Going live

The studio is where the show happens. You walk in from your stream setup, confirm your camera and microphone, choose how the broadcast should go out, then run it end to end on one screen.

This page covers the studio itself: the screen, the controls, the choices you make before you go live, and what changes once you do. To create the setup you walk into, see setting up a stream.

Pre-join: camera, mic, and your name

The first thing the studio shows is the pre-join screen. Nothing is broadcasting yet. This is where you confirm your devices and tell the room who you are.

1. Allow camera and microphone access when your browser asks. The pre-join screen waits until you do.
2. You'll see a live preview of yourself under the Settings heading. If you have more than one camera or microphone, click the chevron next to that button to pick the one you want.
3. Use the camera and mic buttons to start muted or with your camera off.
4. Enter your Username. This is the name your guests and your audience see attached to your video.
5. Optionally enter a Title, shown as a smaller second line under your name. Useful for "Host", "Guitar", "Producer".
6. Click Continue.

You can change devices later from the controls bar. Your name and title are fixed for the session once you continue, so leave and re-enter the studio if you want to change them.

The studio at a glance

• Header across the top: the broadcast title (or the events it's linked to), Link Events, Channels, the GPU switch, the diagnostics button, and Go Live with its dropdown.
• Left rail: your scenes. Click one to put it on air.
• Centre: the stage. This is what your audience sees. Below it sit the layout picker and your camera, microphone, and screen share buttons.
• Right rail: eight panels, one open at a time. Participants, Audience, Layers, Banners, Audio, Polls, Comments, and Private Chat.

Just under the header you may see a thin strip of messages: which destinations you're currently sending to, a note that your computer is doing the work in software, or a warning that the picture has stopped. Those are covered in diagnostics and troubleshooting.

The controls bar

The controls bar sits below the stage. It controls your camera, microphone, and screen share. Everyone else in the room has their own.

• Microphone: click to mute or unmute yourself. The chevron next to it lists your input devices.
• Camera: click to turn your camera on or off. The chevron next to it lists your cameras.
• Screen share: click to share a window, a browser tab, or your whole screen, and click again to stop. Available on desktop only. If the shared window has sound, that sound joins the broadcast too.

When screen share is on, it appears in Participants as its own source, so you can put it on stage separately from your camera.

Above the buttons sit the layout thumbnails for the current scene. See overlays and scenes for what each layout does.

Choose how the broadcast goes out

Four decisions live in the chevron next to Go Live, plus the Channels button beside it. All of them lock once you're live, so make them first.

Quality

The dropdown has a Quality section with 720p and 1080p. 720p is the default and it is the right answer most of the time: it is half the work for your computer, and a steady 720p picture looks better than a 1080p one that keeps dipping under movement. Pick 1080p when the scene is fairly static and you're on a capable machine.

Record only

Record Only broadcasts nowhere. It records the session into a broadcast you can review afterwards. Perfect for a rehearsal, a voice-over take, or producing something you'll publish later.

Local recording

Local Recording additionally saves your own camera and microphone to your computer at full quality while the show runs. When you end the broadcast you're offered the chance to upload those files and attach them to it. See local recordings.

Realtime, or channels: pick one

This is one decision with two ways of expressing it.

• Channels sends the show out to your connected external destinations at the same time as your own site. Click Channels in the header and tick the ones you want. The small number on the button is how many are selected.
• Realtime Streaming in the Go Live dropdown sends the show to viewers on your own site with as little delay as possible.

You can have one or the other, not both. If you switch Realtime Streaming on, the Channels button greys out and the header reads Turn off realtime to add channels. If your setup already has channels, the dropdown item reads Realtime (remove channels first) and won't turn on until you clear them.

Linking events

If only ticket-holders should be able to watch:

1. Click Link Events in the header.
2. Search for and pick one or more events.
3. For each one, choose whether All tickets unlock the stream, or only specific ticket types.
4. Click Save.

Once events are linked, the header shows Live Events and their names instead of the title, with a pencil next to it so you can change the selection. Linked events name the broadcast too. See events for how to build one.

Editing the title, description, and thumbnail

When no events are linked, the header shows the broadcast title with a pencil beside it.

1. Click the pencil.
2. Edit the Title and the optional Description.
3. Optionally upload a Thumbnail, used as the cover image fans see on your own site.
4. Click Update Broadcast.

Before you go live this updates your stream setup. Once you're live it updates the broadcast in flight.

Going live

1. Check the title (or linked events) in the header reads the way you want.
2. Check the Channels count, or that Realtime Streaming is ticked, whichever you chose.
3. Confirm Quality, and Record Only or Local Recording if you want them.
4. Click Go Live.

The button spins for a moment while everything opens. Then a LIVE badge appears in the header, with a pulsing red REC next to it if local recording is on. If you're sending to external destinations, a thin line under the header names them.

During the show

• Switch scenes from the left rail. The change reaches your audience straight away.
• Push banners and tickers onto the stage from the Banners panel.
• Ask a poll and let the answers land on screen from the Polls panel.
• Pin or push audience comments onto the stage from Comments.
• Bring people up from Audience or Participants.
• Talk to your co-hosts without the audience hearing, from Private Chat.
• Edit the per-destination title and description from the Channels picker.

Polls, comments, the audience list, and private chat all live in polls and audience interaction.

Playing sound into the broadcast

The Audio panel holds your sound cues: music beds, stings, and clips you can drop into the show at any point.

1. Open the Audio panel on the right rail.
2. Click Upload a sound and pick an audio file. It's kept with your account, so it's there for every future show.
3. Press play on a cue to start it, and press it again to stop.
4. Drag the slider on a cue to set its volume. The percentage sits next to it.
5. Click the loop button on a cue to make it repeat until you stop it.
6. Click Stop all at the top to silence everything at once.

Everyone hears a cue you play: your viewers, your recording, and every connected destination. You hear it too, at the volume you set. A cue keeps playing when you switch to another panel, so you can start the music and go back to reading comments.

Bringing in a guest

1. Open the Participants panel and click the + button.
2. Choose Invite Participant.
3. Enter their Name, and optionally an Email with Send Invite Email ticked so it's delivered for you.
4. Click Create Invite.
5. Copy the Invite Link that appears and send it however suits.

Your guest opens the link, lands on the same pre-join screen, and joins your room. They get a trimmed-down studio: their own camera, microphone, and screen share, plus comments and private chat. They can't change scenes, change the design, or end the broadcast.

In Participants you can see who has their microphone on, put someone on stage or take them off, put their screen share on stage separately, and remove someone from the room entirely.

Bringing in an outside camera

You can also feed the studio from broadcasting software, a phone app, or a hardware encoder, and it behaves like any other participant.

1. In Participants, click + and choose Generate RTMP Ingest URL.
2. Copy the Server URL and the Stream Key into your software. Use the eye icon to reveal the key.
3. Start sending. The feed appears in Participants, and you put it on stage the same way as a camera.
4. Click Revoke key when you're done with it.

Ending the broadcast

Click End Live in the header. Everything closes down, the recording is finalised, and the broadcast appears under Live Stream then Broadcasts.

If Local Recording was on, an upload window opens with your local takes. Let it finish so the full-quality files get attached to the broadcast, or click Download To My Computer to keep them yourself. Either way the files also stay on your machine under Local Recordings until you delete them.

Where to go next

• Make the stage look like a show with overlays and scenes.
• Get the room talking with polls and audience interaction.
• Something looking wrong? Try diagnostics and troubleshooting.
• After the show, see managing broadcasts.