Virtual Lobby

The Virtual Lobby is a tool designed to host your events virtually. It creates a dynamic online environment capable of broadcasting a wide range of activities, from large networking events to single sessions or even multiple simultaneous sessions with individual conversations.

How do I set up my online event in the Virtual Lobby?

You can follow this guide to help you get started on creating your event and this one to learn how to configure your online activities.

Go to Event > Details and make sure your event is set to Published and Online/Virtual Lobby or Hybrid (Virtual + In Person).

Event mode

When set to Online / Virtual Lobby or Hybrid (Virtual + In Person), a link will automatically be generated to access and view the Virtual Lobby, as displayed above.

The global content delivery networks that we use are Fastly, Akamai and AWS. The Virtual Lobby auto-scales depending on your event size. Our artificial intelligence will predict the server size that will be needed for every event and will add a safe margin to it.

Now it's time for you to set up your Virtual Lobby preferences! To do so, click on Event > Virtual Lobby.

On this page, you'll be able to set up both the Design and the Settings of the Virtual Lobby.

Gif of the overview of the page

Design

To customize the design of the Virtual Lobby, you can set up its layout, Live Studio background, Viirtual background, background image, and Reactions. It's also possible to customize reactions and virtual backgrounds for the Live Studio separately.

Design of the Virtual Lobby
You can also access the Virtual Lobby by pressing the Preview button.

Layout

On the layout tab, you can customize the Interface, template mode, activity layout type, welcome cover, the default layout for the Control Room, and the font style.

Layout

Interface
Interface
  1. Lobby layout type

When selecting the layout type, you can choose from:

  • The Classic layout​​
  • ​​The Neo layout​

Click here to learn the difference between these two layout options.

  1. Template mode
  • The Normal template
  • The Dark mode

Click here to see the images of both template modes.

  1. Activity layout type

To select your activity cover size and style, you should click on the drop-down bar under Activity layout type.

Click here to learn more about it.

If you have selected the Classic layout, you will not see this option.
  1. Pagination of activities in the Virtual Lobby

By default, the Virtual Lobby will show all activities in the same page, regardless of how many there are. However, if there are numerous activities listed, you have the option to enable pagination. To do so, simply choose Yes in the Pagination of activities in the virtual lobby field. This will organize the activities into pages for easier navigation.

Pagination field

The pagination of activities in the Virtual Lobby will only be applicable if there is a large number of activities. If there are only a few activities, the pagination feature will not be visible even if enabled.
  • When pagination is enabled in the Classic layout, each page dedicated to a specific activity date will display 32 activities. To view more activities, users can navigate through the available pages using the number navigation arrows, which indicate the number of remaining pages.

Pagination in classic layout

  • When pagination is enabled in the Neo layout for the Small activity layout type, each page dedicated to a specific activity date will show 30 activities. To view more activities, users can navigate through the available pages using the number navigation arrows, which indicate the number of remaining pages.
Pagination for Small layout

  • When pagination is enabled on in the Neo layout for the Medium activity layout type, each page dedicated to a specific activity date will show 28 activities. To view more activities, users can navigate through the available pages using the number navigation arrows, which indicate the number of remaining pages.
Pagination formedium

  • When pagination is enabled in the Neo layout for the Large activity layout type due to a large number of activities, each page dedicated to a specific activity date will show 10 activities. To view more activities, users can navigate through the available pages using the number navigation arrows, which indicate the number of remaining pages.
Pagination in Large layout

The pagination of activities in the Virtual Lobby will only be applicable if there is a large number of activities. If there are only a few activities, pagination might not be necessary.
Welcome cover

Under Welcome cover, you'll have two cover types options: default event cover and video cover. Click here to learn more about it.

Regarding the welcome outline, if you have selected the Classic layout, you will not see this option. When using the Neo layout, you will be able to set up the welcome card disposition. Click here for further information on that.
Default layout for the Control Room

You can determine which will be the default layout for all activities when using the Control room. You will have four options: Automatic, Focus mixed, Focus only, and Space Between.

This setting can be changed by the room host during the session.

Click here to learn more about these layout options.

Control Room default layout
Font style

You will be able to choose the font style of your preference under Font style.

Font style

Live Studio

In the Live Studio tab, you can customize the company logo and change the colors of the background, add images, videos, as well as customize the lower third. Click here to learn how to do that.

The backgrounds updated on this section will be displayed as options in the Device configuration step right after presenters access a room.

Background options

Virtual background

You have some default virtual background available but you can also add some other options to be chosen from while configuring the device. Click here for more information.

Background image

Under the Background image, you can upload both the Background image for the Lobby and the Player Idle image.

This function is available for Control Room and Live Studio Video Mode. Click here to learn more about room video modes.
Background image
  • Background image: If you wish to have an image as the background in the Virtual Lobby's main page instead of just a plain color, press Edit and click on the red bar to upload the image you wish. Press End to save the changes.
  • Player idle image: By default, before the live content starts, the room will display a message that says Nothing's happening here. You will be notified about upcoming streams. If you wish to have an image or gif displayed inside the rooms before the live content starts, press Edit and click on the red bar to upload the image you wish. Press End to save the changes.
For best results, use a background image or a player idle image with Full HD resolution (1920x1080px) or 16:9 aspect ratio.
If you wish to edit the standard message 'Nothing's happening here. You will be notified about upcoming streams', you will need to customize the default texts for Virtual Lobby Player - Idle title and Virtual Lobby Player - Idle subtitle. Click here to learn how to edit standard messages by creating headings.

Reactions

This function is available for the Live Studio Stream, Pre-recorded (Simulated Live Streaming) and RTMP streaming. To illustrate how to use this feature, below you find a gif showing how to enable/disable the Reactions by clicking on Edit and using the toggle to the left/right.

You can select up to 7 emojis to be displayed on the Live Stream and the reactions show up in real-time to everyone.

To delete the emoji simply click on the trash icon underneath the reaction:

gif showing the Reactions tab and how to add and delete reactions
The Live reactions are not recorded on the stream. Refer to this article to learn more about reactions.

Labels & Icons

When clicking on this menu, a new tab will open for you to edit the virtual rooms' icons and labels. For more information about the virtual rooms, click here.

Settings

Under Settings, you will be able to set up Group rooms and the Access policy, check the Analytics, Troubleshoot and from the Tools section, you can view the WebRTC provider.

To learn more about Settings, check the article Virtual Lobby Settings.

Virtual Lobby settings

To control the tools on the Virtual Lobby page, click on the Settings button on the top right corner. This will display a pop-up of all the tools.

You will see all the tools arranged into their various categories: Start, Registration, Live, Block, and Extra. Click on each category to view the tools and to enable or disable the tools by clicking on the toggle button next to each tool, as highlighted below:

Image showing the settings pop-up on the VL page

To learn more about all the tools in the Settings button, check this article.

To learn how to view all the tools and access them from the tools page (Settings > Tools), check this article.

How do I change the colors of the Virtual Lobby?

You can customize the colors of your virtual environment according to your preference.

To do it, at the company level, press Company > Details.

Company colors

You can change the Background color, Bar color, and Main color using the hexadecimal code of the color you want.

For contrast reasons, the only color that will not be accepted as the Bar color is white (#FFFFFF).

How do I give attendees access to the Virtual Lobby?

By sharing this User guide with your attendees prior to the event date, they can get familiarized with the Virtual Lobby and ensure their computer meets all the requirements of the InEvent platform.

In fact, there are various ways for them to access the Virtual Lobby and this article will explain how each one of them works.

However, if you would like to know how to avoid access to the Virtual Lobby prior to the event date, this is the article you are looking for.

Finally, if you would like to understand how the Virtual Lobby works on the app and what features are available, check this article.


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