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Once a Moderator has started a meeting (refer to Starting a Discussions Meeting) and has joined the meeting audio, the Moderator can control the meeting from the main Discussions Meeting Room, as detailed below.
The main features in the Meeting Room are described below:
1 — Video window: All participants in the meeting have a small live video window within the large main window of the Meeting Room. You can see the participants here. If they do not have video facility or have switched off their video functionality, an empty tile with their initials is displayed.
2 — Mute toggle: This microphone icon toggles whether your microphone is muted. For Observers, this is always greyed out and unavailable because speaking in the Meeting Room is not permitted.
3 — Camera toggle: This camera icon Toggles whether your camera is being used and providing a live video feed to the Meeting Room. Backgrounds are automatically blurred for privacy reasons. The first time you activate your camera, you will be asked for permission for the browser to access your camera; answer Yes to this. For Observers, this is always greyed out and unavailable because showing your video in the Meeting Room is not permitted.
4 — Screen share: Allows you to share one of your Chrome browser tabs, a window on your computer, or your entire screen. If you have multiple screens, you can choose which screen to share. When sharing like this, the participant's and moderator's video streams appear across the top of the window in a carousel-style of layout, with the moderator's video being shown first (on the left), and actively speaking participant(s) appearing second on the carousel.
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5 — Chat: Opens the Group Chat pane. For Moderators and Observers, two tabs are available: Backroom and Public.
Backroom: Only Moderator(s) and any Observers can use this tab to engage in a text-based chat with other Moderators/Observers. This is not visible to the participants.
Public: All participants and Moderators can use this tab to engage in a text-based chat with other participants and Moderators.
6 — People pane: Opens the All Participants pane which shows all participants and Moderator(s) currently in the session. You can also use this pane to mute all the participants.
7 — Settings: Opens the Audio and Video Settings window allowing you to select the camera (if you have more than one), the audio output device (headset, speaker, etc) and the microphone device (headset, built-in microphone, etc). You can also test the audio output and input devices.
7 — Leave: Allows you, an Observer, or a participant to leave the session. If you are the last Moderator in the room, a pop-up window confirms what you wish to do with the meeting as a whole: cancel leaving the room (by selecting Stay), or ending the meeting (by selecting End Meeting For All). Once a meeting finishes, Forsta Discussions processes the video and creates a transcript. A meeting officially ends when the last moderator leaves the meeting and the time is past the meeting end-time. A meeting does not stop automatically if a moderator remains in the session, even if the end-time has past. This allows participants to re-enter a meeting even if the end time has lapsed (provided a moderator is still in the session).
8 — Recording indicator. Indicates that the meeting is being recorded. This is the default for all meetings.
9 — Participant information: Shows the name of the participant and whether they are muted or not.
12 — More: By default, this button provides access to Settings for audio and video devices. However, on narrower screens and devices where the full width of the toolbar cannot fit on the screen, other toolbar buttons are placed in the More menu. As the screen width decreases, the following items are moved from the main toolbar into the More dropdown: Flag PII, Notes, People, Chat.
Note: When using Chrome or Edge to share a browser tab or your entire screen, and you turn on the option to Share tab audio or Share system audio, your microphone will be muted and participants will not be able to hear you until you stop sharing. Confirm you wish to do this before starting to share.
If you are a Moderator or Observer, there are two additional buttons at the bottom of the screen. They are:
10 - Flag PII: Flags potential Personal Identifiable Information being disclosed at this point within the meeting. This information is provided to a person who wishes to view the recording so an informed decision can be made as to how to proceed.
11 - Notes: Allows you to make notes during the meeting. These are time-stamped and available for view during meeting recording playback.
Once a meeting has eneded, Forsta Discussions processes the video and creates a transcript. To playback a session, refer to Viewing a Recorded Meeting.