A prominent orange dot in macOS Monterey is causing problems for artists
Live performers are complaining that Apple's macOS Monterey microphone in use alert, an orange dot in the Menu Bar, has rendered the Mac unusable during events.
A prominent orange dot in macOS Monterey is causing problems for artists
Apple implemented a visual representation that alerts users to any application or device accessing their microphone or camera -- an orange or green dot in the Menu Bar. This security feature is meant to draw users' attention to inadvertent access but has been implemented in a way that is disruptive to visual artists.
When a microphone is in use during any circumstance, the orange dot appears by the Control Center in the Menu Bar on every connected display. This occurs even when the Menu Bar is disabled on external monitors, except the dot appears floating in space in the upper right corner.
Many artists in the music industry output visuals to an external monitor or projector while playing live shows. An orange dot on a 24-inch monitor may not seem like an issue, but once it is shown on a 50-foot display in front of a crowd, it quickly becomes a disruption.
Members of the music community aren't happy with this implementation and are reaching out to Apple for some kind of user-facing toggle. At the minimum, artists are asking Apple to remove the orange dot from external displays.
The developer of one popular audio-visual graphics client, Isadora, called the feature "totally unacceptable." He asks that everyone go to the macOS feedback page and submit a report, or send a tweet reply to the Apple Support account.
"This must get fixed and we need to make some noise to make sure it does," said the Isadora developer in a forum post.
A temporary fix has been shared by "s4y" on Github. This application will remove the orange dot. It isn't officially endorsed by Apple and could be disabled at any time with a future macOS update.
Read on AppleInsider
A prominent orange dot in macOS Monterey is causing problems for artists
Apple implemented a visual representation that alerts users to any application or device accessing their microphone or camera -- an orange or green dot in the Menu Bar. This security feature is meant to draw users' attention to inadvertent access but has been implemented in a way that is disruptive to visual artists.
When a microphone is in use during any circumstance, the orange dot appears by the Control Center in the Menu Bar on every connected display. This occurs even when the Menu Bar is disabled on external monitors, except the dot appears floating in space in the upper right corner.
Many artists in the music industry output visuals to an external monitor or projector while playing live shows. An orange dot on a 24-inch monitor may not seem like an issue, but once it is shown on a 50-foot display in front of a crowd, it quickly becomes a disruption.
Members of the music community aren't happy with this implementation and are reaching out to Apple for some kind of user-facing toggle. At the minimum, artists are asking Apple to remove the orange dot from external displays.
The developer of one popular audio-visual graphics client, Isadora, called the feature "totally unacceptable." He asks that everyone go to the macOS feedback page and submit a report, or send a tweet reply to the Apple Support account.
"This must get fixed and we need to make some noise to make sure it does," said the Isadora developer in a forum post.
A green light means your camera is in use. And in macOS Monterey, an orange dot in the menu bar means your microphone is in use.
Here's what it looks like. pic.twitter.com/ejszxvDa7W-- Apple Support (@AppleSupport)
A temporary fix has been shared by "s4y" on Github. This application will remove the orange dot. It isn't officially endorsed by Apple and could be disabled at any time with a future macOS update.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Sorry but A) this is for all of our protection, and B )it really isn’t that big a deal. I’ve seen a number of exported videos with a little orange dot in the corner. This is Much Ado About NOTHING.
A homegrown "DJ" should be using something like this, to begin with.
If they need one software, ProPresenter is amazing for this.
If they need to live mix, use DJ software and ProPresenter. Simple. and way better than simply extending your OS screen.
None of these complaints makes any sense.
Isadora needs to make a better app. Sounds like they don't know what they are doing.
I personally have had ZERO issues with this when setting up concerts and conferences.
If your menu bar is showing up on the LED wall or whatever, you are doing it wrong.
- What’s a 50 ft screen look like from the average viewing distance … ? My off-the-cuff guess is that at 50-100 ft, what you see isn’t much larger visually than your average living room TV. So no, the dot isn’t enormous from a relative perspective.
- As for Screenflow/screen-recording, if a tiny orange dot is that disruptive… you’ve got bigger issues than UI elements. I tried it, with Screenflow 9. Barely noticed it. Looked up presentations on the web, and noted how much visual clutter people normally leave in … a lot.
Update: projected to an 80-in TV through Airplay, using various colored backgrounds, including black. Also, with and without Menu Bar hidden. Not one person … ten of them … noticed the dot without me pointing it out.
This issue is some serious navel-gazing.
For people that think this is not such a big deal, I'd like to say that it depends a lot on what you use the device for.
For example, when projecting live visuals from your Mac, you might want to make the screen background black (or the same colour as the wall) to give the impression of floating effects. The orange dot in the corner breaks that illusion.
When you see angry photographers doing that, get back to us.
Which sort of makes the whole thing pointless as any malware could remove it. I wouldn't be surprised to find the "fix" is just a defaults setting toggle.