Livestorm updates livestorm.co

Feature

Need help keeping your video traffic to a specific region for data privacy reasons? Our team is pleased to announce the ability to set your server locations (auto, EU, and US) for your video traffic!

For example, you can select the EU-based video server option to ensure that all the video traffic for your events gets processed by servers located in Europe only. Don't worry, anyone located outside this region would still be able to access the video streams.

👉 For more information, check out this Help Center article. Note that this feature is currently available for all Livestorm enterprise customers only. To upgrade your account, we invite you to contact our sales team at sales@livestorm.co!

Feature

"We can't hear you, you're on mute!" If this sounds familiar to you, then this new feature will definitely come in handy. Our platform will now detect when you're speaking while muted and display a message to remind you!

Feature

Have you ever had a team member resize or close your stream during an event without even realizing it? This can now be prevented with the ability to "pin" streams, which can be done by team members and guest speakers during events!

👉 Here's how it works if you're a team member or guest speaker:

• Pinning a stream will keep it maximized and locked for everyone, meaning that attendees will not be able to change their own layout.
• Not pinning or unpinning a stream will unlock the ability for attendees to change their layout, which will only be visible to them.
• A stream with media or screen sharing will pin itself automatically (and replace a stream that may have been previously pinned).

For more information on this, check out this Help Center article!

Feature

Do you have a Livestorm enterprise account? If so, you might be interested to know that you can now activate SAML-based SSO on your workspace!

Wait, SAM-what? SAML SSO, which stands for Security Assertion Markup Language Single Sign-On, is an efficient and secure way for your organization to manage your team’s access to third-party platforms like Livestorm. Often recommended by IT departments, it allows you and your team members to log on to all your SSO-enabled accounts with just one email and one password.

👉 Our SSO feature can be activated on all SAML 2.0-compatible identity providers (IdPs) including Microsoft Azure Directory, Okta, and OneLogin. It's also readily available if you have 10 or more Livestorm licenses by contacting your dedicated Customer Success Manager (CSM)! For more information, check out this article in our Help Center.

Improvement

Following the announcement of our blurred and virtual backgrounds, we're pleased to share that you can now upload your own image to customize your background! We get it, customization is everything. Therefore, whether you need a change of (virtual) scenery or just want to maintain your privacy, you can now do it according to your personal style.

👉 To upload your own image, simply enter your event room, click on the virtual backgrounds button, then click on the + sign to choose from a file on your computer! For more information on blurred and virtual backgrounds, check out this Help Center article.

Feature

This week, we bring you the "Leave event" button aimed at improving your experience of leaving from events:

• Hosts can now step away without the need to end their event, which will be handy for hand-offs to speakers or teammates.
• Participants now have a more obvious way to leave, which will be handy if they don't know the Livestorm platform very well.

Once you leave, re-joining the event is as simple as clicking on "Return to event"! Note that this feature is only available for events and not for instant meetings.

Improvement

If you've ever closed your stream by accident when you meant to minimize it, then this update will help! We've improved the way you remove streams by adding a second click. From now on, clicking once on the X will darken that particular stream, and clicking a second time will remove it.

Feature

Joining events as a host or speaker versus a participant should be a different experience depending on your type of event. This is why we're introducing the lobby to enhance how you join your event. Think of the lobby as an intelligent waiting room. It will automatically appear (or not appear) based on the speaking permissions you've set for your event.

✅ Lobby will automatically appear:

• For team members and guest speakers when there are 12 registrants or fewer
• For event attendees when "Everyone can speak" is selected and when there are 12 registrants or fewer

❎ Lobby will be automatically bypassed:

• When there are more than 12 registrants in a session

Improvements

This week, we bring you three event room updates aimed at improving your user experience (and they all involve buttons)!

1. The "Join stage" button has been renamed to "Participate" to help accommodate wider use cases (such as using your event rooms for non-recorded meetings). Note that the functionality of this button has not changed.
2. The "Start event" (and "End event") button can now be found at the top right-hand corner of your event room. It has been moved away from the frequently-accessed buttons to prevent accidental clicking. The notification and sidebar toggles are now at the bottom right-hand corner.
3. You will now find a drop-down arrow on your mic and camera buttons. If you have external mics or cameras, this will allow you to switch between devices without needing to go into your settings.

Feature

We're excited to announce the launch of blurred and virtual backgrounds, a much-anticipated feature that will keep your attendees' focus on you (and only you)! Whether it's clutter, household members, or busy co-working spaces, what's behind you will finally be hidden from prying eyes.

👉 To activate this event feature, simply enter your event room, navigate to your audio/video settings (the gear icon), click on the background effects icon, choose a background, and hit "Save background effect". For more information on blurred and virtual backgrounds, check out this article from our Help Center!