Debates, panel shows and live interviews
Bring your viewers on stage. Run the show from one screen.
Live Lobby is a control room for live shows that put viewers on camera: debates, panel shows and call-in interviews streamed on Twitch or YouTube. Viewers can join from your chat (YouTube chat: coming soon) or a link and wait in a green room with their camera on. You put them on stage and take them off with one click. Nothing to install, for you or for them.
What it accesses and why · Privacy Policy
When you connect Twitch or YouTube, Live Lobby uses it to run your show's chat: it reads your live chat for viewers who type !debate, tells them how to join, and carries out the moderation you choose. It does nothing else with your account.
A guest should be one click away from the stage. Everything in Live Lobby is built around that one movement.
- 0InstallsJust click a link
- 10GuestsAt once on Studio
2 on Solo - 1Browser sourceIn OBS or Meld
- 3Ways inJoin by chat, link or QR code
What Live Lobby is
Who it is for
Streamers who bring members of their audience on camera: debate shows that take challengers from chat, panels with call-in guests, interviews with viewers. And the producers and moderators who run those shows with them.
The problem it solves
Getting a stranger from chat onto your stream usually means pasting call links into chat, juggling a video-call app, rebuilding scenes in OBS and having no clean way to cut someone off. With Live Lobby it is one click to bring a guest on and one click to take them off.
What it is not
Live Lobby does not broadcast your show. Your own OBS or Meld sends the stream to Twitch or YouTube as it does today. Live Lobby supplies the queue, the green room, the stage and the overlay that your streaming software shows.
Four steps: From Chat to Stage
What happens on your screens when a viewer asks to join. It works the same from your join link and from the QR code, and from YouTube chat once that opens (coming soon).
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Chat
A viewer types !debate in your Twitch chat (YouTube chat: coming soon), or opens your join link.
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Queue
They appear in your queue and wait in the green room with their camera on. Your audience cannot see them yet.
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Put on stage
You click Put on stage beside their name. They take the next free seat.
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Live
They are on your overlay, live. Change the layout mid-sentence: Stage, Split, Focus.
How a show works
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Pick a plan. Name your show.
You choose a password and name your show, and your desk is made: a control panel, a join page, a green room and an overlay, each at an address of its own.
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Connect your channel. Add the overlay.
Connect Twitch from your desk page, approving once on Twitch's own site (YouTube: coming soon). Add the overlay to OBS or Meld as a browser source. A setup checklist ticks each step off when it works.
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Go live as usual.
Open the control panel and click Join as host, then Start: you are on stage and in your guests' ears. Start streaming from OBS or Meld as you always do.
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Open the door.
Viewers type !debate in chat, open your join link or scan the QR code on screen. They prove who they are by posting a short code in your chat or with Sign in with Twitch, or simply give a name, then agree to the show's notice, turn their camera on and wait in the green room.
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Bring them in.
Click Put on stage: they take the next free seat and appear on the overlay. Change the layout, run the clock, give someone the floor, send them private cues. Moderators work the queue, mute, cut and time people out in chat.
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Take them off.
Off stage takes them off the overlay and ends their link. Then the next person. The full walk-through is in How to run a show.
What the audience sees
Six layouts on the same overlay, switched live from the control panel or the host stage. Click a layout and the stage rearranges mid-sentence.
The big frame goes to the guest with the focus, else the guest with the floor, else the host while the overlay shows them. S, M and L set its size in Stage and Focus. In Spotlight, the frames you click are big - every guest on air until you do - and the rest sit small beneath them. The overlay also shows names, the clock and who has the floor, the night's motion, and a join callout with a QR code. Its colours and fonts are yours to set.
Built to be handed to a crew
The queue and the green room
Each guest waits on a page of their own with their camera on, and sees their place in line; on Live Lobby media servers the first ten in line can also watch the show while guests are on air, and nobody on stage sees or hears them. Once seated, they see and hear you and hear everyone on air; on Live Lobby media servers they see everyone too. The queue shows who is ready and how long they have waited. Private cues from you appear on their screen with a Got it button.
One click on, one click off
Put on stage, Off stage, Mute, Camera off, Lock and Focus on every seat; seats run from A to J. The Door opens and closes the queue. Clear stage empties it in one go.
Timed debates
A clock of 1, 2, 3 or 5 minutes, give or take 30 seconds. Floor to A or B gives someone the floor and starts their time. The night's motion shows on the overlay and in the green room.
Moderators with limits
Add people by email. They sign in with their own account and get the queue, mute, cut and chat timeouts, never the settings and never billing. Directors get everything.
Safety built in
Guests confirm they are 18 or over and accept a notice before their camera starts. You can approve each camera before it goes live and hide guests' IP addresses from each other. On Twitch, Storm mode turns on Shield Mode, follower-only and slow mode in one click. Anyone on a show can send a report.
A check before the show
Show check walks every link in the chain, from your chat connection to the overlay in OBS, and names what to fix, in order.
Video, your way
On every plan, video goes directly between you and your guests (peer to peer, through VDO.Ninja). Studio adds Live Lobby media servers, for bigger panels and guests on difficult networks; shows on the media servers are recorded.
The desktop edition - coming soon
Coming soon to Studio: run the same desk on your own computer and bandwidth, on Windows, Mac or Linux.
Your look
Choose the overlay's colours and fonts, set a join callout, and name tonight's motion. The overlay is one browser source, 1920 by 1080. The control panel and the green room take a background of your own: a colour, a gradient or a picture; the host stage a colour or a gradient.
Plans
One show, two guests at a time. Everything you need for a debate.
- 1 desk
- Guests join from one link or from your chat
- Overlay for OBS or Meld
- Your voice in the guests' ears
- Video peer to peer, on your connection
Panels of up to ten, our media servers, and the desktop edition (coming soon).
- 3 desks
- Up to 10 on stage
- Live Lobby media servers (guests on any network)
- The desktop edition (coming soon), on your own bandwidth
- Everything in Solo
Cancel any time from your account. New desks are invite-only at the moment: the invite code comes with your welcome email.
What each plan can do
Both plans run the same control room. The difference is how many desks, how many seats, and who carries the video.
| Capability | Solo | Studio |
|---|---|---|
| Desks included | 1 | 3 |
| Guests on stage at once | 2 | Up to 10 |
| Join from chat, a link or a QR code | ✓ | ✓ |
| Overlay for OBS and Meld | ✓ | ✓ |
| Scoped moderator accounts | ✓ | ✓ |
| Live Lobby media servers | Not included | ✓ |
| Desktop edition | Not included | Coming soon |
FAQ
Do my guests need to install anything?
No. They open a link in their phone's or computer's browser, allow the camera (or just the microphone), and wait. In-app browsers, such as the one inside the Twitch app, cannot share a camera; the join page says so and hands them the link to open in their own browser.
Do I need Twitch or YouTube?
For joining from chat with !debate, yes: Twitch (YouTube is coming soon). The join link and the QR code work without it; guests then give a name.
Does Live Lobby stream my show?
No. OBS Studio or Meld Studio streams as it always does; Live Lobby supplies the guests, the stage and the overlay, as a 1920 by 1080 browser source.
How many guests can be on stage?
Solo: 2 at a time; Studio: up to 10 at a time. You are in the host chair besides.
Where does the video go? Is it recorded?
On every plan, directly between you and your guests, on your connections, and not recorded by us. Studio adds our media servers for bigger panels and guests on awkward networks; there, every camera and microphone is recorded and kept 2 days.
What does Live Lobby do with my YouTube account?
Connecting YouTube is coming soon. Once it opens, it reads your own live broadcast's chat for !debate and join codes, posts a short message about how to join (or that your queue is closed), and times out, bans or deletes when your crew clicks the button. Nothing else. See what it accesses and why.
How do I disconnect YouTube or Twitch?
Click Disconnect on your desk page. For YouTube that deletes what we keep and revokes our access at Google; you can also revoke it from your Google Account at any time.
Do I need to be technical?
If you can add a browser source to OBS, and the setup checklist shows you exactly where, you can run this. Everything else is buttons with plain names.
What about my moderators?
Add them by email. They sign in here and get the queue, mute and cut, never the settings.
How do I cancel?
From your Account page: Cancel subscription opens Stripe's billing portal and it takes two clicks. Your desks run until the end of the period you have paid for and are then stopped, not deleted, so subscribing again brings your settings and overlay back. Recordings and show records still expire on their usual schedule.
Is there an age limit?
Yes. Account holders, crew and guests must be 18 or older.
What Live Lobby does with your accounts
Live Lobby connects to your streaming accounts for one reason: to run your show's live chat features. Here is exactly what that means. The detail, including how long anything is kept, is in our Privacy Policy.
YouTube (Google user data)
Coming soon: connecting a YouTube channel opens to customers soon. This is what Live Lobby does with it then.
- Who connects: only the owner or a director of a desk, by clicking Connect YouTube on the desk page and approving on Google's own page. Viewers and guests never sign in with Google: a YouTube viewer proves who they are by posting a short code in your live chat.
- The one permission asked for: https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.force-ssl, to manage your YouTube account. It is the narrowest permission that lets an app read a live chat and also post in it and remove messages and people from it; read-only access cannot post or moderate.
- What it reads: your channel's ID and name; whether your own channel is live, and that broadcast's title, while your control panel, host stage or overlay is open; and that broadcast's live chat: each message's text, its author's channel ID and display name, and whether the author is the owner, a moderator, a member or verified.
- What it does with that: puts viewers who type !debate in your queue, matches the codes guests post, posts a short message telling chat how to join, or that your queue is closed (at most once every 15 minutes), and times out, bans or deletes a message only when you or your crew click the button.
- What it never does: upload, edit or delete videos; change your broadcasts, playlists or channel settings; read comments, subscribers, analytics, your email or your Google profile; read any chat but your own live broadcast's.
- What it keeps: your channel's ID and name and the tokens Google issues, on our platform. Viewers' YouTube names and channel IDs in your show's records, for 30 days (longer only in a report from your show, until 2 days after its case is closed or for as long as a legal hold keeps it, or while a block your crew set lasts, at most 30 days). Chat is used as it arrives and not stored.
- Your control: it is never sold, never used for advertising and never used to train AI models. Disconnect on your desk page deletes what we keep, has your desk delete what it keeps from YouTube, and revokes our access at Google; you can also revoke it at any time from your Google Account.
Live Lobby's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
More: YouTube and Google user data, in our Privacy Policy · YouTube Terms of Service · Google Privacy Policy
Twitch
The owner or a director connects once. The desk reads your channel's chat (or a channel you moderate) for !debate, whispers each guest a private stage link, posts join reminders, and carries out the timeouts, bans and Storm mode your crew chooses. Guests who sign in with Twitch grant no permissions: we learn their Twitch name once, pass it to your desk and end the sign-in at once. Details
X
Connecting X accounts is built, but not switched on here yet. Post on X on your desk page opens X's own page with your join link filled in, to post from your account; it connects nothing and sends us nothing.
Video and recordings
Peer-to-peer video goes between the people on the show and is not recorded by us. On Live Lobby media servers (Studio), every camera and microphone is recorded and kept 2 days, unless a report or a legal request holds it. Guests are told before their camera starts, and only the desk's owner and directors, and our staff for safety, can open a recording.