Listen to a Room

ARC’s Listen mixer lets staff monitor supported camera microphones and a Raspberry Pi room microphone from a game’s Control page. Listening is started by staff; adding a source to the mixer does not start its audio stream.

Set up microphone sources

Camera microphones

1. Install and enable the optional Vision service, add the camera, and assign it to the game.
2. Open that game’s Editor → Cameras and enable Listen for each camera microphone staff should be able to use. The setting is per camera and is on by default when the camera reports audio support.
3. Save the game. Cameras assigned to the game and allowed in its Listen mixer appear as sources in Control.

A camera whose probe reports no audio does not offer this setting. Disabling a camera or removing its game assignment also removes it from that game’s mixer.

Raspberry Pi room microphone

1. Install the Room microphone role on a Raspberry Pi bridge and connect a USB microphone. The Pi appears under System → Connections when discovered on the local network.
2. Open the Raspberry Pi connection and go to its Microphone section. Check that ARC detects the microphone and the receiver is listening.
3. Under Use in game, choose the game that should have the room microphone. ARC creates a room-microphone device for that game; it then appears in that game’s Listen mixer.

See Raspberry Pi and Windows Bridge for the install and discovery steps. A Pi microphone that has not been assigned to a game is not listed in its Control mixer.

Listen from Control

1. Open the game's Control page and select Listen in the dock.
2. In the mixer, turn on the source or sources you want to monitor. The live level meter helps you see whether each microphone is receiving audio.
3. Adjust a source's volume or mute it. Use Master output to adjust or mute the combined monitoring output.
4. When finished, turn off the sources you no longer need.

The dock control changes to Listening while a source is active. A browser may ask for a click before it can play audio; click the mixer to enable playback if it says browser audio is paused. If a source is unavailable, ARC identifies it in the mixer while continuing to show other usable sources.

ARC allows up to four camera microphones to be monitored at once. If you need another camera, turn one of the active camera sources off first. Room microphones do not count toward this camera limit.

Listen to a camera on a wall

The Listen mixer is different from the speaker control on a camera wall tile. A wall tile’s speaker button plays that camera’s audio on the computer displaying the wall. The Unmuted by default setting controls whether that tile starts muted. Use the Listen mixer when staff need to monitor room microphones from the game’s Control page.

Where to go next

• Vision and cameras — add cameras, assign them to games, and manage camera views.
• Running a game — operate the Control dock during a session.
• Displays and Audio — adjust audio playback on room displays.
• Raspberry Pi and Windows Bridge — install a Pi room microphone.