Feedback Edit

Scaling your audiences with FrontRow feature

  • Article
  • 4 minutes to read

What is FrontRow?

FrontRow is an AltspaceVR technology that allows your entire event to be 'mirrored' across multiple instances. FrontRow enables you to scale your audience beyond individual room caps and can be used to accommodate large audiences in a single event. Without FrontRow, your audience size will be limited to the room cap by your primary environment.

How does it work?

FrontRow adds extra features and abilities to the Host experience, giving you maximum control over your event and audience.

  • The On-Air tool is added to your Host Panel.
    • With On-Air, you can choose who to 'mirror,' for example, presenters, performers, panelists, audience members, etc. FrontRow also 'mirrors' content across all rooms. So if you have a panel of speakers and a slide presentation, you can 'mirror' your speakers and presentation across all your FrontRow rooms.
  • A Rooms tab opens up in your Guest Panel.
    • This panel gives you an at-a-glance overview of how many rooms you have, how many guests are in each room, and who those guests are. You can also choose to Add room or Delete room to manage the setup size that works best for your event.
    • You can teleport from room to room and easily distribute your moderators across the spaces.
  • Reactive audience distribution
    • As guests begin to enter your space, FrontRow will intuitively distribute them. You can configure to fill up one room at a time or simultaneously fill several rooms for more even audience distribution.

When to enable FrontRow

Convert to FrontRow when you need to scale beyond your environment room capacity.

  • Official AltspaceVR template environments allow for a maximum of 50 avatars per space. If you expect an audience larger than 50, use FrontRow to create multiple rooms of 50 avatars.
  • Custom Words (Unity Uploader/Custom Space Templates), allow for a maximum of 50 avatars per space if used as an event environment. If you expect an audience larger than 50, use FrontRow to create multiple rooms of 30 avatars.

How to enable FrontRow

  1. Create your event.
  2. Enter your event.
  3. Once inside your event, open the Host Tools in your lower right-hand corner.
  4. Select on the Participation Panel button.
  5. Navigate to the Rooms tab, and from here, you can Add room
    • Note, it may take up to 30 seconds to generate another room.*
  6. Once your new room is open, you'll see it appear in the Rooms tab.

How to use FrontRow

Converting your event to a FrontRow event adds extra tools and abilities to your Host Panel. Most notably, a Rooms tab will appear. From this tab, you can:

  • Add room - Add an extra room to your event.
  • Delete Room - Remove an entire room from your event.
  • Reset space - Reset the room you've selected. This option causes guests to reenter the same space.
  • Redistribute - Redistribute all guests currently in a room into other rooms. (Good for crowding.)
  • Teleport - Go to another room.

Hosts will also see other tools and features like On-Air in a FrontRow event. This button, located next to Host Tools, allows a host or moderator to mirror audience members and other participants to be visible across all spaces. As a host, you probably want to be On-Air yourself. (Pro Tip: Use Host Zones to automatically enable On-Air for anyone inside the zone.)

Check out the Host Tools Overview for FrontRow Events article to look at the features and functions available to hosts in FrontRow events.

Host panel tools overview

If you need a hand along the way, submit a ticket to our support team at altvr.com/eventsupport

  • Include your Event ID URL (ex: https://account.altvr.com/events/1461193283454632537)
    • You can get this by logging into our website www.altvr.com and going to Events/My Events/Your Event and copying the URL in your browser's address bar or clicking on the Share button to get your URL.
    • Ticket-response can take 3-5 business days, so submit your request as soon as possible.

How will I know when FrontRow is on?

You'll know your event converted once you begin to see other rooms added to your Rooms tab. If you want

Can I turn off FrontRow?

You sure can. You can Delete room as quickly as you can Add room. The Delete Room button is found next to each room in your Rooms tab. When you delete a room with people, FrontRow will notify them of the deletion and redistribute them into other, active rooms. By scaling your event back down to one room, you effectively turn off FrontRow.

Any pro tips or helpful hints I should be aware of?

The setup for an event depends on different factors. While there isn't an exact formula for success, here are some pro tips and helpful hints when hosting events (FrontRow or not) in AltspaceVR:

  • Think about your audience's experience and do what you can optimize for all. For example, if your environment isn't mobile-friendly, it can ruin the experience for someone on a mobile headset. To grow your audience, you want to make a great first impression.
  • Practice makes perfect. Before hosting a live event, do as many run-throughs as possible. Make sure you feel comfortable with all the tools at your fingertips to feel confident when you're in the limelight. If your event features talent (speakers/performers), include them in your run-throughs.
  • Avoid last-minute changes. It may seem tempting to drop in addition or rearrange the setup of your event minutes before the start time, but you may be one miss click away from an event-breaking change.
  • Don't forget about moderation. Review your moderation tools - Kick, Report, Block, Mute. Assign moderators to help keep an eye on things, and share the rules of your event with your guests. Remember, people who are new to VR may not always know the social norms of virtual gatherings.