Send the room's sound from a phone or iPad

An iPhone or iPad running InterScribe Studio can be the floor: its microphone, or an input plugged into it, becomes the sound InterScribe captions, translates and voices. This page covers when to use it, how to set it up, and what stops it.

When it fits

Use the device when there is no computer at the desk, in a small room, at a pop-up event, or as a backup when the room's agent is offline.

For a sound desk that stays in place, the InterScribe Agent on a computer is still the better choice: it starts with the computer and keeps sending without anyone holding a phone. See Set up the desktop agent.

Before you start

• Sign in to Studio with an operator account. See Get InterScribe Studio and sign in.
• Allow Studio to use the microphone when iOS asks. If microphone access is off in Settings, Studio says Studio can't use the microphone and offers Open Settings.
• Only one device sends the floor of a session. A device that is already sending another session's floor, or running a booth, cannot send this one: it is one sound at a time.

Send the sound

What each microphone type does:

• Phone removes echo and room noise, and evens out the volume.
• Headset removes echo and noise, and keeps the speaker's own volume.
• Sound desk is already processed by the desk, so it is sent exactly as it comes. Choose it for a mixer connected through a USB audio interface.

Changing the type while you are live restarts the microphone. Listeners hear about 2 seconds of silence, then the device sends again by itself.

Use the device as a backup

While a session is live and nothing reaches the floor, the console shows Nothing is reaching the floor, with Send this iPad's audio (Send this iPhone's audio on an iPhone). You can also choose Send this phone's audio instead in Source at any time.

Studio then asks Send this iPad's audio to the floor? and says that listeners hear and read what the device picks up from now on, and which device stops being the floor. Select Send from this iPad to confirm. To go back, switch Audio comes from to AV channel, or use Switch to the AV channel when a banner offers it. Each switch asks first.

If a web console is also sending the floor, it keeps sending when the device starts, and the recognizer hears both. Stop the other one.

Hear the floor

Listen plays the floor back to you, and never changes what listeners hear. While the device is the floor, Listen works through headphones only. On the speaker, the sound would loop into the microphone.

What stops the sound

When the floor stops, listeners' captions and voices pause and their app says The stream will resume as soon as possible. Studio says why, and what to do.

• A call comes in. While it rings, listeners keep hearing the floor. Decline and nothing changes. Answer and the floor pauses for everyone, because the call takes the microphone. When you hang up, the floor resumes by itself and Studio shows Floor back, with Mute the floor if you do not want it open. If an AV channel is live, the ringing call offers Switch to it first.
• The network drops. Studio shows Network lost: nothing is sent or kept on the device while it is offline. When the network is back, the floor waits for you: select Resume the floor.
• The battery runs low. While you are live, Studio shows the battery level and about how many minutes are left once it is at 10 % or less, or when the battery will not last the session. You can Switch to AV channel or select I'm plugging in. At 2 % the floor stops so the device does not die mid-sentence: plug it in and resume, or switch to the AV channel.
• The device gets hot. Studio first pauses the stage preview and the transcript animation, and the floor is unchanged. If iOS reports the heat as critical, the floor stops, and Resume when it cools is available once iOS no longer reports it as critical. Out of the sun and out of its case helps.
• A headset disconnects. The floor stops. Studio never switches to another microphone by itself: choose Send from the iPhone mic, or Reconnect the headset.
• Another device takes the floor. Studio shows The floor is coming from that device. Choose Take the floor here, or Keep watching.
• iOS closes Studio. When you open it again, Studio says Studio was closed while this iPad was the floor. Nothing is sent until you choose.

Any other stop shows Floor stopped. Select Resume the floor when the cause is gone: after a stop, the floor never restarts without your tap, except after a call.

A locked screen

Studio asks iOS to keep audio running in the background, and none of the reasons Studio stops the floor for is a locked screen. If iOS closes the app, see iOS closes Studio above. Before an event that depends on it, run a sound check with the screen locked.

If something goes wrong

• Nothing is heard after go-live