Hosting a Livestream

Everything you need to know about hosting your first livestream on Superpeer

Ryan Kow avatar
Written by Ryan Kow
Updated over a week ago

Before you go live, make sure you've scheduled a livestream

Starting your Stream

Starting a stream is as easy as joining a Superpeer 1:1 call. Just navigate to Streams > Scheduled tab in your dashboard, and click "Start".

You can join the livestream 30 minutes before your stream's scheduled start time.

First, you can select your camera and microphone preferences, and test your sound. Click "Join" to enter the stream's "Backstage".

The "backstage" is a place where you and your co-hosts/speakers can chat in private before going live. Feel free to check out your settings, engage with your waiting audience in the live chat, and prepare yourself to "go live".

Once you're ready, click "Start Stream" and wait a couple of seconds before you welcome your audience to your livestream.

Did you know...

Attendance rates of around 50% are standard for free events. So, if you have 50 people registered for your stream, expect around 25 to show up to the live event. If you have more than a 50% turnout, your audience is truly engaged πŸš€!


Go live

Once you're ready to go live and start the stream for your viewers, press the "Start Stream" button at the bottom of your video feed. After this point, your viewers will be able to see you and your guest speakers.

End stream

To end your stream, click on the red "Live" button at the bottom of your video feed, and your stream will end for your viewers. This will take you back to the "Backstage" where you can chat with your guest speakers, or go live again if you've ended the stream by accident.

You decide when you want to end the stream. You can always go over your scheduled time (we will not cut it off automatically), or finish it earlier if you wish.


Things you can do on your stream

Invite co-hosts and speakers to your stream

If you want to invite someone to join you on the virtual stage, whether as a co-host, speaker, or just a quick temporary guest speaker, There are a few ways you can invite speakers to your stream:

  1. When scheduling your stream, this is the best way to add speakers to your stream as this will include them on the stream's registration page, and they will be sent an email with their own link to join the stream as a speaker. This is a great choice if you'd like to promote the stream together or advertise that you have a guest speaker!

  2. Send the speaker invite link, once you've started your stream, from either the backstage or while live you can click the Superpeer logo in the bottom left of your screen and copy the speaker invite link from there. Send that link to your speaker and they'll be able to join your stream as a speaker from there. This is a good option if you have a last-minute guest speaker you'd like to add to your stream. Once they join your stream, they will have their camera and microphone on and will be visible to your viewers. Therefore, don't share this link publicly.

  3. Invite them on stage, you can invite anyone from your audience onto the virtual stage and give them the opportunity to turn on their camera and mic, and answer questions or chat live. To do this, go to the Participants tab and invite them to speak. This is a great option if you're doing a Q&A with your audience or want people to share their own knowledge and experiences. Read the section below to learn more

**Please Note** Do not copy and share the URL you use to host your stream -- this link is only for you as the host.

Invite a viewer to speak

This feature lets you invite anyone from the audience to join your stream as a speaker and participate in the conversation, ask a question live, or even share their screen. You can convert anyone from a viewer to a speaker at any time, and similarly convert them back to a viewer once they have finished. To invite them to become a speaker, just click on their name in the participant tab or chat, and select "Invite to speak".

They will see a pop-up invitation to join you on the stream, which they can accept or decline. It can take ~30 seconds for them to join.

To send them back to the audience, simply click on their name in the participant list, and select "Remove from speakers".

Screen sharing

As with a 1:1 Superpeer call, your viewers will be able to see your screen when you click the screen sharing button.

For maximum control, use the Chrome browser for streaming, which gives you the flexibility to share a full screen, application screen, or even a separate Chrome tab. Safari allows you to share a full screen only.

Chat moderation

In rare cases when there's someone misbehaving in the chat, you can block this person, by right-clicking on their name from the Chat or Participants tab, and select "Block".

Their chat messages will become invisible to all stream participants, speakers, and of course, you. You can unblock them at any time from the Participants tab -- just scroll all the way down to the "Blocked" section.

You and any of your co-hosts can block any participant at any time.

Streaming using an OBS

Superpeer is now compatible with OBS platforms. Click here to learn more.

Missing a feature?

If there's a feature you would love to see on Superpeer -- let us know at [email protected]! We have a very exciting roadmap, to bring you the most engaging and simple livestream experience, and we would love to hear from you!

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