Setting Up and Managing Group Networking

Please note the Networking Module is required to use this feature. Certain features also require the Advanced Networking Power Up to access.

PheedLoop Meet & Stream, as you may already know, is a crucial and proprietary part of the PheedLoop virtual event platform allowing for video/audio/text meetings throughout the whole virtual event experience. One of its most powerful use-cases is allowing multiple attendees to communicate at once, very similar to a Zoom meeting. This is where group networking comes in. In this article, we discuss functionality, moderation, tips, and frequently asked questions.

Creating Groups From the Virtual Portal

Group networking requires your account to have the Networking module purchased and added. If you have the Networking module purchased, then you have access to 5x5 group networking. This means you can have up to 5 active groups with 5 active participants in each group at any given time. Purchasing the Advanced Networking Power Up allows you to increase this to 25 active groups with 25 active participants in each group at any given time.

1. From the Virtual Portal, navigate to Networking > Groups
2. Select Create Group
   1. Please note, this button will not be available if hidden by the Event Administrators
   2. Under the Group Topic field, enter the title of your group
   3. Under the Group Discussion field, enter a brief description of your group
   4. Toggle on the Discussion Board Only if you would like to only use the text chat feature in the group. Video calling will be unavailable if this setting is enabled.
3. Select Start Group

Restricting Group Creation

Creating groups is done entirely in the virtual event portal. Event Administrators can restrict attendees from group creation. 

1. From the Event Dashboard, navigate to Experiences > Virtual > Settings
2. Toggle on the Prevent Public Group Creation checkbox
3. Select Save Changes

The groups page will no longer appear for Attendees in the Virtual Portal. Event Administrators can still see the Create Group button and create them as normal.

Deleting Groups

Groups can be deleted if no longer necessary, however only event administrators can delete groups. Attendees will not be able to delete groups in their account.

1. From the Virtual Portal, navigate to Networking > Groups
2. Select the X button next to the group

The group will now be removed from the event. Please note, this action cannot be undone.

Meeting Functionality in Groups

There are three key mechanisms in a group to communicate with, built-in to the way PheedLoop Meet works in general. Text chat, video chat, and audio chat. Text chat is conducted via the familiar context-aware chat and presence monitoring system on the right-hand side of any group once it is entered. The text messages are permanent, which means anyone who joins the group can scroll through the discussion history. 

To partake in the video or audio chat, once inside the group, simply clicking on Join Video Call will pull up the familiar PheedLoop Meet interface, and allow attendees to join in a live meeting experience (allows for screen sharing also).

Gallery View for Video Meetings

PheedLoop Meet optimizes the tiles and views of participants inside the video meeting interface depending on screen size and other factors. In general, the video meeting interface shows all participants in a gallery view, showing up to 16 tiles (video feeds) at one time. There can still be up to 25 participants in a group, but the first 16 to turn their video feeds on will show up until one of them stops sharing their video. Everyone can participate over audio as well, no limits there. If a screen is shared, then the video tiles wrap around the screen being shared, so that the screen share gets the maximum amount of exposure.

Tracking Live Attendance in Groups

PheedLoop's live attendance tracker updates approximately every 60 seconds to check if an attendee is in idle mode. In the list of groups under the Groups sub-tab in the Networking section, you'll see a cool gallery of display pictures for attendees currently live in the group they are appearing on (limit of 10 attendees show up here, more may be in the group itself). In the group itself, you can track who is present in the group in more detail via the presence tracker tab on the right-hand side next to the chat area. Finally, in the video meeting interface itself, you can click on the "people" icon at the top left to see who is there, and whether they have their audio and/or video enabled.