Backstage & Producer comms ensure you and your presenters are on the same page even in the middle of a Greenroom show.

Backstage and Producer Comms refers to a setting within Greenroom that activates both a feature and a tool. It is great for allowing Producers to communicate through multiple paths, while also preventing their audio from ending up in the broadcast. In this article, we'll walk through backstage comms, producer comms, the settings menu, the live presenters button, and presenting while off-screen.

How To Video

Backstage Comms

Backstage comms is a feature in Greenroom that splits audio between two sections of the Greenroom: the canvas and the virtual backstage.

This means that when there are multiple Presenters backstage and one presenter is talking within the canvas, the audio from the backstage Presenters won't bleed into the webcast stream. This ensures that just audio from the canvas is going out to the streaming destination. It also ensures that the Presenter on canvas does not hear any unnecessary chatter from backstage. 

Producer Comms

Producer comms gives Producers the ability to talk with Presenters that are on and off the canvas, without the Producer's voice going into the live show.

This allows the Producer to talk to anyone who's in the Canvas during a live show, including giving them direction or information from backstage. The Producer can also directly communicate with an individual presenter, as opposed to all live presenters.

Turning Backstage Comms and Producer Comms On and Off

As the Greenroom producer, you can toggle the backstage comms and producer comms features on and off.

When in the Greenroom, go to Gear icon > Settings, and you'll see the Backstage & Producer Comms toggle just below the Video Resolution Management toggle. This will allow you to turn off the feature when talking to everyone on and off the canvas in a non-live environment. Note that turning this feature off will put your Greenroom into a "hot mic" situation, meaning that anyone's microphone will broadcast into your show, whether they are on the canvas or backstage.

Keep in mind that when this feature is on, and Presenters are in the live canvas, they won't be able to hear any of the other Presenters that are off-canvas. Once a Presenter is taken off the canvas by a Producer, they will rejoin the other Presenters backstage at which point they will hear everyone else. They also won't be able to hear the Producer unless the Producer presses and holds the Comms button (either the LIVE presenters or Headset icon), allowing for communication to all or one of the Presenters.

Canvas Volume Control 

Producers can control the volume of the media or presenters on the canvas for users that are backstage through the Canvas Volume Control.  Volume is adjusted via the slider at the top of the feeds tab and affects only those backstage to enable smooth presenter & producer communications. It does not affect the volume of the stream to the audience's destination. 

Live Presenters Button

The "Live" button, below your video thumbnails in the Feeds tab, will allow the Producer to speak to the Presenters in the canvas while allowing those off the canvas to also hear what the Producer is saying.

It's important to know that this button works in a "push to talk" fashion like a walkie-talkie, so don't forget to click and hold when using it. You can also press and hold the spacebar on your keyboard as a hotkey function.

If you’re getting ready to take a Presenter live, they have the option to stay muted and become automatically unmuted upon being brought into the Greenroom canvas. Thus, there’s no need for the Presenter to worry about unmuting themselves when they go live.

When a Presenter is done speaking and you take them out of the canvas of the Greenroom, their microphone will still be unmuted, so you will have to mute them or let them know to mute themselves, in order to better control the audio experience within Greenroom.

Headset Icon

When a particular Presenter is live, you'll see that their feed will have a third icon, one that looks like a headset. This allows you to use the Producer comms feature for an individual Presenter instead of the whole group.

Controlling Mics

As a Producer in Greenroom, you can control your microphone and the mics of all Presenters within Greenroom.

Under Avatar > Video settings, you can control your mic and select which microphone to use (i.e. computer’s internal mic or an external USB mic) and you can select your speaker source (i.e. computer’s speakers or headphones). 

Presenting While Off-Screen

Only media, Presenters within the live canvas, and Presenters within Audio-only feeds can talk live in a shot. If you're looking to have a Presenter commentate over a media file, you'll want to use Audio Only Feeds.

Check out our article on How to: Use Audio Only Feeds