Example Use: Source-Connect with 5 actors

This article is part of the Source-Connect Pro and Pro X 3.9 User Guide

As an engineer, follow the steps below to create a Source-Connect session with 5 actors. 

Make sure you have your account ready

First, you will need to have your own account (the engineer) so you can connect to all actors at once. If you already have an account, you can skip this step. If not, refer to this article for instructions on how to create one.

This account will include auxiliary accounts (accountname*a, accountname*b and accountname*c, accountname*d, etc). This will give you the ability to have at least 4 connections per account.

Create duplicate Source-Connect Pro applications

1. You will need to duplicate your Source-Connect Pro applications to reflect the number of connections you’re using. 
   • Go to your applications folder, and find the Source-Connect Pro application 
   • Right click (or control click) on the application in that folder and select duplicate 
   • Continue this process until you have 5 Source-Connect applications to use.Launch each instance of the Source-Connect application, and as they launch, log in to each one using the variations of the usernames as mentioned above.
2. For the first application, the username is your original account name; for the second application, the username is accountname*a, the third is accountname*b, and the fourth is accountname*c. All of these will use the same password as the original account.
3. For the 5th application, you will use accountname*d.

Configure Port Forwarding

1. Change your port forwarding rules for each application, as every connection will need to be assigned to ports of their own. If you’re to start with our standard port rules, you’ll start with the first application as port 6000 and then alter the remaining applications to have 6002, 6004, 6006 and so on. 
   • Source-Connect 1: 6000 
   • Source-Connect 2: 6002 
   • Source-Connect 3: 6004 
   • Source-Connect 4: 6006 
   • Source-Connect 5: 6008
2. In your router, instead of forwarding only 6000-6001 as you might normally do, you’ll forward a larger port range, so 6000-6010 would be a good place to start for instance. (this is something our support staff can help you with if you have trouble)
3. Once completed, you’ll be able to test your ports successfully in the applications, and connect to your talent without issue.

Configure Source- Nexus I/O drivers

1. Before connecting with your talent, you will need to open the Source-Nexus Control Panel application, and start to create the Nexus I/O drivers that are needed for the session.
2. Create Mono devices named 
   • To SC1 
   • From SC1 
   • To SC2 
   • From SC2 
   • To SC3 
   • From SC3 
   • To SC4 
   • From SC4 
   • To SC5 
   • From SC5 
   • To Chat 
   • From Chat
3. In each Source-Connect application, you'll be setting our inputs and outputs to the corresponding Source-Nexus I/O driver. 
   • Source-Connect 1 
     • Input = To SC1 
     • Output = From SC1 
   • Source-Connect 2 
     • Input = To SC2 
     • Output = From SC2 
   • Source-Connect 3 
     • Input = To SC3 
     • Output = From SC3 
   • Source-Connect 4 
     • Input = To SC4 
     • Output = From SC4 
   • Source-Connect 5 
     • Input = To SC5 
     • Output = From SC5

Configure the inputs and outputs 

1. Finally, you'll set the inputs and outputs of Zoom or Source-Nexus Gateway or whichever web conferencing system you use to connect. 
   • Input = To Chat 
   • Output = From Chat

Final Notes

• In Zoom (web conferencing) make sure to mute your microphone, as you’ll be communicating with the actors via Source-Connect in most cases, sending your microphone to both places may cause echos or confusion for the actors. Or you can mute your send in each Source connect application to make that easy as well.
• The same will go for your monitoring of the connections, there will be a latency difference between Source-Connect and Zoom/SNGateway/web conferencing. Keep that in mind when deciding what you’re monitoring from.
• If all of your talent are on Mac computers, Source-Stream will be available to you, and you may not have to worry about your port forwarding.
• Make sure to log in to the Q manager, and to have the talent log into theirs as well. You’ll then show the Q-Manager your ProTools Session Audio files folder. Record EXACTLY what comes out of Source-Connect, do not change the routing or faders going to the record tracks.
• In Source-Connect, make to select Q-Restore and Q-Replace, your talent needs to uncheck those if checked.