Why does video and screen share show to attendees before you've started the broadcast?

I find it strange that video and screen share show to the live audience before you start the broadcast. It'd be nice if this was hidden prior to starting it so that you could practice without an audience. I know they can't hear sound, but that's only one component.

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AshC

Sorry for any confusion there. While in 'Practice Mode' your desktop sharing, webcams and audio feeds will not be visible to attendees until you actually confirm the 'Start Broadcast' button.

** This not only appears at the top of the GoToWebinar control panel, referencing the already live audio feeds for Staff, but also when you begin screen sharing: The pop-out warning asks if you want to 'Start Broadcast' or just screen share.

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Chris Droessler

I think that folks are confusing the “Practice Mode” with “Start Webinar before clicking the Start Broadcast button.” Those are two different places with different effects.

If you start in Practice Mode (I rarely do), Attendees cannot connect to the webinar. They will get a message that the “meeting will begin when the organizer arrives.”

In Practice Mode you can talk with other Panelist and Organizers. You can share your screen and/or webcam. The Attendees cannot see or hear anything, because they have not yet connected to the webinar.

In this case, these Panelist and Organizers are those that you have set up ahead of time. You cannot promote someone from Attendee to Panelist while in Practice Mode, because you do not see the names of the people who are waiting to get into the webinar. They are not yet Attendees.

When you have completed the Practice session with your Panelists and Organizers, you can now click the Start Webinar button.

If you Start the Webinar from the Dashboard, from a Practice session, or any other way, the Attendees can now connect to the webinar. The Attendees will see the Waiting Room for the webinar. The Attendees cannot hear anything. The Attendees are visible in the Attendee list.

At this time, the Panelists and Organizers can talk among themselves. During this time you cannot unmute an Attendee.

Since the Attendees have joined the webinar, even though the broadcast has not started, you can look for John Smith in the Attendee list and promote John to be a Panelist or Organizer. After you do that, John can now speak with the other Panelists and Organizers. The Attendees will not hear John speak.

If you or any other Panelist or Organizer shares their screen or webcam, the Attendees will see it. When you are clicking to share your screen be careful to not click the Start Broadcast button.

During this time, I like to post my first PowerPoint slide on the screen so everyone can see it. Because I use the closed caption feature in PowerPoint, I have to start the PowerPoint show, in GoTo I share my second display which has the PowerPoint show, and then before anyone starts to speak, I must pause the screen in GoToWebinar control panel. If I don’t do this, then the Attendees will be able to see the text of our voices even though they cannot hear us.

I use this time to find my presenters in the Attendee list, promote them to be Panelists, check their microphones, etc.

All this time, the Attendees see my First PowerPoint slide, but cannot hear any of us talking.

At five minutes before the time the webinar is supposed to start, I warn my Panelists and Organizers that we are going live and that everyone will hear us. I press the Start Broadcast button. I also un-pause my screen in the GoToWebinar control panel, which allows the Attendees to see the closed captions. Then I announce to the audience that we will be starting in five minutes. Often we have five minutes of preshow discussion among the Panelists and Organizers.

Practice Mode = Attendees cannot hear or see anything
Start Webinar = Attendees can see everything, but not hear anything
Start Broadcast = Attendees can see and hear everything

micheles

This was when the broadcast was NOT started. The person that is seeing this, was in as a panelist and then went into the webinar as an attendee and was able to see the slides moving.

AshC

@micheles As long as you do not hit the 'Start Broadcast' confirmation button in the control panel or the pop-up screen sharing confirmation, then your attendees will wait on hold. Please let us know if you find otherwise so we can investigate your system set up thoroughly.

micheles

Judging by the silence on this post, nothing has been resolved? I'm running into the same issue and this was not the case before. This seems to be a more recent issue (in the past year).

mediateca

FWIW, this is what I mean by "Practice Mode":

https://support.goto.com/webinar/help/practice-a-webinar-g2w020009

According to this, it basically keeps the room closed to anyone except "colaborators" and only when you leave the Practice mode atendees can enter the room and you are already set- up at that point...

The downside, AFAIK, is that turning speakes into colaborators gives them too much power and they can, for instance, accidetally close yor webinar in the middle of the session.... been there ...

That is another issue I intend to raise at some point....

HTH.

Rod.

jmsjmsjms

The issue isn't that people are running a full practice session beforehand. The issue is that most people log in 15-30 minutes before a session to double-check that everything is set up and generally prepare for the session. This means checking webcams, adjusting lighting, running through audio issues, making sure the PowerPoint is set up and ready. There's no reason why an attendee should be able to see this "behind the scenes" moment. It makes much more sense for anything BEFORE hitting broadcast to not be visible to attendees.

AshC

Sorry for any confusion there. While in 'Practice Mode' your desktop sharing, webcams and audio feeds will not be visible to attendees until you actually confirm the 'Start Broadcast' button.

davidmorneau

I would also like an answer to this. We have been running meetings with the belief that no attendees can see the presenter's screen before the broadcast starts. I was alerted to this issue and did a test today (joing a meeting as an attendee on a separate computer using a different email). I could see the presenter's slides as they navigated their powerpoint.

It's important that our online webinars and meetings maintain the polish we've always achieved in our live events. This is real issue. The documentation suggests that everything is private before the braodcast begins, which it clearly is not. Please adress.

jmsjmsjms

What do you mean by practice mode? If you are in a session and haven't hit broadcast yet but have a webcam or shared screen going, anyone in the room can see.

mediateca

Hi,

We are using the "Practice" mode to get ready before letting atendees in, and we are doing so under the belief that this means atendees can´t see or hear *anything* untill we change from "preactice" to live.

Are we doing it right? Or are we all using Practice mode and our atendees have been "enjoying" all of our mishaps all this time :smileysurprised:??

jmsjmsjms

Agreed! Wish the GoTo team would get on this, such a bizarre setting that makes it hard for teams to properly get set up before the session.