Join live event
When it's time for your live event, you can join the event room from the Overview page, the Registrants page, or the Event Analytics page. Click “Join event room,” then "Join as host." Wistia Live supports multiple hosts, so you can collaborate with your co-hosts to moderate chat, bring people on and off stage, and change layouts for a seamless experience.
If you’re a panelist or audience member, click the link you’ve received to join. You can also join the event by clicking the "Join event room" dropdown. From here, you can "Join as panelist" or "View as audience" as well.
If you’re the Host or a Panelist, when you click to join, enter your Display Name, and be sure to select your preferred Video, Microphone, and Speakers. Once done, click “All Set.” You can also choose whether or not you’d like to blur your camera background, use a virtual background, or join with your microphone muted or your camera off.
Once you’ve entered the live event page, you’ll see a number of options here.
When you’re ready to get started, click “Go Live” and then confirm your selection in the pop-up. Your livestream has a 7–10 second delay.
Note
Click "No, not yet" if you selected "Go Live" by mistake.
On-stage vs off-stage
When a panelist joins, they’ll automatically be off-stage. However, hosts can click on them to bring them on-stage. You can also choose when to mute a presenter, pin them to the presenter position, or take them off-stage.
Host and panelist controls
There are a number of options on the page for you to adjust your event as needed.
Audio
The audio setting (or, the Microphone button) can be used to mute or unmute your microphone. Expanding this setting will allow you to change your microphone (input) and your speaker (output), as well as toggle the following features:
Reduce Background Noise* - Removes unwanted sounds.
Echo Cancellation* - Prevents echoes from being created or captured.
Automatic Level Control* - Maintains a consistent audio level.
Enable Captions - Enables captions for your device only.
*These settings are on by default - you can disable these if you’d like.
Video
The video setting (the camera button) will turn your webcam on or off. When you expand this setting, you can change your camera source or select your webcam background.
Share
When clicking the Share button (or, Monitor icon) to share your screen, you’ll be prompted to select your entire screen, window, or a tab.
If you need to share audio as well, be sure to select a specific tab under “Chrome Tab,” and check “Share tab audio.”
Note
If you’re sharing your screen and your screen is on stage, you are audible to the audience.
Layouts
Layouts let you choose how the live event stage appears for your audience. The presenter or screenshare added to the stage will be the main display and you can choose to have your panelists shown in different positions. The options available are Tile or Full.
Note
Layouts can only be accessed by Hosts.
Stage
Clicking the Stage button will maximize or minimize your view of the stage. When the stage is maximized, the side panels and backstage view will be hidden. You can reverse this by clicking the button again.
Chat
Click the "Chat" button to collapse or expand the chat window.
Audience tab
In the "Audience" tab of the chat panel, you can interact with your attendees during a live event. To learn more about chatting with your audience, head over the Live Event Chat page.
Silence attendees
If an attendee's contributions to the chat need to be removed, you can silence them so that their chat bubbles are hidden for all participants. Learn more about how to silence attendees here.
Polls and Q&A
Looking for more ways to engage with the audience? Head to our Live Polls and Q&A page to learn more.
Private chat
Hosts and Panelists can chat with one another (privately) in the “Private chat" tab of the chat window.
Note
Audience members cannot see the private chat.
Present
Click "Present" to add videos or slides to show during your live event. Head to the Present Media page to learn more.
Event Settings
Settings put you in control of how the audience can engage with your event.
General
As a Host, by clicking the General settings icon, you can change your display name or decide whether name tags for the Hosts and Panelists appear to the audience. You can also activate or deactivate the chat, Q&A, and polls.
As a Panelist, the General settings icon is where you’ll be able to change your display name.
External Links
Hosts can use External links to display a button on stage during the live event. To learn more about setting up an external link, check out this page.
Access to Support
For Hosts, the Support icon is the quickest way to search our Help documentation or get in touch with our amazing support team during your event. This can be found under the Settings tab.
Invite participants
If you’re a Host, the Invite button can be used to find event invite links for fellow Hosts, Panelists, or the Audience.
For Panelists, the Invite button will copy the Audience link to your clipboard.
Add tracking
When sharing the audience link, you can also add tracking to collect more analytics about your attendees. Head to the Media Analytics Overview page to learn about Campaigns, Sources, and Mediums.
End event
When the event is over, click “End event" and then confirm your selection.
Note
If your event goes over the time limit allowed on your plan, there will be a charge of $1/minute. Learn more about our plans on our Pricing page.
After the event ends, you'll see how many attendee chats, questions, and poll responses you received during the event. You can also download this information to a CSV file.
From here, you can also go directly to your event's analytics by clicking "View Analytics" or view the recording by selecting "View Media."
Your recording functions just like a regular media in Wistia, but with a couple of additional options. Head on over here to learn more.