Live Production: Surface app Vision Mixing

Operating the Surface App

There are a few tips to help you work with the Surface app, as some operations are based on a sequence of taps to get the result you want.

Vision Mixing

The main area of the Surface app is dedicated to switching the images in vision, the layout resembles what you would find in a television production vision control, with Program, Preview, and source monitors.

Changing the output

When the show starts, the Program Monitor has white corners to indicate that this is the destination for any source selection you tap on. If you now tap on the Preview Monitor the white corners jump to the preview, now the source you select is sent to the Preview Monitor, ready for you to cut or fade to the Program Output/Monitor.

At the bottom of the Surface App, to the right of the Atomos Logo, are the CUT and FADE buttons. To the right of the FADE button is a T-Bar where you can control the fade from Preview to Program Output.

Picture in Picture (PIPs)

You can set up each picture in picture channel by tapping on the Source Button. This will display a list of the PIPs and selecting a PIP will display a list of the elements for that PIP. BG for the background source and then the layers to match the Inserted Pictures.

Tap on the PIP you want to choose the sources for, then tap on the background. You will see the white corners appear on the button, now tapping on a source from either Multiview A or B will set that source as the background. Follow the same sequence, tap the button then the source, for each of the layers to add the sources for each inserted picture.

Note: If you want to display a logo or full-screen graphic, including with alpha for transparency, you can add the image as one of the Layers to be over the background source. This could be a solid or graduated color, another image, or a regular input source.

Once you have a picture in-picture configured, you can select it as the source to transmit.

Advanced Feature HTML5 Graphics

Before you can add HTML Graphics, you will need to set up an account with UNO, as described above. Any HTML5 graphics solution that provides a URL will work too.

Once configured, you should see the output from UNO in the Graphics Monitor, tapping on the DSK will add the graphics to the selected (white corners) output.