Run this before you go live — especially if the same desk flips between work calls and streaming. Two minutes of pre-flight beats the “why is my mic routed to the wrong app?” scramble in front of an audience.
Audio (the thing that breaks most):
- Confirm the mic is selected as input in your streaming app, and that call apps aren’t grabbing it exclusively.
- Check monitoring: you can hear yourself (or a level meter moves) before you count on it.
- Route desktop audio and mic to the right tracks, and confirm music or notification sounds aren’t leaking into the stream.
- Do a 5-second test recording and play it back — levels not peaking, no hum, no double audio.
Camera & framing:
- Right camera selected and in focus; eyes on the upper third, headroom trimmed.
- Background clear of anything you don’t want on screen — badges, whiteboards, private tabs.
- Close any window or notification that could pop into frame; enable Do Not Disturb.
Lighting:
- Key light on and set to your preset (position and color temp), no harsh shadow across your face.
- Kill glare on glasses and monitors; no bright window fighting the camera behind you.
Scenes & hotkeys:
- Verify each scene loads the sources you expect — starting, live, break, ending.
- Test your scene-switch and mute hotkeys once so muscle memory works live.
- Confirm the correct destination and stream key, and that you’re not accidentally live already.
Go-live check: title and category set, chat/alerts visible, one final “can you hear and see me” test with a mod or a phone, then start.
