ATEM AFV: what it does, and switching by who is talking

What AFV does

In the audio tab of ATEM Software Control, every input has three buttons: ON, AFV and OFF. ON keeps that input in the program all the time. AFV (Audio Follow Video) only lets it be heard while its camera is on air, and fades it in and out with the cut. OFF mutes it.

Why podcast mics go on ON

If a guest’s mic is on AFV, the guest goes silent whenever their camera isn’t on air — in a wide shot, or while someone else’s close-up is up. In a conversation everyone has to be heard all the time, so the mics (or the console’s mix) go on ON and the cameras’ own audio on OFF.

The ATEM doesn’t switch by who is talking

No ATEM switches to the active speaker by itself. Its macros can change cameras on a timer, but a timer doesn’t follow a conversation. To make the video follow the audio, something has to listen to each mic on its own and tell the ATEM when to cut.

Video that follows the audio

That’s what the Live Switcher in OnAirCut does. It hears every mic of a multichannel USB console, compares each person with their own normal level, discounts how much of each voice leaks into the other mics, and tells the ATEM which camera to put on air — about 0.6 s after someone starts talking, at Normal speed.

Step by step in how to switch an ATEM by who is talking, and with a stream in an ATEM and OBS that switch by themselves.

Other ways to switch by who is talking

• A console with its own switcher: the RØDECaster Video links each camera input to one or more mics and switches by itself, with a priority for each shot. It replaces the ATEM rather than working with it.
• OBS plugins that change scenes by audio level, if you switch in OBS instead of an ATEM.
• OnAirCut, if you already have an ATEM and want to keep it.