it/put caller return back to Bus A on release of the button. For extra cleverness you could work out whether they need to go back to Bus A or G upon release (ie which mode they were in before you started talking to them) by using Companion's custom variables. This method does mean that everyone in the green room will also hear the producer, and the guest would also hear a snatch of any green room conversation happening at the time, but doesn't tie up another bus.

A cleaner way, but which does need an extra bus spare, is to setup say Bus C. The producer's microphone would be constantly routed to Bus C, which is not routed to anywhere else so can't be heard on air. When you want to speak to someone, simply set their audio return to be Bus C. You can use Companion custom variables in the same way to return them to Bus A or G upon button release.

If you have VTs, other live sources, music, etc which you want your guests to hear, these should also be routed to Bus A and routed OFF Master. Otherwise, when the guests are in OnAir mode, they will only hear each other. MixMinus will still work so no danger of them hearing themselves.

Hope all this makes sense.

I would like vMix to offer a greenroom for vMix Callers and other guest so I can run a pre-show without my viewers accidentally hearing or seeing our setup process.

Nothing they've suggested--aside from learning Companion--is particularly complicated. At least, no more complicated than a proper implementation of vMix Call or Zoom into a production.

And the use of Companion can be replaced by far easier web scripting in 4K and higher, which I always recommend for a proper vMix Call implementation anyway, to make use of the additional outputs.

I'd also wonder, if vMix does opt to add this functionality (which feels to me like a big "if", but I've been surprised--and very wrong--before), what form would it take? That is to say, how much of what's being done in these scripts to build one's own greenroom will be automated by the process & how much will still have to be figured out and done by the user?

I do know of a (paid) third party service that does this, and they handle it similarly to how Zoom inputs are handled by vMix. You put in the call passwords, then they use "magic" on their backend to allow you to move people who join via their service between those calls.

Something like that could work, and is probably the best option from a user perspective, but I'm not sure how easy it'd be to implement or what impact it would have on the vMix Call operating costs.

The product to look at is TVU partyline.
And my thoughts are this:
- It should be a cloud call room (imagine you have an AGM and 20 callers to ask a question. You don't want to have the load on your production machine)
- The room should have multiple SRT listening ports so you can connect from the production securely. At least one for send (PGM) and one for receive (participant).
- The room should support audio only as well. More like an intercom style "miss-use"
- The room should offer local at the caller ISO recording including automatic upload of the media. This way people can record their question and hang up.
- Variable frame and bitrate
- and all points I have forgotten

I didn't see this til now, but with the tread being bumped, I'll take the opportunity to respond.

I'm not saying vMix is the easiest software in the world to learn or use.

I've been on it since at least v11 (that's the earliest support email I have), so as it's grown more sophisticated, I've grown with it.

As I've seen it change incrementally over the years, it can be hard for me to look at it in its current form as a new user would.

I've also taken to it fairly easily, so it's, again, not that easy for me to put myself in the shoes of someone who goes in not even knowing the difference between an input and and an output (to use your example).

But I do maintain that complexity has to be relative.

The level of knowledge one needs to properly build a production workflow around vMix Call that makes sense and works well is the same knowledge you need to properly build a greenroom, and is, at its core, the same level of knowledge you need to properly run an efficient vMix production.

At its core, you basically need to know what the software can and cannot do. That includes things like "what an input is" and "what falls under the available input types" and "what an audio bus is" and "what an output is" and "how to make inputs into outputs".

Those are the basics to even use the program.

While I can respect that some people may not have those down, using vMix at all really doesn't get simpler than that.

And, ultimately, the question "How do I set up a vMix Call greenroom?" is answered by a proper understanding of the above: you take whatever you want the callers to see and route it to an output the callers can see & you take the audio that you can want the callers to hear & route it to a bus the callers can hear.

It's really no more complex than using vMix itself. Some people may find it too complicated, but those are, if I can speak frankly, probably people who shouldn't be in a position where they're tasked with setting up a vMix Call greenroom (or anything else on vMix) in the first place.

Shortcuts and scripts just make it easier and faster than clicking the through the GUI manually.



I also want to point out that "operating costs", as I used the term, aren't necessarily monetary (you're talking about adding a 5th output or tying up one of the existing 4, both of which can have operational downsides), nor are they necessarily costs paid by the end user.

vMix isn't sending us the bill, but they are paying one.

What you're talking about (which sounds like a pretty good idea overall, but would probably need some tweaks) stays within the existing limits, with the exception of possibly adding a new input.

But I've seen some requests that want the greenroom to be independent of the existing call slots (and the accompanying limits) which could lead to increases of bandwidth on existing licenses.



As I said, I've been wrong before, but I wouldn't expect it. Every time this comes up, the answer has been "no".

The key is, instead, to redefine the limits.

You get a max of 8 slots.

Instead of looking at that and saying "Ok, we can build a production with up to 8 simultaneous guests", look at it as "Ok, we can build a production with up to 4 simultaneous guests".

Then you give round 1 the first 4, round 2 the second 4, round 3 the first 4, and so on.

Then you make the rounds long enough that guests aren't showing up 2 rounds early. If you can't do that, then redefine the limit again to have fewer simultaneous guests, thus giving you more queue slots.