QUESTION · ARCHIVE

I am hosting a Zoom meeting next month with a few different speakers. The entire meeting will live in Zoom with no live stream component. I'd like to talk to the talent without the rest of the meeting hearing me. Can I do this with VB audio or loopback?

ASKED BY · Zach Solsmith · CHAUTAUQUA, NEW YORK · 26 SEP 2026 · ▶ 00:15:42

THE PANEL'S ANSWER
Bill

Use a dedicated comms system like Unity Client or Spacecoms rather than trying to multiplex audio lines. These provide a separate back-channel pathway for talent communication independent of the main audio feed.

Tony

Check After Hours and Zoom Test Kitchen to test your actual setup in advance. Spacecoms by Jonas Tautel may have Zoom integration to appear in the meeting for talent communication.

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From the transcript.

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15:37in chautauqua new york i am hosting a zoom meeting next month with a few different speakers the entire meeting will live in zoom no live stream component i'd like to talk to the talent without the rest of the meeting hearing me. Can I do this with VB audio or loopback? Go ahead, Bill. This is one of those circumstances where you really want a comms system if you can.

15:58And there are so many options now that we never had before. Here on the show, we use one called Unity Client. It goes on your laptops or your phones or whatever you're using to do production, whatever your team has in the field. And it's an entirely separate pathway. So you're not trying to add on to audio lines that are still running. We also use Spacecoms.

16:22Our friend Jonas Dottle and his friends have developed that. So there's a couple of these things that we use that kind of perform a back channel thing. And it is much more convenient than trying to multiplex some sort of chat thing on top of an existing audio signal. It seems to me that that always gives you trouble. So I kind of like those inexpensive, simple.

16:44If you have internet connectivity and you can get your phone or anything else like that onto the internet, they work pretty well. And let's go to Tony. I would recommend that since you have a month, you're a month out, that you check out after hours. Check out after hours. And also, I would encourage you to take a look at Zoom Test Kitchen.

17:13Between those two places, you would have an opportunity to play with your actual setup. And so that's my suggestion. And I recommend a comms package to, I believe, Space Comms, which is done by Jonas Dottel. I believe there is some kind of integration now with Zoom so it can show up in a Zoom meeting so you can talk back to people. That's probably what you're looking for.

17:40All right, Bill, what do we got next? Next coming up is Paul Wallace in Austin, Texas, is back with us when Sony and other manufacturers offer their cameras in black or white. Why white? He's got a link there. One of the questions for the ages. Oh, fashionable colors. I always find products that are white never seem to sell. As a dealer who sells many products, like Pioneer, for example, they make, sometimes

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from Office Hours | Saturday | September 26, 2026 | Vertical.

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