Studio: Produce Live Video Content

In our new BigMarker Studio, you can create professional-quality live streams and broadcasts —  without needing to download additional software.

 

Below are some of the ways that hosts can create and customize their broadcasts in the Studio:  

• Add Lower Thirds and other Captions to the stream, 
• Add a custom background to the webcast, 
• Adjust the position of presenter camera feeds (both overlay and separate options available), 
• Add padding between speaker feeds, 
• Preload full screen overlays for quick communication with attendees and/or presenters during breakout sessions, 

And more!

1. 1. Before You Enter the Studio…
   2. Inside the Studio

A. Overview of the User Interface

B. Settings

C. The Top Control Bar: Livestream, Record, and More!

D. The Main Content Panel

E. Camera, Audio, and Content Sharing Buttons

F. The Interactive Panel

G. The Control Panel: Overview

H. The Control Panel: Settings

I. The Control Panel: Audience Settings and List

J. The Control Panel: Automated Timeline

 

3. After the Event: Managing Your Defaults Coming Soon...

 

1. Before Entering the Studio 

Before entering the studio, we recommend taking the following steps:

Preloading Content

We highly recommend preloading all video, slides, handouts, polls, and offers before the session opens for presenters. While it’s possible to load content into the Studio while the room is open, which we will outline  later in this article, best practice is to preload and test your content well in advance of the session.

Previewing Your Session

The ‘preview webinar’ functionality will not direct you to the Studio at this time. However, hosts can preview the attendee feed within the studio. Preview Webinar redirecting to Studio coming soon…

Entering the Studio

1. Hosts can enter the Studio view via the Enter Studio button, located in the blue banner along the top of the webinar dashboard. Presenters and admins cannot access this button before the session opens for them.

For this reason, we highly recommend opening the session for presenters up to 3 hours in advance (enterprise clients can open the session up to 6 hours in advance), so your team has enough time to enter the webinar and preload assets to the room and complete a dry run before the live production. You can also utilize the Practice Sessions with Presenters to create and save assets as "Default" in your additional practice sessions to reduce the need to create assets the day of.

These assets include: lower thirds, logos, full screen overlays, and customized backgrounds. Ability to pre-load the assets before the studio opens coming soon...

Note: If you plan to use these assets in the future sessions, select Save as Default. This saves those assets to your BigMarker channel, so you can easily use them in future sessions.  

We’ll cover exactly where to find the Save as Default settings later in this article. Managing your defaults coming soon...

1. To route all presenters (and attendees) into the Studio, and remove the option to enter the Classic room view, toggle ON the Studio Switch on your Manage Webinar Page’s Dashboard. 

To find this setting, scroll to the Studio settings located under the Live Webinar Settings section

 

 

When Studio Switch is toggled ON, the Second “Enter Studio” button will be removed from the webinar dashboard — and everyone will be routed into the Studio when they press the “Enter Webinar” button.

The button view with Studio Switch Disabled

The button view with Studio Switch Enabled.

 

Please note that attendees (in Interactive mode only) and Presenters inside of the Classic room will not see the graphics that you add into your presentation using our new Control Panel features exclusive to the Studio if the Studio Switch has not been toggled ON.

 

2. Inside The Studio 

Overview of the User Interface

As you enter the Studio before your event is scheduled to begin, note that the room views will be slightly different based on whether or not you have Admin permissions or have access to the Control Panel as a presenter. 

Above: Admins or Presenters with Control Panel rights will see the left hand Control Panel.

Above: Presenters without admin or Control Panel permissions will not see the left hand panel at all inside the session

 

If you do not have access to the control panel in the Studio, you will not be able to create or display any graphic overlays. However, you will still be able to access the bottom content navigation, the top bar, and the interactive panel as well as have access to the Presenter View and Audience View on the top control bar. You can learn more about Presenter Permissions here. 

 

The Top Control Bar: Livestream, Record, Dark and Light Mode, and More!

 

The Top Control Bar now offers the ability to navigate between the Studio, Presenter, and Audience views to more easily rotate through the Presenter camera feed layouts and graphics in the Studio view. It also displays the title of your event.

 

The Presenter view will show you all the camera feeds and content separated from each other. This is also where you will need to navigate to in order to select and display new content. 

 

And the Audience view will open a new tab and display the session as the attendees are meant to see it. 

You can also customize the theme of the event in this top bar. Click on the BigMarker icon in the top left hand corner of the webinar room to access customization options. 

You can add your own Conference Room Logo by clicking on Change Logo and dragging or dropping or selecting a file already to upload. You can also remove a logo by clicking Remove Logo. 

Additionally, you can change the banner color and font color. BigMarker offers a select few colors to choose from, but clicking the + will open up a text box to enter in RGB values for specific colors to fully customize the banner. Below are two font text options: dark or light. 

You can save this as a default theme for future events by clicking Save Theme as Default. Click Save to save your selections. 

To the right of the Views tabs in the Top Control Bar, you will see a Timer. This timer will only be seen by presenters, hosts, and admins, and you can set it to notify presenters how much longer they have to present. The timer will automatically be set to 5 minutes, but you can set the timer to any set minutes, seconds, or both and start it, pause it, reset it, or stop it all together. When the time has been reached, the timer will change to red and go into negative time to notify the presenter they are out of time. 

 

Click on the timer to set the minutes or seconds, and then Save when finished. Click Start to start it, Pause to pause, Continue to resume the timer and Reset to reset the time.  Click Edit any time you would need to edit the timer. 

 

 

Moving to the top of the Top Control Bar, you will see the attendee count in the waiting room (once the waiting room has opened) or the live room. 

 

Once hitting Go Live, you will see a countdown for the event to Go Live. This Top Navigation Bar will show the countdown when the event automatically starts or is started by a user, which will then display their name.

 

 

The top control bar also allows you to go Live in BigMarker (f.k.a. Start Webinar), and Live stream to Facebook and YouTube. Learn how to set up your Live Streams here. 

 

You will see the option to Start and Stop your recording. Here, you will also see a running clock denoting how long the recording has been active.

 

 

Dark  mode is located to the right of the recording options. Use the moon icon, located on the top bar of the session, to toggle between light and dark mode. 

Presenter view without the control panel in Dark Mode

Presenter view without the control panel out of Dark Mode.

 

The Ellipsis icon on the far right hand side of the top bar will allow you to invite attendees, exit the session, or end the session (Note: Presenters who do not have Control Panel access rights will need to use this ellipsis menu to end the webinar)

 

When the webinar is ending, the Top Navigation Bar will countdown and display who ended the event.

 

The Main Content Panel

You will see the content that you are sharing with attendees in the Center panel.

 

In the Producer View, you will see the main content feed as you would as an attendee which includes the ability to view the customizable graphics you are enabling in the main content panel. 

 

In the Presenter view, you will see the main content panel with the content and camera feeds separated. In order to share new content, you will need to be in this View. 

Please note that if you have not preloaded your content, you will be prompted to load the content via the Share Content Button, located on the bottom of your screen. 

 

Camera, Audio, and Content Sharing Buttons

Using the icons along the bottom of the Main Presenter Content panel, you can enable your webcam and microphone streams, and adjust your camera, microphone and audio settings. Within the Share Content button icon, you can share your screen, manage and upload  presentations and slides, play and upload videos (both MP4 and YouTube), and play and upload audio files (MP3). Also located within this section you can connect inbound RTMP streams, and add offers.
NOTE: We highly recommend pre-loading all files before the webinar starts. 

 

 

The Interactive Panel

Your preloaded Chat, Q&A, Polls, and Handouts can be found on the right hand side of this panel. 

 

 

The Control Panel: Overview

Our Control Panel options can be found on the left hand side of your screen. Please note that you will need to turn on the Automation timeline BEFORE entering the webinar room as you cannot enable the automated timeline inside the Studio at this time. At any time, you can hide the Control Panel by clicking the downward arrow located to the right of the Control Panel title. To show the Control Panel, click the blue sliding bars icon at the bottom of the screen. 

 

 

 

In the Producer View: The Control Panel is divided into six sections: Settings, Attendee List & permissions, Attendee & Presenter settings, Video settings,  Automation timeline (Detailed below) and a Webinar Activity Log. You will need to utilize the Studio view to create and customize the graphic overlay options (Captions, Logos, Full Screen Overlays, and Backgrounds) as well as navigate through the different layout options we provide. 

 

If you would like to share new content, you will need to navigate to the Presenter view to the right. 

 

In the Presenter View: This is the mode you will need to enter in order to share additional content (screen sharing, slides, videos, mp3s, etc.). 

 

In the Audience View: The audience view will open in a separate tab to allow you to easily navigate between what attendees are seeing and the presentation.  

 

In the Green Room: Bring your presenters into the webinar one by one within the Green Room. This is a separate off-stage area that presenters can use to practice their presentations and check their microphones and cameras to ensure they work before going on-stage. Presenters in this room will need to be manually moved from the Green Room to the webinar room, where they will still be off-stage until moved on-stage. 

 

 

The Control Panel: Settings 

Visible in Producer and Presenter View

Change the size of presenter camera feeds, and change the aspect ratio from 16:9 (recommended for attendees on desktop) to 4:3 (recommended for mobile view optimization)

 

Once you have selected your layout, you can unlock even more customization options in our More Camera Settings menu, such as:

Corner Radius: Round off the edges of your presenters’ camera feeds.

 

 

• Presenter Names: Toggle presenter names display on and off.

• Presenter Name Size: Adjust the size of your presenters’ name plates on their webcam feed. 

 

 

 

Captions are text graphics such as upper or lower thirds that overlay on top of the stream. Use the settings below to set up your captions: 

• Template options: Select different logo and caption orientations as well as their location on the screen.

• Text lines allow you to edit the text that displays on the captions.
• Theme color: Select 1 solid color or apply a gradient to your captions.
• Text Color: Opt to have your text color be white or black 
• Logo: Upload an image to display on your caption 

Click Save & Exit when finished. You will need to go back to the Host Control Panel and toggle on your caption. 

 

 

Below is an example of a caption in a webinar room: 

 

 

Logos are images that overlay on top of the stream, allowing you to brand your content. Choose the position you would like the logo to be placed and upload your image of choice. 

 

When finished, click Save & Exit and  toggle on the Logo layer in the Host Control Panel. 

 

Below is an example of a logo image layer in a webinar room: 

 

Backgrounds are the image or video that stays behind the content or cams shared during the event. This can be a gif, or a png and we recommend the dimensions of the content to be 1920 px by 1080 px. For videos, we recommend limiting them to 200 MB. You can follow the same steps above in adding your background image and toggling it on in your webinar room. 

 

 

Full Screen Overlays are designed to quickly display a brand friendly message to attendees. We highly recommend  using full screen overlays to communicate breaks in the presentation technical difficulties. We recommend the file size to be 1920x1080px — or within the 4:3 ratio if you are sizing for mobile optimization. 

You can follow the steps above to upload your full-screen overlay image and toggle it on. Below is what a full-screen overlay looks like in the webinar room: 

 

At the bottom of the control panel on all tabs, you will find two buttons: Press Get Help to reach our help center. Select End Webinar to complete your event. 

 

The Control Panel: Audience and Presenter List

Visible in Producer View and Presenter View

View all the Admins, on and off-stage Presenters, Attendees and Presenters in the Green Room from this section. Within here, you are able to move around your Presenters to and from the Green Room to being on-stage. 

 

 

Click the ellipsis on the right side of the Presenter’s to move them from stages and room, to changing their display name and removing them from the room. 

 

 

The Control Panel: Audience Lists & Permissions

Visible in Producer View and Presenter View

To access your Audience Engagement settings, select the wheel icon along the top of the Control Panel. 

Below are the settings you can adjust within this tab: 

 Reactions: Turn your reactions on, show percentages, display the count the reactions were used and select the emoji(s) you’d like to use. 

Presenter Permissions: Opt to show the attendee list to your Presenters

Show Attendee List: The audience can see the list of everyone in the session (This will appear in the Private Chat window.) 

Enable All Attendee Mics: When active, all attendees can use their microphones. We don’t recommend enabling attendee mics unless you are hosting a small, discussion-based session. 

Enable All Attendee Mics+Cams: When active, all attendees can use their microphones and cameras. Again, we don’t recommend enabling your attendees’ microphones and cameras unless you are hosting a small, breakout-style session. 

Public Chat Menu: Select the arrow icon, located just right of Public Chat, to see all the Public Chat options.

• Enable Chat Panel: When active, this allows attendees to submit chats in the interactive panel. Warning: Disabling  the chat panel will also remove the attendee list from the private chat window.
• Enable Public Chat: Enable/disable  attendee chat in the interactive panel. 
• Private Chat with Presenters: When active, this allows attendees to submit private chat messages to  presenters and admins. 
• Auto Mute All Public Chats: Mute/unmute all public chats in the interactive panel

Q&A Options: Toggle Q&A on  to enable Q&As inside the session. Then select the caret  icon to select your preferred  Q&A mode — moderated or unmoderated. 

• Q&A Moderated: Questions go into a queue. Presenters view submitted questions in their Q&A tab, then choose which questions to publish.
• Q&A Unmoderated: Questions from participants are published to the Chat Panel  automatically. 

Enable Polls:  Enable/Disable Polls in the interactive panel. 

Enable Handouts: Enable/Disable Handouts in the interactive panel. 

Enable Offers: Enable/Disable Offers in the interactive panel. 

Hide All Tweets: Enable/Disable the Twitter livestream in the interactive panel if you have set up Twitter for your webinar. 

Enable Attendance Monitor: When active, the Attendance Monitor enables hosts to send pop-ups to attendees, which they must click to indicate that they are engaged and paying attention to the presentation. Learn more about how to use our attendance monitor here. 

Enable Priority Questions: Sort your priority questions into their own separate column within the Q&A panel so presenters can address them first. 

 Enable Lucky Draw: Lucky Draw is a gamification experience in which one participant is selected at random to receive a prize. 

You can preload a CSV file of attendees to use or select candidates from the audience.  Enable this in the host control panel under Enable Attendance Monitor and an icon located on the far right hand corner of the interactive panel at the bottom of the screen will populate to activate this feature. Click it to activate and  select between the preload list or from audience and click Spin. It will resemble a spinner on the middle of the screen and select an attendee at random.

 

 The Control Panel: Video Settings

Visible in Producer View and Presenter View

Control your video’s size, quality and behavior while it’s playing in your webinar. You can opt to broadcast your video in HD, change the bitrate and aspect of your video and control the behavior of the video, such as showing attendee’s cameras while the video is playing or auto-muting all microphones when the video is playing. 

Under certain circumstances, like when using RTMP, what is seen and done in the presenter view might not be exactly in sync with what the audience sees. Now, you can listen to the Producer View in Studio mode, which is the last stop before the Webcast stream is broadcast. Actions like sending polls and offers with what is seen in the Producer view will ensure that the timing is kept intact for the audience in Webcast. Simply toggle ON Enable Audio in Producer View.

 

 

 

The Control Panel: Automation

Visible in Studio View and Presenter View

In the third tab of the Control Panel, you will find the Automated timeline that you prepared before entering the session. 

 

Remember that you cannot edit the automation options, nor can you enable or disable the Automated Timeline inside of the Control Panel Automation tab at this time. So if you want to edit your automation timeline before the webinar begins, you will need to return to the Automation tab of the Manage Webinar page. 

You can also prevent other admins and presenters with Control Panel permissions from making changes to the automated timeline while the webinar is live. To do this, toggle Lock Presenter Controls on (pictured above).) This prevents other admins and presenters with Control Panel rights from  making changes  to the automated timeline while the webinar is live

 

 

The Control Panel: Webinar Activity Log

Visible in Producer View and Presenter View

View logs of every action of your MP4s or RTMP streams to make sure that videos get played at accurate times while keeping a pulse on the webinar’s activity. In the last section in the Host Control Panel, you can view a quick overview of the action that was performed, by who, and when it occurred.

 

 

 

The Green Room

Ensure you are ready to present to your audience with our new Green Room. Inside the Green Room, presenters, hosts and admins are all able to test their microphones, cameras, and chat amongst each other while preparing for their turn to present. Click here to learn more. 

 

NEW: Edit Your Presenter Notes in Studio

Previously, notes had to be created in a .ppt file and uploaded into Studio to be visible for presenters and/or admins, making it impossible for users to edit them directly in Studio. Additionally, there was a limitation on the file format since notes were only available for .pptx file format.

With this update, notes can now be edited and created from scratch in Test Preview Webinar room as well as in a Live Webinar. Additionally, PDF files can have notes activated in Studio for an added layer of ease of use. 

It is also possible to rearrange videos in slides without re-uploading a new .ppt by dragging, resizing videos.

Slides of a Power Point can be skipped and rearranged into a new preferred order. If multiple slides or Power Points are enabled, the slides are combined together. This will allow for a smooth transition.