When using a PC VR headset, Bigscreen requires the Bigscreen Audio Stream driver to be installed for your audio to be properly shared with other people in the room with you. You do not need this if you only ever plan to watch things by yourself, as you can always hear your own audio, and the driver is not needed for single player use.

Please note that this does not apply to Remote Desktop. Remote Desktop does not require the Bigscreen Audio driver to be installed in order for other people to hear audio. For help with Remote Desktop, please see this guide.

If you want to stream your desktop audio for other users to hear, please make sure you fulfill these requirements:

Requirements for Desktop Audio Streaming:

• An updated version of Windows 10. This must be newer than Windows 10 Version 1803. Build 17134 or older will fail. Windows 11 is not supported at this time.
  
• An existing audio device. Your system must already have an existing active audio device. Generally most people will already have this, but if you do not have any sort of speakers or headphones plugged in, or have your audio devices disabled, this will not work and likely cause Bigscreen to crash.
  
• Your PC must be VR-capable and should meet the minimum system requirements for either Steam VR or Oculus[store.facebook.com].
  
• Your primary monitor should be plugged into the same GPU as your VR device. If you are using Oculus Link or Air Link[store.facebook.com] then please make sure that Bigscreen is running on the same GPU as your primary monitor.

Installation of the driver is done within Bigscreen itself.


Depending on your Windows UAC settings, Windows may prompt you for permission to allow this. If this happens, you will need to remove your headset and and allow the action to happen on your computer.

Depending on how your system is configured, you may need to reboot your computer at this point before the Audio Driver will work.

If for some reasons the steps above fail, you can try manually running the audio driver installation by going to your Bigscreen directory, and running the batch file located in the Bigscreen_Data\StreamingAssets\bsvad directory. It should look something like and the file is named install_bsvad.bat. When running this file, right click on it and choose Run as Administrator.

You may need to check your playback and recording devices afterwards, as doing it this way may not set it back to what it should be after. They should be set to your normal devices.

Once the driver is installed, you can create a Public or Private room and have other people join you.

Bigscreen will automatically try to share your desktop audio with others, but if for other people say they cannot hear your audio, go to My Room > Desktop and click on the Refresh Audio button.

To uninstall the Bigscreen Audio driver, it is recommended you do so from within Bigscreen itself.

First go to Settings > Audio, and click on the Uninstall Driver button and follow through the prompts.

Once uninstalled, you will need to reboot your computer before using Bigscreen again to finalize the process.

If you're having trouble hearing other users talking, hearing the Bigscreen UI and background sounds, or speaking through your microphone, go to Settings > Audio in Bigscreen. You should see which devices are currently being used. Set your headset's audio as your default playback and mic devices for best results.

Please also make sure the following are true:

• Do NOT set Bigscreen Audio 1.2 as your default device.
  
• Do NOT rename your microphone devices.
  
• Make sure the Bigscreen Audio device is NOT disabled in your sound settings.
  
• Audio Mirroring is turned OFF to avoid echo issues.
  
• The Bigscreen Audio Stream 1.2 device is set at 16 bit, stereo, 48khz sampling rate in Windows.

Depending on the application in question, you may need to press the Refresh Audio button every time you open a new app or game.

If it is still not working at this point, make sure to reboot your computer and trying again.

Note that some games maintain strict control over their audio output and do not let Bigscreen reroute the audio as needed. If this happens, you can attempt to manually force the audio to be rerouted by going into the App Devices and Volume Preferences Sound Setting and force that app to output to the Bigscreen Audio Stream 1.2 device manually.

If Bigscreen crashes or is force quit, and you hear no audio from your computer, you can also use this page to fix it by pressing the Reset button at the bottom.
This isn't a bug, or Bigscreen deliberately changing your volume, but could be the result of a couple of settings on your computer.

This could be the result of a settings in Windows that automatically lowers volume of non-voice audio when it detects you are in a voice call. See this link for more information and screenshots[www.alphr.com].

In Windows, open Control panel > Hardware and Sound > Sound. From there, go to the Communications tab. There you will find the settings: "When Windows detects communication activity". The following options are available:

🔹 Mute all other sounds
🔹 Reduce the volume of other sounds by 80%
🔹 Reduce the volume of other sounds by 30%
🔹 Do Nothing

Select Do Nothing to fix the issue. If Do Nothing was already selected, please try changing the option to something else, applying the change, and then changing it back to Do Nothing.

Other programs such as Dolby Digital Plus Advanced Audio may also cause similar issues with its Volume Leveler option.

In addition, due to the way sound works in Bigscreen, when other people join your room, the audio is routed through the Bigscreen audio driver, but when it's just you, the sound goes directly to your normal audio device. The audio level difference is a result of each of those two devices (your normal one, and the Bigscreen one) being set at different volume levels.