Roles and permissions in live breakout sessions

What is the difference between a host, a speaker, and a viewer in a Canapii web conferencing session?

Hugh M   Last updated January 15, 2022

The difference between a host, a speaker, and a viewer lies in their permissions. All users can adjust the gallery view, video quality, and voice focus on their own machine, and you can toggle additional permissions on or off in the Sessions > <session name>> Assignees section by adjusting the role of the participant. 

As the host in a breakout, you can moderate the session and present.

Within live breakouts, hosts have these permissions and abilities: 

• Pin participant
• Mute one or all attendees
• Lock mute (means participants no longer have the ability to unmute themselves)
• Lock grid view for all attendees (stops the gallery view of participants from changing based on who is speaking)
• Enable, manage, and clear session's whiteboard
• Lock the meeting so that only hosts/speakers can join (note: you must enable the lock function in the Console session details page first, it is disabled by default)
• Enable waiting room
• End the call for all participants
• Begin recording, even if the recording is disabled in the Console session details page
• Rename participants
• Manage raised hands
• Set a timer
• Ask participants to share their screen
• Make participant a co-host
• Put participants on hold (removes participant temporarily from the room)

Speakers can present, but they cannot moderate the room. Speakers have the following abilities: 

• Share their video
• Share their audio
• View, edit, and save the session's whiteboard once it has been enabled by the session host
• Raise hand
• Share screen, if requested by the session host

Viewers have the most limited permissions of all. If the presentation is in webinar mode, they can only view the presentation - they cannot turn on their camera or microphone. In meeting mode, viewers will be able to share their video, audio and raise their hand.