Changelog #5 - 2021-06
Marc Metz avatar
Written by Marc Metz
Updated over a week ago

Week of June 09, 2021

⭐️ Highlights

#1 Audio-only stages for more audience engagement ✨

Zoom fatigue? Not anymore — we've fixed it. Accessible from any web browser.

Don’t get us wrong. Video calls are great and they will stay an important part of MeetAnyway (we'll soon have some news there as well). However, we believe for certain formats (e.g. engaging discussions with larger audiences) audio-only works better. Organizers who know "Clubhouse", might have experienced it themselves.

Why attendees love audio-only stages

  • No longer screen starring contests. Look outside the window instead.

  • Focus on words, not appearance or exaggerated "Zoom gestures".

  • No video = More stable and clear audio connection for everyone.

  • Glasses? They no longer mirror your screen.

  • Stand up and move without disappearing.

Preview

Audio-only stage highlights

  • Built for small and large sessions
    Audio stages seamlessly can scale to 15 speakers and 1,000 listeners simultaneously. Even better, the transition from listener to speaker is fluent. Everyone in your audience can raise their hand and you can invite them to the stage.

  • Engage your listeners during larger sessions
    The transition between speakers and listeners becomes fluid. Listeners in the audience can raise their hands. If you decide to invite them on stage, the selected person can speak up, ask questions and engage during your session in a new and fun way.

  • Clear and stable audio
    By using audio-only the bandwidth will reward everyone in your call with stellar, high-quality audio. Say bye to frozen video screens caused by connectivity issues. In actual numbers: A Zoom group meeting will use 810MB - 2.4GB data per hour. Audio streaming on the other hand will only use around 72 MB per hour. That’s up to 33x less bandwidth usage.

  • Screen sharing
    While we drop the video for these audio stages, we understand the importance of screen sharing. You can share your entire screen, a specific application window, or browser tabs incl. audio.

  • Active speaker view

    Ever been on a phone call with various people? It quickly becomes confusing as it's not always clear who is currently speaking. Our active speaker view highlights the person that’s currently speaking.

How to add audio-only stages to your event

#2 New permission system

The permission system allows you to define attendee permissions with high granularity. Here you can define moderators and speakers for your audio-only stages or add hosts to custom areas.

🐛 Besides the above many bug fixes. For example —

  • Fix for video call sidebar, which was not accessible in Firefox.

  • [...]

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