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Use several phones, with studio audio

Connect each phone to the same computer the usual way. Camlane shows them in a multiview with tally lights; cut with a click or keys 1–8, or turn on the auto-director, and mix the phones' microphones on the Audio page.

Steps

  1. Connect each phone

    On every phone, open Camlane in Share mode, tap the computer and type the PIN once. Up to 4 phones connect by default.

  2. Allow more cameras if you need them

    For more than 4 phones, raise the limit in Settings, Cameras, up to 16.

  3. Choose what goes on program

    On the Dashboard, click a camera or press its number key to cut. Or choose a layout: picture in picture, side by side or a 2 by 2 grid, with a cut or a dissolve.

  4. Turn on the auto-director

    Dashboard, Program, Auto-director: the program follows whoever is speaking, holding each shot at least 3 seconds.

  5. Set up the sound

    On the Audio page, choose noise cancellation and a preset such as Podcast, then Several phones: Auto mixer, Stereo pair, or follow the program camera.

  6. Record or stream

    Pick Camlane Camera and Camlane Microphone in OBS or any recorder. The layout and the mix are already in them.

Tally lights

Every phone shows its camera number. The camera on program, and every camera visible in a layout, shows a red tally on the phone and gets its full bitrate. Cameras in preview drop to a lower bitrate, and a camera nobody is watching drops to one picture a second until you show it.

The auto-director

It cuts to whoever is speaking, using each phone’s voice activity:

Setting Default
Shortest shot 3 seconds
Pause after you cut by hand 15 seconds
Wide shot when nobody talks Optional
Prefer cameras that see a face Optional, uses auto-framing

Studio audio

On the Audio page:

  1. Noise cancellation: Standard is enough for a quiet room and adds 10 ms. Strong handles keyboards and traffic and adds 30 ms.
  2. Preset: Natural, Podcast, Broadcast, Warm or Bright, or Custom with every stage (high-pass, gate, de-esser, compressor, EQ) adjustable.
  3. Loudness: the master keeps you around −16 LUFS with a limiter at −1 dBFS.
  4. Monitor in headphones if you want to hear the processed sound.

Several microphones

  • Auto mixer: one phone per person. The person talking gets the level; the others go down, so room noise doesn’t add up.
  • Stereo pair: two phones become the left and right of one stereo microphone. Camlane lines them up by the phones’ clocks, then by sound both hear, and shows the measured offset. Place them a metre or two apart, pointing at the source.
  • Follow program: the sound follows the camera on program, or stays pinned to one phone.

Recording a podcast or interview

  • One phone per person, on a stand at eye level, plugged in.
  • 1080p30 is plenty for most layouts; 1080p60 on clean 5 GHz Wi-Fi for streaming.
  • Auto-director with side by side keeps two people in frame when both talk.
  • Record “Camlane Camera” and “Camlane Microphone” in OBS. On Linux, each phone is also its own camera (“Camlane Camera 1” to “Camlane Camera 4”) if you prefer to edit angles later; see the Linux guide.

Headless

camlane-cli listen has the same options as flags: --noise, --preset, --mix, --stereo L,R, --layout, --director and more. Run camlane-cli listen --help for the list.

Something not covered here? Email hello@camlane.live.