Sign in Register

Live Rooms

Live Rooms Guide

Live Rooms let approved users create live community sessions from the frontend dashboard. A Live Room opens as its own live video page with a host, optional chat, viewer count, stream controls, and Live Room-specific settings.

Open the Live Rooms Dashboard Tab

  1. Log in to your site.
  2. Open the frontend dashboard.
  3. Select Live Rooms.

The Live Rooms tab includes:

  • A form for creating a new Live Room.
  • A Your Live Rooms section showing your existing rooms.
  • Status labels for each room: Live, Offline, or Ended.
  • An Open Live Room button for each existing room.

If a user does not have permission to create Live Rooms, the tab shows a message telling them they do not have permission and should contact an administrator.

Give Users Permission to Host Live Rooms

To control which user roles can host Live Rooms:

  1. Go to VH360 Theme → Permissions.
  2. Find Host Live Rooms Permission.
  3. Select the roles that should be able to host Live Rooms from the dashboard.
  4. Save changes.

Administrators can host Live Rooms automatically.

Create a Live Room

From the frontend dashboard:

  1. Open Live Rooms.
  2. Enter a Live Room Title.
  3. Add a Description if needed.
  4. Upload a Featured Image if needed.
  5. Choose a Livestream Mode:
  • Interactive — host and guests can speak.
  • Broadcast — host speaks and the audience watches.
  1. Configure the Live Room settings.
  2. Leave Agora Channel Name blank unless you need to use a specific channel name.
  3. Select Create Live Room.

After a Live Room is created, the site opens the new Live Room page.

Featured Image

The Live Room creation form supports a featured image.

Supported image formats are:

  • JPG
  • PNG
  • GIF
  • WebP

The upload help text shows a maximum size of 5MB.

Live Room Settings

The Live Room form includes these settings:

Allow Everyone to be Host

When this is enabled, viewers can join directly as hosts in an interactive Live Room.

This option cannot be used at the same time as Require Passcode To Join.

Require Passcode To Join

When this is enabled, viewers must enter the host passcode before joining as presenters.

This option cannot be used at the same time as Allow Everyone to be Host.

Show Viewer Count

When enabled, the Live Room can show the live viewer count on the Live Room page.

Enable Live Chat for This Video

When enabled, the Live Room includes live chat.

Live Rooms use popup chat placement on the Live Room page.

Chat Placement

The Live Room form includes a chat placement selector with these options:

  • Use global setting
  • Right
  • Left
  • Bottom

On the Live Room page, the Live Room template uses popup chat.

Agora Channel Name

The Agora Channel Name field is optional.

If you leave it blank, the site creates a channel name automatically when the Live Room is created.

Live Rooms require Agora to be configured in the Videohub360 plugin settings. Use the separate Agora setup guide for the Agora credential setup.

Open and Manage a Live Room

To manage an existing Live Room:

  1. Open the frontend dashboard.
  2. Select Live Rooms.
  3. In Your Live Rooms, choose Open Live Room.

The Live Room page displays:

  • The live player area.
  • The Live Room title.
  • A LIVE badge when the room is live.
  • Viewer status when viewer count is enabled.
  • Host information.
  • The Live Room description.
  • Chat when chat is enabled.

Frontend Live Room Settings

The Live Room owner, users who can edit the room, and administrators can manage Live Room settings directly from the Live Room page.

The frontend settings panel includes:

  • Allow Everyone to be Host
  • Require Passcode To Join
  • Host Passcode
  • Show Viewer Count
  • Enable live chat for this video
  • Chat Placement
  • Save Settings

Stream Controls

The Live Room page includes stream controls for users who can manage the room.

Available stream controls are:

  • Stop Stream — marks the room offline and updates activity.
  • Restart Stream — clears the stopped state so streaming can start again.

Restarting does not automatically start broadcasting. After restart, start streaming again from the Live Room player.

Viewer and Presenter Behavior

In Interactive mode, a Live Room can allow presenters in two ways:

  • Enable Allow Everyone to be Host so viewers can join as hosts directly.
  • Enable Require Passcode To Join so viewers must enter a passcode before joining as presenters.

If neither option is enabled, regular viewers wait for the host to start the live stream.

Chat and Moderation

When chat is enabled, the Live Room page displays chat in a popup chat interface.

Users with moderation access can see moderation tools for chat and video participants. The moderation panel includes sections for:

  • Text chat banned users.
  • Text chat timed out users.
  • Video chat banned users.
  • Video chat timed out users.

Live Room Header

The Live Room template can display a header above the Live Room content.

To edit the Live Room header:

  1. Go to Appearance → Customize.
  2. Open the header settings section.
  3. Use the Live Room header options to:
  • Show or hide the Live Room header.
  • Change the Live Room header title.
  • Change the Live Room header description.
  1. Publish your changes.

The default Live Room header title is Live Room.

Paid Membership Access

If the paid membership system is enabled, Live Rooms can be gated as a platform feature.

To check this setting:

  1. Go to VH360 Theme → Paid Membership.
  2. Find the platform feature gating options.
  3. Check whether Live Rooms is selected.
  4. Save changes if needed.

When Live Rooms are gated, users need membership access to use the Live Rooms feature.

Appointment Live Rooms

Appointment Live Rooms are private live rooms connected to appointments.

For appointment Live Rooms:

  • Logged-out users are redirected to the login page.
  • Access is limited to the professional, the client, and administrators.
  • Unauthorized logged-in users are not shown the room.

Test Live Rooms

After setup, test Live Rooms with an administrator account and a regular customer account.

Confirm that:

  • The correct roles can access the Live Rooms creation form.
  • Users without permission cannot create Live Rooms.
  • A Live Room can be created from the frontend dashboard.
  • Leaving the Agora Channel Name blank still creates the room.
  • The new room opens after creation.
  • Interactive mode and Broadcast mode display as expected.
  • Allow Everyone to be Host and Require Passcode To Join cannot be used together.
  • Chat appears when enabled.
  • Viewer count appears when enabled.
  • Stop Stream marks the room offline.
  • Restart Stream allows the stream to be started again.
  • Paid membership gating works if Live Rooms are selected as a gated feature.

Troubleshooting

The Live Rooms form does not appear

Go to VH360 Theme → Permissions and confirm the user’s role is selected under Host Live Rooms Permission.

The user sees a permission message

The user does not currently have permission to create Live Rooms. Update the role permission under VH360 Theme → Permissions or use an administrator account.

The Create Live Room button is disabled

Activate the site license, then return to the Live Rooms tab and try again.

The livestream does not start correctly

Confirm Agora is configured in the Videohub360 plugin settings, then test the Live Room again.

Viewers cannot join as presenters

Open the Live Room settings and confirm either Allow Everyone to be Host or Require Passcode To Join is enabled.

The passcode option disappears when Allow Everyone to be Host is selected

This is expected. Allow Everyone to be Host and Require Passcode To Join cannot be used at the same time.

Chat does not appear

Open the Live Room settings and confirm Enable live chat for this video is enabled.

Non-members cannot use Live Rooms

Go to VH360 Theme → Paid Membership and check whether Live Rooms is selected as a gated platform feature.