How Call in Studio Works / FAQ

Video Host Overview

To enable video callers go to MY SHOWS and click on your show to configure it. Then, change the 'Video' setting to either 'Enabled w/ Phone Callers' or 'Enabled - Video Only'. You must also enable your Call-In URL by populating that field. Video callers will go the URL you specified (e.g., callinstudio.com/video/my-call-in-url/).

Then click on 'Start Show' and confirm your show settings by clicking 'Start Show' again. You are at the main Call in Studio console interface. Click the 'Video: Host Connect' button to pop up the Connect Host Video.

CONNECT HOST VIDEO
Click the 'Ready' button and grant permission for video/audio access from your browser. In the 'Devices' box you can select your Camera, Microphone and Speaker/Headphone options, as well as see a preview of your Camera input. Click 'Connect to Show' to connect.

Once connected, you will see all the callers connected to Call in Studio by room name. HOST ROOM contains yourself and any callers who you have "on air" along with their video (or phone icon representing a connected phone call).

You will leave this window open and go back to the Call in Studio main console to take actions on specific calls ('Talk', 'Drop', etc.).

In each call row on the main console, Video Callers will show a green play icon indicting that caller is sending video (pulsating grey if in the process of connecting), or a grey dot if not connected (e.g., your show settings are such that they are hearing hold music while waiting).

FULLSCREEN MODE
Scroll to the bottom to the 'Fullscreen Mode' box. Clicking one of the Fullscreen Mode buttons will fill the browser window with all callers in the HOST ROOM according to your Onscreen settings.

Dominant speaker detection: The dominant speaker in the HOST ROOM will be detected and their video tile outlined. Any time there are more callers in HOST ROOM than can be shown on screen, the least-recent dominant speaker will be swapped out with a new dominant speaker. So long as your own video is on screen, it will always be listed first amongst the displayed callers. This is window you will commonly use for feeding into your broadcast feed (e.g., with OBS Studio, vMix, etc.).

Here is a description of the settings and options for Fullscreen Mode:

• Max Onscreen: The maximum number of onscreen callers, up to 4. They are displayed in a side-by-side scene, except for 'grid' mode which shows a grid box for 4 callers. Any time fewer callers are in the HOST ROOM than the selected value, that scene be in effect (e.g., if show 4 speakers and one call drops, the video will transition to a 3-up scene; when an additional caller enter the HOST ROOM, the video will transition back to the 4-up scene). Picture-in-Picture Mode (PIP Mode) shows the host(s) as the background video and all other callers in a PIP tile.
• View Options: Select either Animated (default) or Instant. When the video transitions between scenes or adds/removes callers, those caller tiles will either appear instantly or animated into position over a defined time in milliseconds (600ms by default).
• Hide myself in Fullscreen Mode: When in fullscreen mode, your own video tile will not be displayed. This can be useful if you ONLY want to get a video feed of other callers to mix into your show.
• Hide All Hosts: When in fullscreen mode, all other hosts' video feeds will not be shown.
• Hide Dominant Speaker Outline: If you do not want the dominant speaker ouline indicator shown, this will disable the outline.

FULLSCREEN MODE HOTKEYS
When Host Video Window is in focus, you may type hotkeys on your keyboard to do do the following:

• ? - Show hotkey menu.
• m - Mute your own video.
• 1,2,3,4 - Change the Max Onscreen setting.
• g - Switch to the 4-up gride style scene.
• p - switch to PIP mode.
• 0 (zero) - toggle 'hide myself' setting.
• ESC - Exit Fullscreen Mode.
• SHIFT - If animation is enabled, holding shift while pressing any of the hokeys will make the transition to that scene instant.
• r - Refresh/redraw the current scene.

You may also view and control these settings from the main Call in Studio interface console. The HOST ROOM tab will also show what scene is selected (4-up, PIP Mode, etc) when in Fullscreen Mode.

Next to the host call you will see the play icon; blue indicates the video is in Fullscreen Mode. Clicking on that play icon will popup a menu that allows you to select the desired scene (1-up, 2-up, PIP Mode, etc.) and options (hide myself, dominant speaker outline, etc.).

VIDEO<->PHONES BRIDGE CONNECTION
Any time you have a mix of Video Callers and Phone/Audio-Only Callers who need to see/hear show audio, a bridge connection needs to be established. This connection is established or dropped as-needed. The bridge connection is billed at 4¢/min. Only one bridge connection is needed when a mix of Video and Audio-Only Callers is present.

MAXIMUM VIDEO CALLER PARTICIPANTS & LIMITS
Your 'Max Callers' setting for your show/meeting determines how many simultanous callers can be connected at any given time. When 'Max Callers' is reached, additional callers hear a busy signal or have to wait for an available slot. By default, Call in Studio allows up to 35 callers (hosts, screeners, guests do not count against this number).

Customers can request to allow up to 225 callers for their shows/meetings. For shows with this limit enabled, Video Callers is still limited to 35 and still count against the total caller limit (theoretically, you could have 0–35 Video Callers and 255–190 phone calls connected).

Video Hosts, Screeners and Guests do not count against the 35 Video Caller limit, but a hard limit of all Video connection types to a show/meeting is 48.