Testing your session is highly recommended before your event, especially when doing a live broadcast. We recommend testing on your own or with your team first before inviting speakers to join you. This way, you'll know exactly what you need to do and give your speakers the best instructions to assist them.
How do I test if my live session will work?
Test the Studio Features Only
We recommend you start with this.
As an event admin, you can access the Accelevents Studio link anytime to test the features in the studio such as turning on your camera and microphone, and sharing your screen. Speakers can also join you in the studio anytime to test the features. If your goal is to get speakers to understand how the studio works (not test what attendees see), you can schedule a call with them and have them access the studio link from their session. You don't need to change the schedule of that session, they simply just access the studio link and you can all meet in there before the event to test.
Test the Studio Broadcast
This needs a lot of preparation, plan this out.
If you want to do a test live broadcast to also see what attendees would see, you will need to schedule your session to right now as a live broadcast means it's happening right now. Since your actual event is in the future, we do not recommend changing the date of your event and sessions for testing, especially if you already have registrations as they may get notifications about the session schedule changes.
To properly test a session broadcast, you'll have to create a test event with a test session. You can create this from scratch and enter the dates and time of when you want to test, or duplicate your actual event and adjust the dates and times of the duplicated event and sessions to when you want to test. To also see what attendees will see during a live broadcast, you need to log in to the virtual event hub and join the session from there, so you'll have at least 2 tabs open 1 for the virtual event hub and 1 for the studio. If you want others to also experience it as an attendee, you'll give them a ticket for your test event to join as an attendee.
Test the Workshop
If you want to test the workshop, the best option is to add yourself as a speaker to the session and access the Speaker Hub in the virtual event hub to enter the workshop session, where you can test the workshop features. This is the best option because you'll experience the same steps the speakers will follow when they join the workshop session and you'll be able to guide them if needed. Your speakers can also join you through the speaker hub before the event to practice. No need to create a test session for this.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
CHROME is the preferred browser to access the event page, virtual event hub, and studio.
You cannot test a live session if your session is in the past or future. If you're testing now, the session schedule should be set now.
You can do your test session on your actual event, but we highly recommend that you create a duplicate event so that you don't need to change anything on your actual event.
If you're duplicating an event, change the dates and time to when your test is happening. As a default, the duplicated event date will be a month from when you duplicated it. Check your stream providers as it resets on a duplicated event. You may check this article on duplicating an event. The FAQ section may be helpful in terms of what will be copied over.
If you're duplicating an event, ensure to not send invites to team members, speakers and exhibitors.
If you're doing a test event, please keep your participants (including admins, staff, attendees, exhibitors, and sponsors) to 24 maximum in total and add TEST to your event URL so that we'll know not to charge you for this event. If you exceed, the 25th person cannot join your test event.
Set Up The Test Event to Test the Broadcast
In this article, you'll learn how to set up your test event and test session using Accelevents Studio. You'll be able to test the speaker and attendee experience.
1. Create an Event
Create a new event or duplicate your existing event.
If you're duplicating, make sure to unselect the sending of invites to team members, speakers and exhibitors, or you can exclude them in the duplicated event.
Give the event a proper name so you'll know that this is your test and event and not your actual event, add "TEST" to the event title
When you set the event date, make sure to select the dates of when you want to test.
Do not publish your test event
1. Set the Session Date
If you duplicated an event, the sessions are copied, but you'll have to set the date and time. If you want to test it now, then the schedule has to be for the date and time right now.
3. Select Accelevents Studio as Stream Provider
Go to the Broadcast tab in the session settings and select Accelevents Studio. The generated Studio Link is what you will be accessing along with your other speakers to broadcast. At this point you can try accessing this link to see if it will take you to the studio.
4. Add Speakers to the Session
If you don't want speakers to get an invite when you add them, turn off this toggle first before adding them.
Go to Event Content > Speakers
Click Settings and turn off the toggle to send automatic speaker invite email
If this is a duplicate event and you included the speakers, then they should already be assigned to the session. Otherwise, go to the speakers tab in the session settings and add the speakers who will test with you. If you want to send the invite, click the 3 dot menu and select Resend Invite.
You can also add yourself as a speaker so you'll know the same steps they go through when joining a session.
5. Add Attendees
If you have other team members joining you in this test, you and your team members do not need tickets to view the session as an attendee, you simply access the virtual event hub and join the session from there.
But if you want to test the whole process as a regular attendee, create a free ticket if you don't have one, and give yourself a free ticket in the Add Attendees tab. Use a secondary email for this registration (not your admin email) so you can get the full experience as an attendee.
That's it, you're done setting up your test event and session.
The next step is the actual test!
Test the Broadcast
1. Access the Studio Link
Earlier, we sent the invite to speakers. In that email, the speaker should see the Speaker Hub link, the studio link to that session, and the onboarding link.
Click the first link from the email (Speaker Hub link)
Click Join the Studio to open a new tab that redirects to the studio (this is the second link from the email). This will not start the broadcast. You're just entering the studio.
2. Enable Your Camera and Microphone
Before entering the Studio, you'll see a pop-up to set up your audio and video device.
If you see a "Permission Denied!" message on top, your browser cannot access your camera or microphone. To give permission, click the icon before the browser URL, then enable the toggles from the camera and microphone. You should see a "Reload" button on the browser; click that to reload the page, and the permission-denied messaging should no longer show.
If you're all set, click Save to proceed to the next step.
3. Test the Studio Features and Adjust your Personal Settings
If you're sharing your presentation or video during your session, it's important to test it to ensure it works. Test all the other studio tools, like your camera, microphone, chat, and polls. You can also set your studio notification.
4. Have Attendees Join the Session
Before starting the broadcast, have your attendees join the session, so they will see the beginning of your broadcast. If you used a secondary email for your attendee access, use an incognito window to log in as that attendee. Otherwise if you're using your admin access, just open a new tab for the virtual event hub and enter the session.
5. Start the Broadcast
After checking everything, you're ready as speaker and your attendees are logged in and are on standby, click Ready to Start and Start Broadcast to start live streaming.
Once you click the Start Broadcast button, it will give you a countdown as to when it will be live. Note that once you hit that button, the recording will start, so even if you're still at the countdown, it's important to be "studio ready" - no more talking, no more fidgeting! You'll know you're broadcasting once you see the LIVE indicator, and the button changes to a red Stop Broadcast button.
Notes:
20 to 30 seconds of latency is expected. So when the speaker clicks the Start Broadcast button, attendees will see the live broadcast in about 20 to 30 seconds.
Only moderators can start / stop broadcast. Admins are moderators.
You can hide speakers from the broadcast even with their cameras turned on, learn more about the On-Stage Feature.
You can invite attendees to the studio.
6. Stop the Broadcast
When you're done testing, click the Stop Broadcast button from the studio.
We suggest waiting up to 30 seconds before you hit the stop broadcast button to consider the delays in broadcasting. If you stop early, attendees may not see the last 20 to 30 seconds of your presentation.
To make the timings right, have someone from your team watch from the attendee's side, and when you hear the speakers saying goodbye, you can stop the broadcast right after that.
