Check your camera, microphone and speakers
Make sure everything works before you join the studio. Nothing is recorded or sent anywhere: it all stays on this computer.
- CameraNot checked
- MicrophoneNot checked
- Speakers or headphonesNot checked
- BrowserChecking…
Camera
Face a window or lamp, with the camera at eye level and your head near the top of the picture. The preview is mirrored, like a mirror; the studio sees you the right way round.
Microphone
Talk normally: the bar should move with your voice.
Record yourself and play it back to hear how you’ll sound. A headset microphone near your mouth sounds clearer than a laptop’s.
Speakers or headphones
No sound? Try these in order:
- Turn the volume up, check nothing is muted, and check your headphones are plugged in (or connected, for Bluetooth).
- Choose your headphones or speakers under “Play sound through” and play the test sound again.
- On an iPhone or iPad, sound can be quiet, or come from the earpiece, while the microphone is on: turn the volume up, hold the phone to your ear, or use headphones.
- Is it just this page? Open YouTube in a new tab and play any video.
- You can hear YouTube: the sound works, so it’s this page. Check this tab isn’t muted (right-click the tab and choose “Unmute site”), reload this page and try the test sound again.
- YouTube is silent too: the problem is your device’s sound, not this page. Check its sound output (next step).
- Windows: right-click the speaker icon at the bottom right of the screen, choose Sound settings, pick your headphones or speakers under Output and check the volume isn’t at zero.
- Mac: open the Apple menu > System Settings > Sound, pick your headphones or speakers under Output and check the volume and that Mute is off.
- Android: press a volume button while the sound plays to raise the media volume, and check Do Not Disturb is off.
- Close other apps that might be using your headphones, such as Teams or Zoom.
Your browser
In the studio connection, choose the same camera and microphone in its settings if it picks different ones.
This checks your browser, camera, microphone and speakers, not your network: a firewall or VPN can still block the studio connection. See connection troubleshooting.
Connection troubleshooting: firewalls and VPNs
Camera and microphone fine here, but the studio connection won’t connect, or connects with no picture or sound? The network is usually the cause. Try these in order:
- Switch off any VPN, and close other video apps such as Teams or Zoom.
- Try a different network, such as home broadband or your phone’s hotspot. If it works there, your usual network is blocking it.
- Ask your IT team to allow vMix Call, which the studio connection uses. vMix lists these requirements:
For Protocol and port Direction Website (HTTPS) TCP 443 Outbound STUN UDP 3478 Outbound TURN relay TCP 80 and 10349 Outbound Video and audio (WebRTC) UDP 49152–65535 Inbound With only TCP 443, 80 and 10349 open, vMix Call can still connect through vMix’s relay servers, but the quality may be lower. vMix doesn’t publish its servers’ IP addresses, as they change, so the ports need allowing rather than specific addresses. Source: vMix Call firewall requirements.