Running a Live Panel discussion in a webinar

Hi Community,

We are wanting to change the format of our webinars by incorporating a panel (Q/A format) discussion.

What we plan to do is have multiple speakers within the one room (1 Host and up to 5 panelists) sitting together.

Basically, we are trying to work out the best way to run this. Does GoToWebinar have the right software/capabilities to run this as a live stream? Should we use more than 1 camera and microphone? We want it to be clear and everyone to be heard.

We know it is definitely possible if everyone was in seperate places as we can have up to 6 webcams streaming at once but it seems a bit trickier within the one room!

Find more posts tagged with

Accepted answers

Chris Droessler

It is best to have one microphone in the room and have everyone sit near it.

We do this often with a group sitting around a table. Everyone is two to three feet from the microphone.

Some microphones are very directional (supercardioid, hypercardioid), picking up only what is directly in front of it. These work best with a single person talking at a distance from the microphone.

A cardioid microphone will pick up from the front and the sides, but not the rear. This is probably the most common type of microphone.

An omnidirectional microphone picks up sounds from all around. This would be best if people are sitting all around a table.

I normally use a cardioid microphone with everyone sitting at one end of the table. The rear of the microphone points to the projector, so the microphone does not pick up much of the projector noise.

If you choose to use more than one microphone, you want the microphones as close as possible to each person speaking. Best would be the headset-type microphone which gets the microphone close to the mouth.

You do not want to pick up a single person in more than one microphone. Thus, if this person is sitting in front of a microphone that is two feet away, there should not be another microphone three of four feet away. The sound in the second and possibly third microphones could be out of phase with the sound entering the first microphone. Out-of-phase signals can cancel each other out (lower volume) or at least make the sound bad.

As far as webcams are concerned:

You could have one webcam set on wide to pickup the entire panel. This is what I usually do.

You could have one web cam and someone to operate it, moving it to whomever is speaking at the time.

You could put a separate webcam on each person. The easiest way to do this would be to have everyone sit in front of a laptop computer connected to the webinar. BE SURE the microphones and speakers on these laptops are muted/turned off.

Multiple webcams will not interfere with each other.

Multiple microphones and/or multiple speakers will be a problem.

All comments

Chris Droessler

I use a Logitech USB webcam as well. As you said, place it farther away to get a wide shot.

The Yeti is as great microphone to use with GoTo.

webinarallgrads

Thank you for the information! It's really helpful.

Our current microphone a Yeti Blackout has the directional options - so will give that a shot.

Any recommendations on a wide panel webcam? Or do you generally just sit it further away. We have been using a basic logitech USB webcam so far.

Appreciate the advise.

Chris Droessler

It is best to have one microphone in the room and have everyone sit near it.

We do this often with a group sitting around a table. Everyone is two to three feet from the microphone.

Some microphones are very directional (supercardioid, hypercardioid), picking up only what is directly in front of it. These work best with a single person talking at a distance from the microphone.

A cardioid microphone will pick up from the front and the sides, but not the rear. This is probably the most common type of microphone.

An omnidirectional microphone picks up sounds from all around. This would be best if people are sitting all around a table.

I normally use a cardioid microphone with everyone sitting at one end of the table. The rear of the microphone points to the projector, so the microphone does not pick up much of the projector noise.

As far as webcams are concerned:

You could have one webcam set on wide to pickup the entire panel. This is what I usually do.

You could have one web cam and someone to operate it, moving it to whomever is speaking at the time.

Multiple webcams will not interfere with each other.

Multiple microphones and/or multiple speakers will be a problem.