Presenters in the WebinarJam live room can appear on camera, use a virtual whiteboard, and share their local computer screen with the room.
Screenshare Best Practices
Before running a live webinar, test the screen share tool to make sure you are familiar with the settings and your device has the necessary permissions enabled.
Grant device or browser permissions to allow screen share. The exact steps will vary depending on your device and operating system.
For most devices, launch the WebinarJam live room and click the screenshare icon to check your permissions.
Follow any prompts that appear from your browser or device to enable sharing.
Click the screenshare icon at the top of your presenter video feed in the live room to start sharing.
Select a single window for sharing. Do not share the entire screen.
Keep the shared window maximized. Minimizing the window will hide the content from the room.
If your browser or operating system has been updated since your last webinar, check permissions again before running a new live webinar.
As a matter of best practice, always include a screenshare test when testing a new webinar.
Broadcasting from a mobile device
The screenshare and whiteboard tools are not available in the live room for presenters logged in on a mobile device. For the best experience using WebinarJam, a desktop or laptop computer is recommended for all presenters.
Check Your Plan: The panic button is available in WebinarJam Professional and Enterprise.
The panic button is a feature of the WebinarJam Live Room. It is an emergency switch that lets you manually reboot your webinar room without losing any logged-in users or ending the live broadcast.
Only the room owner and administrators have access to use the panic button. The button is located in the top left corner of the webinar room.
When to Reboot
If the webinar room is frozen and unresponsive or you lose your connection, use the panic button to move the active webinar session into a new live room.
All active users are transferred, including presenters, moderators, and attendees
The active broadcast is transferred and will continue to stream in the new room without requiring a restart
Live injections (polls, offers) that were pre-configured in the webinar wizard will be available in the new room
Content specific to the original session will not appear in the new room, including:
Existing attendee chat messages
Special chat messages, such as sticky posts or announcements
Injections (polls, offers, etc.) that were configured inside the live room
Changes to the agenda
Important: Although some content cannot be regenerated to display in the new live room, no data is lost during a panic transfer. The analytics and replay for the event will show all data from before and after the panic button is used.
Attendee Experience
If the webinar room is rebooted, presenters and attendees will see a series of status screens while the new room is being prepared.
When the new room has been generated and the broadcast is restored, all participants in the webinar will see the video stream continue with no further interruption.
Attendees on some devices or browsers may need to press the play button on the video screen to start playback again.
Live chat will be functional, but no messages added in the previous room will be displayed.
Live injections that were deployed and active in the previous room will have to be redeployed.
Use your unique presenter link to access the live room.
Important: You can launch the live room early to make sure everything is prepared. The live broadcast will not begin until the host clicks the “Go Live” button inside the room. The room will stay off air for up to 60 minutes.
Last-minute Checklist
Follow the last-minute checklist to make sure you are ready for a successful webinar:
Free up resources: Close all computer functions with a high resource load, such as applications and browser tabs.
Wear headphones: Minimize audio feedback between your speakers and your microphone to make sure your attendees can hear you.
Dedicate your internet connection: Make sure your internet connection is committed to your webinar. Another person streaming media or video games on the same connection can reduce the quality of your broadcast.
Avoid distractions: Mute your phone, turn off notifications on your computer, and close your door!
Test Your Video and Audio
You will be prompted to start an audio and video test to check your settings. You can turn your camera and microphone ON or OFF at any time in the webinar room.
Click Start The Test to begin.
Important: Your browser may ask you to authorize your camera and microphone. Allow access to continue. (Required)
WebinarJam will auto-detect your camera and microphone. Use the drop-down menus to change the device selection if needed.
If the video feed shows your webcam and you can hear sound, click yes to confirm that everything is working.
If you do not see or hear yourself, click no and the system will attempt the test again again.
If the test is not working, click the camera icon in your browser’s address bar. The drop-down menu will show you whether the camera and microphone are blocked in your browser, or if the wrong camera or microphone is being used.
If you do not hear any sound, check the volume control on your computer and headset.
Reload the page if you change any of these settings.
In the Live Room
Presenter view of the WebinarJam live room
When you enter the room, your camera and microphone are ON by default. The options to turn these OFF are at the top of the page next to the screensharing feature, and whiteboard tool.
The live room is offline when launched. This lets you test and set up the room before going live.
The “Off Air” indicator at the bottom of the live room shows that the broadcast has not started. The light turns green when the live broadcast begins.
Note: The room shows a 60-minute timer before you go live. This is to give you time to prepare for the broadcast and does not count toward the live session duration. When you go live, the timer at the bottom of the screen updates to show the maximum webinar duration included with your WebinarJam subscription tier.
Presenter Video Feed
The live room generates a unique panel for each presenter that shows their video feed or profile image, their name, and individual audio and video controls (lower left corner of the panel).
In the upper left of the presenter feed is a star icon indicating the presenter’s permissions. Hover over each presenter’s feed to see it.
Dark blue star: Webinar host (all access admin)
Light blue star: Co-presenters (access to speak, chat, and use live injections)
If you are an administrator, click the light blue star to promote a co-presenter to an administrator.
In the bottom left of the presenter feed are video, audio, and screen share buttons for each presenter.
Go Live and Panic Button
Click the Go Live button in the top left corner to start the webinar broadcast.
If the live broadcast stops working, click the lightning bolt icon (Panic Button) to reboot the room in an emergency.
Additional Presenters
At the top of the window, invite additional presenters by clicking the plus icon and entering their name and email. The presenter will be emailed a unique link to enter the webinar (your link will not work for them).
Minimize Sidebar
Minimize the sidebar by clicking the three dots tab on the side of the panel.
Room Expiration
A 60-minute timer appears in the lower portion of the frame showing how long the room will stay active while you are Off Air. If you do not go live in one hour, the room will expire. Click the button on the expiration screen to immediately reload the room or visit the live room link again.
Customize the Live Room
Virtual Background & Blur
Change the background effect or image by clicking the center button in the menu at the top of the room.
Select a preset or click My uploads to add a custom background. Background effects and images appear “behind” the presenter with a green screen effect.
Supported files: JPG, PNG, up to 4MB.
Live Room Settings
In the sidebar, configure the live room Settings.
Disable or enable chat
Allow public or private chat messaging or both
Show or hide the number of attendees in the room (this appears for everyone, presenters AND attendees)
Disable or enable the attendee Request to Speak feature
Change the design of the live room
Manage the Room: Attendees & Chat
Attendee Redirect
The Attendees tab in the sidebar displays a list of all attendees in the live room.
Redirect attendees to a URL of your choice by entering a web address in the URL field and clicking the arrow icon.
Attendees Speak
If you enable attendees’ ability to speak, you will find their requests in the bottom tab (shown below, labeled “Speak”) where you can accept or deny the request. If you accept, they will be brought in as presenters with video!
Chat
The chat tab contains the message feed from the webinar.
In the chat:
Send messages to the public room and join the conversation
Send highlighted messages (red in-line callout)
Send tip messages (yellow in-line callout)
Post sticky messages that remain on the screen
Chat privately with administrators
Chat privately with individual attendees
Presenters are identified in the chat by a star next to their name
Change the chat mode into Q&A mode and attendee messages will be marked as questions while your messages will be Answers. You can change any message by clicking the bubble next to a message.
Manage the Room: Injections
Deploy and use the injections configured at the Live step of the webinar configuration wizard.
All presenters can access and use the live injections. Deploy pre-configured content to the live room or create new injections as needed during the live webinar.
Important: Live content created inside the webinar room is not saved for future sessions if the webinar has a multi-event schedule. Injections created during the broadcast are unique to that session. Pre-configuring live content is recommended.
Click the tabs in the sidebar to access each type:
Polls
Offers
Video
Slide Presentations
Agenda and notes
Click Preview to save a new injection. Click Publish to deploy it to the webinar room.
Presenters in the WebinarJam live room have different permissions depending on their role. The presenter’s role is indicated by a star icon in the top left corner of their video feed pane.
Hover over the star to see the role.
Click the star to change permissions.
Spotlight Presenter
Invited to be a presenter from the live room interface. Status: Light blue star icon
Appear in the video feed
Chat and post special messages (sticky, highlighted, etc.)
Presenter
Added as a presenter in the webinar configuration wizard. Status: Light blue star icon
Appear in the video feed
Chat and post special messages (sticky, highlighted, etc.)
Change room settings
View, create, and deploy live injections (polls, offers, etc.)
Administrator
Granted administrator status from the live room interface. Status: Blue star icon
Appear in the video feed
Chat and post special messages (sticky, highlighted, etc.)
Change room settings
View, create, and deploy live injections (polls, offers, etc.)
Start and end live broadcast
Use panic button
View all presenters
Grant or revoke administrator permissions
Eject spotlight presenters
Turn OFF a presenter’s camera or microphone
Room Owner
The default owner of the room is the webinar host (the first presenter in the webinar configuration). Status: Blue star icon
All administrator controls
Revoke permissions and eject any other administrator or presenter
Only one user can be the room owner at a time
Room ownership cannot be revoked by any other user
If the host does not enter the room or is disconnected, ownership passes to the second presenter configured in the webinar configuration.
Upload and download speeds should be at least 5mbps, but higher is better.
Bufferbloat (latency) should be at least “B” or higher (less than 100 milliseconds).
Keep your internet connection clear of any other activity during the live broadcast.
Example: Family members watching streaming media or playing video games on the same connection may negatively impact your broadcast quality.
Close all applications, windows, tabs, music, and anything not necessary for the webinar to improve resource allocation for the broadcast.
Avoid hosting a webinar (uploading the stream) and watching as an attendee (downloading the stream) on the same internet connection. WebinarJam will prioritize the upload stream, which may negatively impact the quality of the attendee stream.
Browser Best Practices
Google Chrome is the recommended browser to run and attend a live WebinarJam event.
Firefox is a good secondary option. For iOS devices use Safari.
