This article has been indexed from MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors – Front Page
Audiovisual artists who use Macs to output to large stage screens are calling on Apple to provide a way to disable a new security feature in macOS Monterey that is hindering their live performances.
For those unfamiliar with the feature, when an app is using the camera or the microphone in Monterey, a colored dot appears in the menu bar just next to the Control Center icon. Like in iOS, a green dot means an app is currently using the camera, while an orange dot means an app is using the microphone.
The idea behind the indicator dots is that it prevents apps and processes from sneakily recording conversations or videos, since the mic and the camera can’t be accessed in the background without the user’s knowledge.
The problem for AV artists is that the dot also appears on external displays, including external projectors and LED walls, which means live visual performances are negatively impacted. Disabling the menu bar via the “Displays Have Separate Spaces” system preference only makes the problem worse, because the orange dot still appears, only larger and more prominently.
Writing for music and motion website CDM, Peter Kirn notes that this issue is compounded by the fact that live visuals often use microphone or line input to produce audio-reactive graphics, so nothing untoward needs to be hijacking the camera or audio input for the indicator to appear.
Kirn also notes that the orange dot is visible when using Ableton Live 11.1 Beta. “I had missed it as I suspect many people had,” he says, “as you wouldn’t notice there was an issue until you tried to use fullscreen output on a display – which you will do when you have a show, but not necessarily when you’re developing content.”
Mark Coniglio, lead developer of audiovisual effects suite Isadora, alerted fellow AV artists to
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Read the original article: AV Artists Complain Monterey ‘Orange Dot’ Security Feature Makes Macs Unsuitable for Live Performances