Managing Large Sessions When a conference session includes a large number of users, its important to know how to utilize the features in Unity. Managing Audio and Video Normally when a session begins, the Audio and Video services default to the Everyone policy. This means that as participants join, everyone can see and here eveyone else. However, after the 10th person joins a conference, the audio and video services will automatically switch policy to Moderated where only the Moderator can be seen and heard. This is necessary because the number of data streams in Everyone mode go up exponentially. It will be clear to the moderator this has happened, because the other users will no longer be visible in the video area. When first starting a session, the moderator can also switch to One at a Time or Moderated before they invite the other users. That way the first 10 people aren’t seen and heard as they join, and no switch will occur when the 10th person joins. For example, the image below shows a logged in user who wants to start a large conference. To begin, press the Conference button in the lower left corner.

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When you start a conference with no participants, you will be prompted will the following panel. Press the “Start Session” button to proceed.

When you start a conference with no participants, you will be prompted will the panel shown. Press the “Start Session” button to proceed.


Adding Guest Users


Once you are in the conference, you can add participants. When hosting a large session, its likely many of the people you invite will be Guest users. Guest users are users that don’t have an account on the server. For this example we will add Guest users by sending them an email with a URL. You can do this in one of two ways.


  1. 1)Press the “+” button at the bottom of the participant list, the press the “Add Guests” button at the bottom of the panel that appears

  2. 2)Hold down the shift key when pressing the “+” button at the bottom of the participant list. This is a short cut to get to the same feature.


After taking either action, your default email client (assuming you have one installed) will launch with an email that contains the meeting URL. At this point, you can add the recipient addresses and send the email.


AV Control


At any time, you can enable the audio and video of another participant. You can do this in one of two ways.


1) You can select a user in the participant list and press the AV button at the top of the list. For example, Bill has been selected in this session. Pressing the AV button once will enable his audio and video, and pressing it again (while he remains selected) will disable his audio and video. This makes it easy to enable the audio and video of one ore more users at at time. You can also press the Just Me button to quickly disable everyone else’s audio and video. Additionaly, the moderator can press the green mic or camera buttons of any participant to mute their audio or video. The icon turns red when its in the mute state.

  1. 2)You can add and remove people by pressing the Moderated policy button underneath the audio and video services. However if you use this method and want to both see and hear a person, you must choose them separately in both services, making the first method more convenient. This method is useful for example if you just want to hear someone but not see them. For more information on managing policy, see the Managing Policy page.


Hand Raising


At any time, a person may raise their hand. This will cause them to move to the top of the participant list. Using the AV feature desribed above, you can select this person at the top of the list, press the AV button to have a discussion, and them press it again to dismiss their audio and video, and then clear the raised hand by pressing the Clear button shown above.

Public Chatting


At any time, a person can send a text message either to the whole group, or to someone privately. Public chats are seen by everyone. Text can be entered in the box below and send using the return key.

Private Chatting


To initiate a private chat, change the tab to “Private”, then select a user in the participant list. The text will change to make it clear you are now having a private chat with the user you selected.