Things to Know

• Forums accommodates up to 50 video participants and 200 additional audio-only participants.
• Presenters will appear once they have joined Elite Studio and will have a badge next to their names. 
• Attendees will appear once the event has been started and they have entered via the Audience Console.
• All Forums will be recorded. By joining the event, both the presenting team and the attendees consent to being recorded. You can add an additional checkbox for attendees to confirm recording consent before joining the room if you'd like.

Logging In to Elite Studio

Although Forums events can accommodate up to 50 video participants and 200 additional audio-only participants total, only a maximum of 10 presenters can connect to the event through Elite Studio. Elite Studio users can join the event in listen-only mode if the max number of video presenters has been reached.

At least one member of the presenting team must be on webcam.

Use the Presenter Link or the Launch Elite Studio link from the event Overview page to pull up Elite Studio. If you do not have ON24 account access, the Presenter Link will need to be shared by someone who has an ON24 platform login.

Enter your information and choose a language, if desired.

Choose a role - Producer, Presenter, or Q&A. See below for more information on each of the roles.

Roles

Presenters may log in as a Producer, Presenter, or a Q&A moderator. Below is a breakdown of user permissions for each role.

Important: Every Forums event must have at least one Producer logged in to Elite Studio to start and stop the event. If you are running an event by yourself, log in as a Producer.

Connecting to Elite Studio

Note: Your browser may ask for permission to use your camera and microphone - you must click Allow in order to connect to the event.

Your default webcam and microphone will connect automatically. If you have other options, they may be selected from the Camera and Mic drop-down menus.

If connecting by webcam, choose a Virtual Background by clicking on the person icon in the camera area. 

If connecting by PC Mic only, choose None for the Camera setting in the drop-down menu.

After connecting, presenters will join a two-way video conference with other presenters and participants. Presenters and Moderators will have a badge by their name to identify who is hosting the Forum.

If only two people join the Forums event, the Media Player will display the two participants in Picture-In Picture mode until a third participant or presenter/moderator joins the event, even if they do not join by webcam.

Interface

This is the Elite Studio interface for Forums events.

This is the default view for those logging in as Producers. The Main Stage will show the Live View window and the Media Player, with all those connected in a filmstrip view. Forums Specific Tools will be at the top of the Main Stage.

Those logging in as Presenters will see the Media Player only in the Main Stage to start. The Live View window can be moved to the Main Stage too by clicking the arrow in the top corner of the tool.

For all those connected to Elite Studio, the Right Panel shows all the Elite Studio tools you have open, such as Team Chat or Q&A. These tools can be opened from the Elite Studio Toolbar at the top.

The Connection Panel can be opened at any time to update your connection.

Find more information on the windows and tools in Elite Studio.

Find more information on the general Elite Studio Interface. 

Forums Specific Tools

Note: Presenters can mute all attendees and enable the microphones for all attendees (if the attendee has allowed their browser access to their mic), but due to privacy issues, presenters CANNOT unmute attendees. If a Presenter enables an attendee's mic, the attendee must then unmute themselves to speak.

Bulk Actions

Bulk actions allow you to update all presenters and attendees at once.

Click on the Participant List, then hover over All Participants and click the ellipsis to find the following actions:

• Mute All participants - both the presenting team and attendees
• Turn Off All Cameras
• Disable Attendee Mics
• Lower All Hands

Individual Actions

You can also update individual attendees. Click the Participant List, then hover over the individual you'd like to update and click the ellipsis to find the following actions:

• Mute 
• Turn Off Camera
• Disable Mic
• Lower Hand
• Share Screen
• Pass the Mic

Note: Attendees who have not allowed their browser to have access to their microphone will not be able to speak during the live event. A red icon will appear next to their name with a message that their mic is blocked. The attendee will need to allow access via their browser settings.

Raised Hand

Forums participants can raise a hand by clicking the small hand button. To lower your hand, click the same button again.

When another participant raises a hand, their border will momentarily flash yellow, and a yellow hand icon will appear in the panel for that participant. The raise-hand count will also increase by one, and a hand icon will appear next to their name in the Participant List.

To lower another participant's hand, hover over the individual, click the ellipsis, and choose Lower Hand.

Pass the Mic

Note: If you would like to use this feature, please reach out to your CSM.

If Request to Join On Camera is enabled during the event setup, attendees can be promoted to video during the live event.

• The event will start with only Presenters on camera - all attendees will join in listen-only mode and need to raise their hand to request to be promoted onto the video conference.
• Click on the raised hand icon, then click the three dots to find Connect Camera/Mic.
  • Clicking here will promote the attendee to the video conference.
  • The presenter team can choose to demote the promoted attendees at any time.
  • Find instructions for your attendees in the Forums Attendee Guide.

Attendee Screen Share

If enabled, Presenters can grant permission to Attendees to share their screens. All attendees have screen share initially disabled. Attendees that have been given permission will see the screen share icon at the top of their screen.

Note: For iPads Beta Screenshare is available for IOS. This feature will be enabled by request only. Please contact Support for details The ON24 Screenshare app will need to be downloaded from the app store. Screenshare is not available on Safari browsers v15 and older.

Pinning

Pinning allows you to always display one or more video streams in the video grid, even if they are not speaking. The other video slots will dynamically display based on voice activation.

Click the Pin icon next to their name in the Attendees list.

Spotlight

Spotlighting allows you to only display those who are pinned. For example, if three people are pinned and you enable Spotlighting, only those three people will display in the video grid.

To enable Spotlighting, click the Spotlighting icon in the header of the video window.

Number of Presenters in Video Grid

You can adjust the number of presenters in the video grid to prioritize key speakers and produce a more organized event layout.

Adjustments can be made on-the-fly during the event. The default view is 16 video tiles, but this can be changed using the Tiles Displayed to Audience drop-down menu. The tiles live to the audience will be outlined.

Starting and Stopping an Event

Start a Forum

When joining before the event has been started, all presenters in Elite Studio will be in a private video conference and can speak with one another "backstage."

The audience will not hear or see the presenters until Start Forum is clicked.

Fifteen minutes before the live start time, the Start Forum button will appear, alerting presenters the audience console is open.

During this time, the audience will be able to see what is in the Live View window via their Slides tool. We suggest pushing a title or opening slide for the audience to see while waiting for the event to begin. Attendees will also see a Waiting for presenter message in the Media Player.

Click Start Forum to begin the Forum, then Start Forum in the pop-up window. There will be a countdown from 5 on the screen and the event will start. This will admit all attendees into the video session and start the recording.

End a Forum

Once the webinar has reached its conclusion, click the End Forum button. Once End Forum is clicked, a confirmation window appears - clicking End Forum will disconnect the presenters from the live audience and stop the recording.

​​Note: ​​​​​Stopping the event permanently ends the Forum. Once a Forum has been stopped (even if it has been accidentally or prematurely stopped), it cannot be restarted.

Elite Studio will stay open 10 minutes after the event has been stopped. The audience will no longer see or hear the presenting team, but the team can stay connected to debrief.