As an alternative to one-on-one chats, Group Video booths let you hold a live video/audio chat between booth Hosts and Candidates/Attendees with a minimum of three and a total of nine people at a time. Hosts can also share their screens for all booth participants to view.
Group Video booths are gathered in their own convenient tab at the top of the Event Lobby, and are marked with an icon at the top right of their booth card.
A Host must start and end a Group Video session. Multiple Hosts can be added to a Group Video booth by your Brazen Administrator or event host. If you are assigned as a Host, you’ll receive an email notification.
In This Article
- Start, Lock, or Unlock a Session
- Camera and Audio Settings
- Video Settings
- View in Full Screen
- Focus on One Video Stream
- Share Your Screen
- Mute or Remove Participants
- Leave or End a Session
Start, Lock, or Unlock a Session
To start your booth’s Group Video session, enter the booth and click the green Chat button. You’ll join the session, and once you unlock the session, any Attendees that have been waiting in the booth’s chat queue are entered.
When you start a session, it is locked by default. This allows time for you to prepare your camera, microphone, and speaker on your PC or Mac. If you intend to share your screen during the Group Video, be sure to enable your screen share permissions as well. Make any final adjustments before opening the session to attendees.
Attendees continue to enter a Group Video session on a first come, first served basis as other participants leave the chat. You can control the flow of entry for new participants coming into a Group Video booth by locking or unlocking the session at any time.
| When a session is locked, additional Attendees cannot join the session even if the maximum number of participants has not been reached. Other Hosts, however, can enter a locked Group Video session. |
| If you attempt to join a session that is already underway as an additional Host and it is full, you are moved to the front of the line ahead of any Attendees and entered once there is room. |
Group Video tiles display as a grid within the session, and any Hosts are pinned to the top left of the grid and labeled, and all tiles display a first name. A glowing orange indicator at the top right of a tile indicates when a person is speaking.
Camera and Audio Settings
While chatting in a Group Video booth, both Hosts and Attendees have controls at the bottom of their screen to toggle their camera and audio on and off.
When you enter the booth, your camera and microphone are disabled by default. When your video is off or your audio is muted, its control turns red and displays a slash through its icon. When your video is disabled, your profile picture displays instead.
In order to participate in a Group Video chat, your browser must allow Brazen permission to use your camera, microphone, and speaker.
If you encounter any issues using audio or video in a Group Video booth, see Troubleshooting Audio & Video for Live Video Features in Brazen.
Video Settings
Video Settings allow you to check and modify your audio and video settings on demand within a live video. Video Settings provide immediate access to troubleshoot any audio/video issues as well as select your camera, microphone, and/or speaker.
Use the Video, Audio, and Network Test section to access connection tests. Be sure to save the results to send to Brazen Support for any additional troubleshooting needs. See below for instructions on how to save your results.
| You must enable your camera, microphone, and speaker settings before selecting your them. If you cannot select them from the dropdowns, check your camera and microphone access permissions on your PC or Mac. |
| The Speaker option is only available in Chrome and Edge browsers on desktops. It is not available for mobile users or users of Firefox and Safari on desktops. |
Run a video, audio, and network test
If you have problems with your audio or video during your Group Video session, you can quickly access the necessary tests to check your hardware and software as well as your network connection. Brazen Support needs these test results to identify and troubleshoot the issue with your Group Video.
Click the Video Settings icon in the video control panel to open the Video Settings popup window.
In the Video, Audio, and Network Test section, click Run Test. The Vonage site will open in a new window and begin running the troubleshooting test.
The results appear once the troubleshooting test has completed.
- Hardware and Software Setup — Any audio and video hardware and software Vonage detects on your computer, including any available camera and microphones and your browser compatibility.
- Connectivity to OpenTok Servers — Your connection to the video servers. These results show if you have a failure that may affect your live video experience.
- Expected Call Quality — Your overall audio and video quality, according to Vonage.
Brazen Support needs these test results to determine any necessary troubleshooting. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and click Save this data as simple text to open the Precall Results Summary popup window. If you run into technical issues, copy or take a screenshot of these results and send them to Brazen Support to review.
Select your camera, microphone, and or speaker
You can change both the camera, microphone, and/or speaker used during the Group Video. This is useful if you want to use a different device than your computer default or if your current device is not working properly. Brazen automatically detects any available devices and displays them in dropdown menus.
Click the Video Settings icon in the video control panel to open the Video Settings popup window.
Scroll down to the Input Devices section. Click the Camera, Microphone, or Speaker dropdown menu to view and select from the available devices. Your video will immediately switch to the selected camera, microphone, and speaker.
If you cannot select a device or your device does not appear in the dropdown menu, check that you did not block your camera, microphone, or speaker on your browser and that you have enabled the proper permissions on your computer. Read how to enable camera, microphone, and speaker access for your PC or Mac.
If you encounter any issues using audio or video in a Group Video booth, see Troubleshooting Audio & Video for Live Video Features in Brazen.
Use a virtual background
If enabled for your account, you may either blur the background of your individual live video feed or use a virtual background image during your Group Video session.
Click the Video Settings icon in the video control panel to open the Video Settings popup window.
Scroll down to the Virtual Background section, and select Blur or one of several provided background images.
You can immediately preview what your video feed will look like in the Video Settings window. Once you're ready, close the window to use your selected background in your live video session.
To turn off a background, open the Video Settings window again, and select None under Virtual Background. Then, close the window.
| Virtual Background is currently a beta feature. Please reach out to your Account Manager if you do not already have this feature enabled or with any feedback you may have. |
View in Full Screen
Hosts and Attendees can toggle between standard view and full screen mode by using the full screen button to the right of the microphone and camera buttons. When in full screen mode, your Event Lobby sidebar is collapsed and your screen displays only the Group Video booth tiles.
Focus on One Video Stream
Hosts and Attendees also have the option to focus on and enlarge one specific video stream within a Group Video session. Stream focus choice and display is user specific - when a user chooses a stream to focus on it has no impact on the display of video streams for other participants in the booth.
To focus on one stream, click the vertical three-dot menu in the stream’s top right corner and select Focus. Select Unfocus to return to the standard Group Video layout.
Five other participant video streams remain visible on the right side of the focused stream. These five streams are prioritized based on audio activity - streams of participants who are actively speaking are displayed, and they automatically alternate as others speak in the session.
Share Your Screen
Hosts can share their screen while the Group Video session is active. When you share your screen, the booth layout shifts to focus on the shared stream for all Hosts and Attendees.
As with focus mode, five other participant video streams remain visible on the right side of the shared screen, and the streams are prioritized based on audio activity.
To share your screen, click the screen share icon located between your video and full screen settings in the video control pane. Then, select to share your screen, window, or tab. A notification appears if you have not enabled screen share permissions in your browser and system settings. Read about sharing a PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation in Google Chrome, MS Edge, Safari, and Firefox.
When you share a tab versus the entire screen or a window, your device's sound is shared along with your screen. This can impact the audio experience for your audience.
To avoid an audio echo while sharing a video in a tab, we recommend muting either your microphone or the presenter window.
To mute your microphone, click the mute icon in the video control panel. This ensures the audience is not hearing your microphone's input as well as the video's sound.
To mute the computer's audio, click the kebab [ 
] menu in your presenter window, then click Mute. The audience only hears the video's sound delivered through your computer's microphone. Click the kebab menu again, then click Unmute to turn the computer's audio back on.
| Muting your computer's audio only applies when sharing a tab. Sharing your screen or window always delivers your microphone's audio input. |
After muting your device's audio, your presentation screen indicates that your audio is muted, but your microphone, which you use to speak to your audience or other presenters, is not muted. The audience hears the video's sound through your microphone's input, not through the computer's sound.
As Host, you can also mute another Presenter’s screen share audio if needed by using the same menu and selecting Mute.
Simultaneous Chats
As a Host or Attendee in a Group Video booth, you can simultaneously chat in one-on-one text chats in other booths during an event. Once you leave the Group Video session, you can return to using audio and video in your one-on-one chats.
| You can accept Scheduled Chats while chatting in a Group Video booth, but they are limited to text only. |
Easily toggle between any text chats on the left side of your Chats screen.
|
Entering full screen mode removes this Chats panel from view. Exit full screen mode in order to ensure your simultaneous text Chats are visible. |
Mute or Remove Participants
Hosts can mute or remove a participant at any time using a menu in the top right of the participant’s tile. Muting a participant can be helpful if their microphone is picking up unwanted or distracting noise.
| Once muted, you cannot unmute a participant. |
If needed, Hosts can remove a participant, however removed participants can get back in line to join the Group Video session and are allowed re-entry, as long as the session has not been locked.
When a participant is removed, they are returned to the Event Lobby and a message displays.
Leave or End a Session
If more than one Host has joined a Group Video session, a Leave button displays on all Host’s controls. If a Host decides to leave, the session continues with any remaining Hosts.
When there is only one Host present in a session, the control panel shows an End button instead.
Once a Group Video session is ended, all participants are returned to the Event Lobby.