Live View & Multi View
See exactly what your cameras see — right from your Mac. Live View gives you a real-time preview of a single camera with full focus control, and is available in the free version of Middle Control. Multi View — monitoring up to 9 cameras side by side — is a Middle Control Pro feature. Both work with any camera that has Live View support — Sony, Blackmagic, Canon, Lumix, Panasonic, Z CAM, OBSBOT, BirdDog, PTZOptics, and iPhone via the Blackmagic Camera app. Check the compatibility tool.
Live View
Shows a realtime preview of the video feed directly in Middle Control — and it's a control surface, not just a monitor:
- The strip along the bottom adjusts Gain / ISO, Iris, Shutter, WB, Tint, Contrast, Saturation, Black Level, and ND without leaving the picture. Tap a value to open a precision picker with an AUTO option.
- AF / MF, Track (subject tracking), and Tap to Focus sit on the right, next to a T / W zoom rocker.
- The window can be resized and set to full screen on an external monitor — useful as a dedicated monitoring display on set.
Control-only tiles
Turn a camera's Video Source off in Camera Details and it still appears in Live View and Multi View — with its full control strip, tally, and status, but no video image. Useful for cameras you shade and drive without needing to monitor them.
REC tag and remaining time
A REC tag reports the camera's recording state — outlined when idle, red while rolling — and a Remaining readout next to it shows how much recording time is left on the card. Both are turned on in the Advanced Recording Controls (the gear beside the REC tag); the REC tag only becomes clickable once you arm it, so you can't start a take by accident.
Display Options
The Display Options menu chooses exactly what appears over the feed — image-tool shortcuts, battery status, the REC indicator, the virtual joystick, and the other on-screen elements. Switch off anything you don't need for a cleaner monitoring image.
Image tools
The toolbar on the left of the Live View window toggles Middle Control's own monitoring tools: False Colors, Zebras, Focus Peaking, Waveform (with a Parade option), Histogram and Vectorscope, plus Guides, Grids and a Center Target. Overlays like False Colors sit on top of the feed, while the scopes open as resizable panels — so you can judge exposure, colour and focus without touching the camera's own monitoring outputs.
Custom LUTs
Load up to 5 custom LUTs (.cube files) to preview a look in Live View and Multi View. A LUT affects only the monitoring image, not what the camera records — handy for judging graded exposure and colour on set.
For the best Live View performance, connect your camera to a 5 GHz Wi-Fi network and your Mac via wired Ethernet. Consumer-grade Wi-Fi access points can introduce lag — we recommend Ubiquiti or GL-iNet equipment for reliable results.
Multi View
Monitor multiple cameras at once through the Multi View window. You can display up to 9 cameras simultaneously (4 or 9 layouts available), making it easy to keep an eye on your whole setup without switching between views. Cameras with their Video Source turned off still take a slot — as control-only tiles with full status and controls, just no video image.
If an ATEM is connected, Red / Green Tally borders will be shown around each camera feed, and the camera names will include the short ATEM labels — so you always know what's live. A blue border marks the currently active camera — the one your controls are driving — alongside the red program / green preview tally borders.
The same image tools and scopes — False Colors, Waveform and Parade, Histogram, Vectorscope, Guides and Grids — are available on each Multi View feed, so you can shade every camera against real scopes at once.
4 Camera Multiview
9 Camera Multiview
The layout — 4 or 9 slots — and the slot names are set in the Middle Control Pro settings.